African startup funding endured a torrid March as startups around the continent were only able to raise $5o million during the entire month. This was revealed in the monthly funding report by African venture funding analytics company, Africa the Big Deal.
The funding tally last month means March 2025 will be one of the slowest months since late 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic was in full swing. The poor performance is attributable to the fact that deals recorded during the month were mostly smaller deals.
No African startup raised $10 million during the month.
“As you may remember, the ecosystem started the year on a high, with close to $300m raised by start-ups in January. February wasn’t as good ($119m), yet we still found reasons to be optimistic. The performance in March was poor in comparison, though, as only $50m in funding was announced, one of the lowest monthly tallies since late 2020,” the report reads.
While it may seem like a colossal drop from February’s tally of $119 million, the monthly decline tells a different story. Thus, while February’s total represented nearly a 59 per cent decline from the $289 million raised in January, the $50 million raised in March represents nearly a 58 per cent decline from the February numbers.
Considering that African startups raised $340 million in December, which means a 15 per cent decline in the January numbers, one might be tempted to conclude that January’s funding total was a continuation of the late 2024 boom in funding that is now fizzling out.
It is also interesting that February 2025 was the slowest February since 2019. Now, followed by a worse March, 2025 appears to be breaking the wrong records and keeping the not-so-good company.
Enza’s $6.75m raise was one of the largest fundings of March
As indicated, no African startup raised as much as $10 million in March. And, that has not happened in a long time ( as far back as the global COVID-19 lockdown in 2020). Given that context, one of the impressive performers is African fintech company Enza, which raised $6.75 million in a seed funding round.
The round was co-led by Algebra Ventures and Quona Capital, and partnered by Dubai-based Network International. The new capital will go toward expanding the team and rolling out new products for its banking clientele across Africa.
Founded in 2022 by Hany Fekry, a former managing director at Network, along with another ex-Network executive, Hamish Houston, the digital payment firm has been building infrastructure for banks and fintechs while offering a range of local payment solutions such as cards, wallets, and real-time payments.
“The Enza leadership team has an impressive track record of starting, growing, and exiting fintech businesses across the continent,” said Tarek Assaad, managing partner at Algebra Ventures, on why his firm backed the fintech.
Looking ahead, one could hope to see more activity in April, a month traditionally considered a holiday month of sorts, just like December. And because slow months are sometimes associated with venture companies trying to raise their investment funds, one can only hope next month will see a lot more renewed activity.
It is also important to note that one of Africa’s most-active investors, 54 Collective (formerly Founders Factory), announced the shutting down of its venture studio operations in Africa. This was coming after its partnership with the Mastercard Foundation ends on April 30, 2025.
Funding by the Mastercard Foundation has powered several 54 Collective’s operations, such as its venture studio, Gen F accelerator, and Entrepreneur Academy. Following the termination, 54 Collective says it has been unable to secure alternative funding to keep the studio running. This accounts for its severely reduced activity in the venture funding space.
See also: Venture funding: Togo’s Gozem leads as African startups witness slowest February since 2019
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