61 African startups raised $138m funding in September, up from $56m in August

African startup funding witnessed a major boost in September 2024 as startups on the continent attracted $138 million in investments in the month. This was revealed in a report by African startup funding analytics company, Africa the Big Deal.

September’s numbers were a huge increase from August when African startups were only able to attract $56 million into the continent. This represents about a 140 per cent increase compared to the previous month. While this number is impressive, it, nonetheless, falls short of the monthly average of $159 million over the past 12 months.

For instance, September’s funding is also a decline from July 2024 when African startups raised $443 million, representing just 31 per cent of July’s numbers.

According to the report, 89 per cent of the total $138 million investment came in the form of equity. This is a slight improvement from August when 87 per cent of the funding came in the form of equity. Debt financing appears to remain the same across two months as 9 per cent of the total funding raised came in the form of debts.

Finally, grants witnessed a reduction as only 2 per cent of the total was raised as grants, compared to 4 per cent in the previous month. The continent also witnessed two exits during the month under review.

61 African startups powered September funding

According to the report, a total of 61 startups were responsible for the total funding raised on the continent in September. This is well above the 27 startups that announced they had raised funding in the previous month. It is also well above the monthly average of 42 that has been recorded over the past twelve months.

The 61 startups announced fundraising of at least $100,000 excluding exits. These startups are located in 12 different countries across the continent. 90 per cent of the total $138 million raised went to startups in the Big Four tech ecosystems (Egypt, South Africa, Nigeria & Kenya) and Ghana. Only 10 per cent went to the other seven countries which include Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Côte d’Ivoire, Tanzania, Uganda and Rwanda.

Of the 61 startups represented, only three of them announced more than $20 million in funding during the month under review. Egypt-born and Abu Dhabi-based fintech, FlapKap raised $34 million in a pre-Series A funding round. The round which was a mix of debt and equity was led by BECO Capital and saw significant new investment from Pact VC, with follow-on contributions from A15, Nclude, QED Investors, and debt financing from Channel Capital.

Another Egyptian fintech, Paymob, announced a $22 million extension to its Series B round in September. With the funding round led by EBRD Venture Capital with significant contributions from Endeavor Catalyst, the fintech announced that it is now profitable in its home country.

Closing the top 3 is Ghanaian financial technology company, Fido, which topped a $20 million Series B equity funding raise with a $10 million debt announcement in September. Fido’s funding round was led by British International Investment, BlueOrchard Finance and FMO.

Finally, there were two exits announced in September. The largest of them is the acquisition of South African AI financial reporting platform, Syft by global accounting software giant, Xero. Syft was acquired for $70 million. The second exit came when Nigerian fintech, Risevest acquired Kenya’s Hisa. With the acquisition, Risevest is hoping to enter the Kenyan market.

The story has not been totally gloomy in 2024 because looking on the bright side, despite the slowdown of funding last month, the report noted that the ecosystem’s performance was so good in July that the funding raised in the third quarter is already higher than in the first and second quarters with one month still to go.

Indeed, venture capital funding into African startups in 2024 crossed the $1 billion mark in early July, way earlier than expected.

See also: African startups raised $56 million in August 2024, the second-slowest month in 4 years