African ClimateTech funding hits $1.5bn, overtakes fintech for the first time

For the first time, climate technology (climatetech) has surpassed fintech as Africa’s largest venture capital sector. A new report by Briter, an Africa-focused market intelligence and research company, developed in partnership with Catalyst Fund, BFA Global, and FSD Africa, shows that ClimateTech funding on the continent reached $1.5 billion in 2025.

This is up from just $206 million in 2016 and now accounts for nearly 40% of all disclosed startup investment across Africa.

The State of ClimateTech in Africa report analyses more than $6.35 billion in disclosed funding across 779 companies between 2016 and 2025, making it one of the most comprehensive looks at the sector on the continent to date.

The headline number is impressive. However, the report is honest about what lies underneath it, and that is where things get more interesting and more complicated.

The ClimateTech money is there, but it is not spread around

Here is the thing about that $6.35 billion. Most of it went to very few companies. The top 20 funded companies captured 60% of all ClimateTech funding between 2016 and 2025. The top 10 alone raised as much as every other company in the sector combined. Energy dominated, accounting for roughly 65% of total funding between 2019 and 2025.

So when people talk about the boom in African ClimateTech, they are largely talking about a boom that benefited a narrow group of companies, mostly in energy and electric mobility, while hundreds of others, particularly in agriculture, waste management, and climate adaptation, received far less attention from investors.

The report also points out something that does not get said enough: the biggest barrier for most African ClimateTech startups is not that the technology does not work. The technologies being used, solar panels, battery systems, and carbon monitoring tools, are already well understood and proven globally. What is missing is the financial infrastructure to scale them. Working capital, debt facilities, procurement pathways, guarantees, that is what companies need and often cannot get.

Women-led climate startups are perhaps the clearest example of who gets left behind. Founding teams made up entirely of women received less than 1% of total ClimateTech funding. This is partly because the biggest rounds go to Energy and Mobility, sectors where women are severely underrepresented as founders, while women-led ventures tend to be concentrated in earlier-stage, grant-dependent applications that attract smaller ticket sizes.

Similar read: Catalyst Fund secures $30 million to support African climate startups

There are some encouraging signals though. Exit activity is picking up, 206 disclosed exits happened between 2018 and 2026, mostly in the Energy sector. Capital is starting to recycle through acquisitions and platform consolidation, which is a sign that parts of the ecosystem are genuinely maturing rather than just attracting fresh money.

The report’s broader point is that African ClimateTech is not one market moving at one speed. It is a collection of sectors at very different stages, some attracting venture capital, others stuck at the grant phase, others somewhere in between, and each one needs a different combination of capital, policy support, and market conditions to move forward. There is no single playbook for all of them.

Also read: 4 African climate startups get $273,000 investment boost from BFA Global and FSD Africa