Africa’s startups investments rise by 439% in 2021

It was an impressive year for startups in Africa as they raised a total of $4.08 billion worth of investments in 2021, an increase of 438.8 percent from $757.3 million in 2020, a 2021 Africa Venture capital report shows.

The report published by WeeTracker, a global tech media platform noted that the data shows that Africa houses half of the world’s fastest-developing economies, and is the most entrepreneurial continent on the planet

“The figures show how the continent’s digital space is, indeed, rising to the occasion, which is: a supposedly sleeping giant finally awakening,” It said in its weekly newsletter.

The report further highlights that Nigeria, Egypt, South Africa, and Kenya remain Africa’s “big four” from a funding perspective, securing a greater share of total funding between them than in 2021. 131 Nigerian companies raised venture capital followed by 110 South Africa, 83 Egypt, and 72 for Kenya companies.

Financial services, healthcare, and e-commerce were industries with maximum investment in terms of amount & number of deals among the industries.

“Africa’s technology is striving thanks to investors’ long-term bullishness and their confidence in the investee company founders’ entrepreneurship ability and business models,” analysts at FBNQuest Capital said.

They further added that as the global economy continues to recover Post-Covid-19, technology innovators will be the biggest beneficiaries of new investments. “Business and investors seek digital alternatives to traditional ways of doing business.

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But, despite breaking record investments, WeeTracker says African tech companies still have a long way to go as Indian startups raised $4.6 billion in January 2022 alone.

Here are some of the notable African tech companies that raised funding in 2021:

Opay: In August, this Nigerian digital payment startup secured $400 million in its funding round led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2, valuing it at $2 billion.

Other investors in the funding round include Sequoia Capital China, Source Code Capital, Meituan-backed (3690.HK) fund Long-Z, Redpoint China and 3W Capital.Before this, Opay raised 50million dollars in June and another $130million in November 2020.

Wave: Wave, a Senegal-based mobile money provider raised $200 million in a Series A round in September, valuing the company at $1.7 billion.

Investors in this round include Sequoia Heritage, a private investment fund and a subsidiary of Sequoia, Founders Fund, payments giant Stripe, Ribbit Capital, Partech Africa, and Sam Altman, the former CEO of Y Combinator and current CEO of OpenAI.

Andela: This Nigerian startup which connects African software engineering talent to global companies became the country’s newest startup to attain the unicorn status after raising $200 million from investors.

Andela’s latest round of fundraising which took place in September was led by SoftBank Group Corp., a Japanese tech investor, with participation from new investor Whale Rock and existing investors including Generation Investment Management, Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, and Spark Capital.

Chipper Cash: An African cross-border payments company secured $150 million in a Series C extension round valuing the company at $2billion.

“These accelerators have a significant role in the success of start-ups by providing mentorship, business model refining and financing to early-stage companies,” the report stated.

According to a TechPoint analysis, 21 of the 51 West Africa start-ups that raised more than one million dollars in the past decade went through an accelerator.