In recent months, significant worries regarding the noticeable slowdown in investor funding across the African startup ecosystem have been expressed.
There is already speculation among certain stakeholders that there may be a shortage of funding for African entrepreneurs in the not-too-distant future.
According to Crunchbase, worldwide venture capital funding has recently been decreasing on a monthly basis. It is simple to see why they are concerned about this development. And Africa is not an exception to this pattern either.
It goes without saying that this is not good news for an ecosystem that is almost entirely reliant on investors from outside the country for finance.
Already, there was a significant drop in the amount raised by African startups over the past few months, particularly when compared to how much was raised during the first two months of the year. This was especially the case when compared to how much was raised during the first two months of the year.
In order to provide some background, African entrepreneurs were only able to raise a total of $300 million in equity capital between the months of April and May of 2022. According to the statistics that are maintained by Business Insider Africa, they raised approximately $1.8 billion during the first quarter of 2022.
Despite this, there are many reasons to have a positive outlook on the future. The primary reason for this is that in the first quarter of 2022, startup investment in Africa outperformed growth in other parts of the world by increasing by 150%. Even while the performance in the second quarter hasn’t exactly been encouraging, there is a good chance that things will turn around by the end of June and move ahead.
In this, blog post we are going to concentrate on twelve African start-up businesses that have done exceptionally well in terms of their fundraising efforts. These twelve firms have successfully closed the most significant investment rounds since January.
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Flutterwave
Flutterwave made the announcement that it secured $250 million in Series D fundraising in February of this year. B Capital Group served as the round’s lead investor, and investors from Alta Park Capital, Whale Rock Capital, Lux Capital, and other firms also participated. The Nigerian fintech powerhouse is the only participant in the ecosystem to have raised over $200 million in a single funding round so far in 2018.
Wasoko
This Kenyan e-commerce player made the announcement in March that it has raised $125 million in a Series A2 fundraising round that was headed by Tiger Global and Avenir Growth Capital. The round was held in March. It also changed its name, previously known as Sokowatch, to Wasoko.
InstaDeep
This artificial intelligence business based in Tunisia made the announcement in early January that it has secured $100 million in Series B funding, with Alpha Intelligence Capital and CDIB Capital serving as the round’s lead investors.
Clickatell
This chat commerce startup with a focus on Africa made the announcement in February that it had successfully closed a Series C funding round with a total amount of $91 million. Arrowroot Capital served as the round’s lead investor, and Kennedy Lewis Investment Management, Endeavor Global, and Harvest were also participants.
M-KOPA
This asset-financier received $75 million in growth equity from Generation Investment Management and Broadscale Group in March of this year. Previous investors, such as CDC Group and Light rock, were also involved in this round of funding.
Moove
This mobility fintech business made the announcement in March that it has raised a total of $105 million, with $65 million coming from Series A equity funding and the remaining $40 million coming from loan capital, bringing the total to $105 million. Speedinvest, Left Lane Capital, and The Latest Ventures were the ones who took the lead during the equity round.
Copia Global
This Kenyan e-commerce business made the announcement that it has successfully raised $50 million in a Series C round of funding. Godwell Investors served as the round’s lead investor, and Zebu Investment Partners and the United States of America also participated. Organization for International Cooperation and Development.
VALR
This African cryptocurrency exchange successfully completed a Series B funding round in March, raising a total of $50 million. The round was led by Pantera Capital and also included contributions from Alameda Research and Cadenza.
Instabug
The Series C funding round for this Egyptian anti-malware startup was led by Insight Partners and took place in May. The total amount raised was $46 million.
Apollo Agriculture
This Kenyan agritech business raised $40 million in March as part of a Series B fundraising deal that was spearheaded by Softbank. The funding round took place in March.
Reliance Health
This health tech business secured $40 million in Series A funding back in February, with participation from Partech, the Arvanitis Social Foundation, and other organisations. General Atlantic was the lead investor in the round.
Market Force
Last but not least, we have Market Force, which also completed a Series A funding round in February totalling $40 million. This round was led by V8 Capital Partners, while Ten13 VC, SOSV Select Fund, Vu Ventures, and Vastly Valuable Ventures all participated in it.
