Startup funding: Fintechs raised 41% of Africa’s total $1.37bn in H1 2026

Fintech continues to lead Africa’s startup funding despite the boom in other sectors of the tech ecosystem. Fintech startups raised 41 per cent of the $1.37 billion raised across Africa in the first quarter of 2026, equaling $556 million.

This is according to the venture funding analytics platform, Africa the Big Deal.

African fintechs leading the half-year charge include Flutterwave, the unicorn that reportedly raised $100 million during the month. The strategic investment from Ripple comes as part of a Series E funding round that brings the company’s valuation to $3.2 billion.

Another unicorn, the Egyptian fintech giant MNT-Halan, raised $90 million across two separate rounds during the half. The raise, which marks the first closing of a new investment round led by Al Ahly Capital, the investment arm of the National Bank of Egypt, means the fintech has now reached a $1.4 billion valuation.

Read also: Africa recorded 25 startup exits in H1 2026; here are the most notable ones

In January, another Egyptian Fintech, valU, raised $64 million in secured debt from the Egyptian National Bank. In May, Tanzanian fintech Nala secured $50 million in debt financing to provide working capital to fuel the startup’s global expansion, product development and the build-out of its next-generation neobank — all powered by its global stablecoin infrastructure.

Nigeria’s LemFi also raised $30 million in a Series B extension in May, adding to the $53 million raised upon the close of its initial Series B round in January 2025. Egyptian consumer credit startup Lucky raised the largest of these rounds, securing $23 million in Series B funding to expand across North Africa and develop new banking services.

Nigeria’s BFREE, founded by Julian Flosbach, Moses Njeru, and Chukwudi Eke, comes next, having closed $10 million in an equity round to scale its acquisition of non-performing retail and SME loan portfolios and expand across new markets.

Fintech in stiff competition for African startup funding

This is coming at a time when other emerging tech sectors in Africa are proving themselves as profitable, if not more so, than the financial technology sector. Indeed, these new sectors are effectively competing for their own shares of the total startup funding coming into the continent.

For instance, behind fintech is the logistics and transportation space, which attracted $472 million of the total, representing a remarkable 35 per cent and trumping its annual average share of 13 per cent.

This is also remarkable, since one startup accounted for the bulk of the logistics and transport haul. Spiro, the electric motorcycle producer, raised $327 million in the first half of the year, making it the most-funded African startup of the quarter.

Indeed, Spiro’s raise alone accounted for 70 per cent of all logistics and transport raises and 24 per cent of all the startup funding in H1 2026.

Togo’s Gozem is another transport startup that featured during the half, raising $24.5 million in debt financing from the International Finance Corporation (IFC) to scale its vehicle financing arm. Then there is the Ethiopian electric mobility startup, Dodai, which raised $13 million in Series A financing. The investment comprised $8 million in equity and $5 million in debt.

Dodai is an infrastructure company that sells vehicles. The startup assembles electric motorcycles locally at its Addis Ababa facility and feeds them into a proprietary battery-swapping network. Instead of waiting hours for a battery to charge, riders pull up to a station and exchange a depleted battery for a fully charged one in minutes.

These investments underscore growing international appetite for Africa’s nascent e-mobility infrastructure.

Other sectors that contributed prominently to the first half total include agricultural technology, where startups raised $93 million, representing a 7 per cent share; waste management, which contributed $60 million, representing 4.5 per cent; and energy and water, with $50 million representing 4 per cent.