In 2023, Kenyan startups raised a little under $800m to claim the top spot in Africa.
Nigeria finished the year as number four losing out to Kenya, Egypt, and South Africa according to an analysis of African startup funding of $100k and above in 2023 by research firm, ‘Africa: The Big Deal’.
The Big Four continued their dominance in 2023, attracting 87 percent of total startup funding on the continent, their largest share since 2019. Kenya, Egypt, South Africa, and Nigeria were home to 71 percent (357 out of 500).
Nigerian startups had a bad 2023 with funding falling by 65.83 percent year-on-year to $410m in 2023 from $1.2bn in 2022.
Commenting on this fall, the firm said, “Nigeria is the country where the most dramatic change happened in 2023. While the country still claimed the highest number of start-ups to raise $100k or more (146, 29 percent of the continent), the amount they raised was divided by 3 YoY (-67 percent) to reach $410m, compared to $1.2bn in 2022, and $1.7bn in 2021.
“As a result, its share of Western African funding continued to drop to reach 68 percent, down from 85 percent in 2021, and 77 percent in 2022. This is the lowest regional share of any Big Four market since we started collecting the data in 2019.”
Despite suffering a decline (25 percent year-on-year) Kenya was able to raise just under $800m in 2023, attracting the most funding, 28 percent of the continent’s total. In Egypt, 48 such ventures raised $100k+ in 2023, the lowest number out of the Big Four. But because of Kenya and Nigeria’s overall decline, the country claimed the second spot on the continent raising $640m.
The firm said of South Africa, “South Africa’s share of regional funding remains the highest at 97 percent. The 70 start-ups who raised $100k or more in the country cumulated $600m in funding i.e. 21 percent of the continent’s total. South Africa was the only one of the Big Four not to see its total funding shrink between 2022 and 2023 (+8 percent y-o-y).”
Overall startup funding into Africa declined by 39 percent to $2.9bn in 2023.
