Start-ups in Africa recorded just $50 million in funding in March 2025—the lowest monthly tally since late 2020, according to a new report by Africa: The Big Deal.
This marks a steep decline from January’s strong start of nearly $300 million, followed by $119 million in February. The report emphasized that March’s figure is “one of the lowest monthly tallies since late 2020.”
Interestingly, while the overall funding volume dropped, the number of start-ups announcing funding remained consistent with previous months. However, no single deal exceeded $10 million, which significantly impacted the total.
In Q1 2025, African start-ups secured $460 million through deals of $100,000 or more (excluding exits), representing a 5% year-on-year decline compared to Q1 2024’s $486 million. The report described Q1 2025 as the second-lowest quarter for start-up funding since late 2020.
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The “Big Four” countries—Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, and Egypt—continued to dominate the funding landscape. “Expectedly, 83% of the funding went to the Big Four,” the report stated.
Kenya, Nigeria, and South Africa each attracted around $100 million (24%, 24%, and 22% of total funding respectively), while Egypt received $61 million (14%).
Togo also made the top five, buoyed by Gozem’s $30 million Series B round.
Fintech remained the leading sector, drawing 46% of the funding. Notable fintech deals included $53 million for LemFi and $38 million for Naked. Energy followed with 18%, and logistics and transportation secured 10%.
However, gender disparity in funding remains stark. Female CEOs raised just over 2% of the total, around $10 million, with the largest being a $6.2 million grant to South Africa’s African Biologics. “If we were to remove grants from the total, the share of funding raised by female CEOs in Q1 2025 would fall to 0.7 per cent,” the report noted.
