Kenya led Africa with most start-up funding in 2024

The final figures for last year’s venture capital (VC) outlook across Africa are trickling in, and new data shows that Kenya once again took the largest share of the continent’s VC investment in 2024.

Data from the start-up funding tracker Africa: The Big Deal reveals that ventures in Africa raised $2.2 billion in 2024 (about Ksh.284.6 billion at current exchange rates) in equity, debt and grants, excluding exits.

Out of this, the ‘Big Four’ ecosystems (Kenya, Egypt, South Africa and Nigeria) attracted 84 per cent of all funding.

Start-ups in Kenya alone took $638 million (Ksh.82.5 billion), which is 29 per cent of all the money raised on the continent and 88 per cent of the total raised in East Africa.

“It is by far the market that attracted the most funding in Africa in 2024. Large deals in the climate tech space in particular boosted the numbers,” the report says.

Some of the start-ups in Kenya that got huge funding last year include the electric vehicle (EV) start-up BasiGo (over Ksh.5.8 billion) and solar-powered irrigation solutions and agricultural technology provider SunCulture (over Ksh.3.6 billion).

Nigeria took $410 million, followed closely by Egypt with $400 million while South Africa took $394 million, the report shows.

Regionally, in 2024, East Africa (Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda, Sudan and Ethiopia) attracted the most funding in the continent for the second year in a row, with $725 million secured.

At the close of 2023, Kenyan start-ups accounted for the majority of investment poured into African ventures that year with just under $800 million, which was 28 per cent of the continent’s total.

But while Kenya’s performance in 2024 was a year-on-year (YoY) decline, it was not an isolated case; there was a general funding dip across the continent compared to 2023’s numbers.

East Africa last year registered an 18 per cent YoY drop in VC funding, The Big Deal's figures show, while the continent’s $2.2 billion was a 25 per cent drop compared to the $2.9b raised in 2023.

“A total of 188 ventures raised $1 million or more in 2024 (excluding exits), which is just 10% less than in 2023 though,” the report adds.

An exit is when a start-up owner and investors sell their ownership or stock in the company and according to The Big Deal, there were 22 exits made public last year on the continent, compared to 20 in 2023.

Last year also saw two fintech start-ups on the continent achieve unicorn status (a privately held company valued at over $1 billion); Nigeria’s Moniepoint and South Africa’s Tyme.

African start-ups had until late 2022 enjoyed a funding boom with financial technology (fintech) companies accounting for most of the investment secured.

But from 2023, there was a decreased activity called ‘funding winter’ attributed to rising inflation, weakening currency, and unfavourable interest rates which led foreign investors to shift capital from emerging and frontier economies.

This resulted into a shrink in both VC deal sizes and numbers.

Per the The Big Deal’s records, start-ups in Africa raised $4.3 billion in 2021 with 288 ventures raising $1 million or more, which rose to $4.6 billion in 2022 when 353 start-ups on the continent raised over $1 million.

Things took a hit in 2023 when $2.9 billion was raised in 2023 with just 209 companies raising over $1 million. With the $2.2 billion raised in 2024, only 188 start-ups raised at least $1 million.