Africa-focused VCs invested $1.3bn into the continent in 1 year

As 2025 continues to impress in the area of startup venture funding, one powerful driver behind it remains the Africa-focused VCs (venture capitalists) that have ploughed their investment dollars into scaling startups across the continent. According to reports, these venture capitalists invested $1.3 billion into the continent in one year.

Some top Africa-focused VCs that contributed to this influx include Janngo Capital, an African venture company with a major focus on women-led and women-founded startups. The VC company closed its second fund at $78 million back in October 2025, a fund that was oversubscribed by 20 per cent as it is more than the initial target of $63 million.

Speaking about the second close of the fund, Janngo Capital Founder Fatoumata Bâ said the effort was to ensure that African startups have proportional access to VC funding to back the economic growth of the continent.

“Africa represents 17 per cent of the global population, yet attracts only 1-2 per cent of global VC funding, a share that has remained stagnant despite growth from $150 million raised a decade ago to around $4 billion-$5 billion today. If we believe tech is critical to economic development in Africa, we should have proportional access to VC. That’s why our goal wasn’t just about hitting the target or achieving oversubscription — I wanted to attract private LPs, especially African LPs,” she said.

Another Africa-focused VC is Airnergize Capital, a fund focused on accelerating clean technology solutions in renewable energy, gas, and water infrastructure across South Africa. Called The Clean Technology Fund, the VC secured an initial commitment of R2,4 Billion ($120 million) under Airnergize Capital Fund I, which aims to drive and advance sustainable clean technology investments across Southern and broader Africa.

Others are Verod-Kepple Africa Ventures, Saviu’s Fund II, which is focused on Francophone Africa, and LoftyInc Capital, a late-seed investment vehicle aimed at scaling Africa’s most promising tech startups, particularly in Nigeria, Egypt, Kenya, and Francophone Africa.

Africa-focused VCs picking up the funding baton

This development, revealed by Africa venture funding analytics company, Africa the Big Deal, is coming at a time when global investor interest in startups across the continent hit a 4-year low in 2024.

“Behind each of the 430+ start-ups in Africa that raised at least $100k in 2024 is an investor – more often than not, multiple investors – providing the much-needed capital to finance their growth. Last year, we found 520+ investors involved in at least one $100k+ deal on the continent (excluding grants & exits). This is a large community of investors supporting the ecosystem, but not as large as it used to be compared to 2023 (610+), or to 2022 when 1,000+ investors had participated in at least one deal, twice as much as in 2024,” the report reads.

One reason for this decline is that tech-focused investment companies globally now prefer to play with the new toy, Artificial Intelligence (AI). With interest in other tech waning in the wake of the AI boom, and as there aren’t many pioneering AI startups in Africa, funding was taken elsewhere.

Another possible reason for the decline is the global funding winter made worse by global inflation last year. It could also be attributable to the high rate of startup failures and shutdowns recorded over two years. With so many failure stories, VC confidence is certain to be negatively affected.

Some analysts have posited another reason for the decline: some investors are busy raising their next fund. 

In a year of dwindling investor participation, Africa-focused VC firm 54 Collective emerged as the most active on the continent, having participated in 26 deals. This means the company made an average of more than 2 investments per month in 2024. 

The investment company rebranded from Founders Factory Africa in August 2024 with a new drive to offer equity and non-dilutive capital up to a total of $500,000, enabling founders to scale their ventures across the continent. With this, the VC believes it has become more supportive of African founders.

“Our name change to 54 Collective communicates our continued commitment to African founders. We are more supportive than ever of unlocking opportunities for entrepreneurs and ensuring a level playing field for youth and women founders,” 54 Collective CEO Bongani Sithole said at the time.

Indeed, 54 Collective’s renewed commitment was on display last year. It became the only VC company to make more than 20 deals in 2024 and increased its number of investments by as much as 150 per cent.

Aside from 54 Collective, other venture capitalists who made the Top 8 include Techstars, Catalyst Fund, and Launch Africa, which used to be the most active investors on the continent between 2021 and 2023. These three companies witnessed reduced participation during the year; perhaps they are also raising their next fund.

Others are Digital Africa, Baobab Network, Renew Capital, and EdVentures, who, like 54 Collective also increased their activity over the year.

VCs that participated in less than 10 deals include Y Combinator, which took part in nine deals, representing a steep decline of 75.7% from its 2021 total investments and an even steeper 79% from its 2023 total. 500 Global and Axian Group also put up a respectable performance.

“Yes, there were fewer investors active on the continent last year, and the most active investors were not nearly as active as they once were, yet it would be a mistake to jump to the conclusion that investors have abandoned the continent. Indeed, there is still a strong community and a lot of ‘dry powder’ to be deployed with quite a few new Africa-focused funds announced in the past couple of years,” the report said.