The number of active investors in African tech startups increased by 28 per cent to almost 1,000 in 2022, yet this was a slower rate of growth than witnessed in previous years.
This is according to the eighth edition of the annual African Tech Startups Funding Report released by startup news and research portal Disrupt Africa, which is available free to all as part of an open-sourcing initiative in partnership with Flat6Labs, MarketForce, 4Di Capital, Mercy Corps Ventures, Newtown Partners, and InsiderPR.
The report tells the story of an impressive 2022 in which more startups raised more funding than ever before, in spite of a global downturn in investments. In all, 633 startups raised a combined US$3,333,071,000 in 2022. This represented incredible growth. The number of funded startups increased by 12.2 per cent on 564 in 2021, while the total secured funding jumped 55.1 per cent on US$2,148,517,500 in 2021.
It also tracked numbers of active investors, and found there were at least 987 different disclosed investors in African tech startups in 2022, up 216 (28%) on the 771 tracked in 2021. This is the largest amount of individual disclosed investors in any year on record.
Growth, however, is slowing here. The 2021 figure represented an increase of 108.4 per cent – more than double – the 370 disclosed investors in 2020. The numbers for 2019 and 2018 were 261 and 155 respectively.
These investors vary in shapes and sizes, with the most active being early-stage funds such as Launch Africa Ventures, LoftyInc Capital Management and Future Africa. Accelerators, both local and international, are also very active, among them the likes of Y Combinator, Techstars, Flat6Labs and Startup Wise Guys,
At later stages, there are a host of international and local VC firms active in the market, while major global investors such as Tiger Global, Sequoia Capital and SoftBank are also increasingly active. Successful African founders such as Paystack’s Shola Akinlade and Flutterwave’s Olugbenga Agboola are also active investors.
For more information, or to download the report, please visit disrupt-africa.com/funding-report, or email Gabriella on gabriella@disrupt-africa.com, or Tom on tom@disrupt-africa.com.
