The year 2019 was a good year for Nigerian ventures as the country raked in $663.24 million, the highest amount of venture capital money secured by an African country in the year, according to a 2019 Africa Venture capital report released on Saturday.
A further analysis of the report by WeeTracker, a global tech media platform with a marked focus on the African technology and start-up ecosystem, showed that it is the second consecutive time Nigeria has attracted the highest amount of venture capital.
Kenya emerged second, netting 283.6 percent growth over the previous year’s funding amount. South Africa took the third position in the top three countries as per funding amount.
African venture investments broke all the previous records to register $1.34 billion in investments through 427 deals in equity and debt financing in 2019, a 79.2 percent increase from $725.6 million invested across 458 deals in 2018.
“Fintech, which is on a growth path for the fifth year in a row securing $678.73 million, witnessed a spectacular growth of 138.5 percent over the previous year. The ecosystem appears solid for the companies to set their footing as evident from the rise in seed and Series A rounds which were the most preferred form of deal closures for the investors,” the report stated.
“It was also a year when the corporates led investments into industry shaping ventures that could be game-changers for African infrastructure. The continent did not shy away from the limelight and was in constant focus of the global investors and tech giants. Women entrepreneurs were a vital part of the growth in 2019, bagging a few of the big-ticket rounds of the year,” it further stated.
On the outlook for investments in year 2020, the report is optimistic that with the current market climate, the venture capital market is expected to remain robust, particularly in areas such as fintech, logistics, on-demand services and agritech.
