Despite the global meltdown that has kept offshore funding at bay, 14 tech startups have raised $1.014billion this year. The companies tracked by The Nation are led by Nigeria’s Flutterwave.
For obvious reasons, there has been growing concerns over the noticeable slowdown in investor funding across the African startup ecosystem.
Some stakeholders are speculating about a possible funding crunch for African startups in the near future. And it’s easy to see why they are worried — global VC funding has been on a monthly decline according to Crunchbase.
However, many tech start-ups in Nigeria, Kenya, South Africa and Egypt have been calling the shots, attracting offshore funding to expand their ideas.
This pack is led by Flutterwave, which in February this year, announced a $250 million Series D funding round that was led by B Capital Group, as well as participation from Alta Park Capital, Whale Rock Capital, Lux Capital and others. It is on record that far this year, the fintech giant is the only player in the ecosystem that has mobilized over $200 million in a single round.
In May 11, Mara, a firm with virtual asset licence in the United Kingdom (UK), raised $23million Seed from Alameda Research and 10 other investors. Mara, which was founded in 2021 operates in the sub-Saharan Africa region, offering a suite of crypto products including a cryptocurrency exchange, token collateralized lending, and an NFT marketplace. Its founder and CEO, Chi Nnadi, stressed the need to build a resilient platform in Africa.