Just in the last 8 months, January to August 2019, African startups have succeeded in raising close to $225 million in funding. While South Africa had a 33.3 per cent share of the fundraising deals, Nigeria’s startup fundraising deals represented 24% of all startup fund raising in Africa this year so far.
Here Is How It Happened
- According to the data curated by Maxime Bayen, GSMA Ecosystem Accelerator’s Insights Director, a total of 44 start-ups from nine African countries were analysed.
- Out of the 44, 10 Nigerian startups made the list. At a time when a majority of African startups i are struggling to remain afloat due to financial constraints, this statistics on African startups funding is significant in many ways.
- South Africa had a 33.3 per cent share of the fundraising deals. The South African ecosystem raised about $97.3million.
- The list was mainly dominated by startups from South Africa, Nigeria, and Kenya. While South Africa saw a record number of 15 startups on the list, 10 startups were from Nigeria while 8 were from Kenya. Uganda got three, Ghana and Egypt got two, while Mauritius, Zimbabwe and Zambia one each.
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Percentage African startup fundraising by sector Jan-August 2019
A Look At The Nigerian Startups That Secured The Funding
- From Nigeria, Andela led the start-ups, followed by TeamApt, OneFi, Farmcrowdy, Kudi, mDaas, Gokada, Arnergy, Max, Opay, 54gene, Kobo360, TechAdvance.
- These were in the education, fintech, agriculture, healthcare and the logistics and travels sector.
- Out of the top five in Africa, Andela, which led others, raised $100million, follow by OPay, which raised $50 million, and Kobo360 raised $30 million.
Read Also: How International Organisations Are Helping Startups In Africa
Gender Diversity
- Eight of the African startups were founded or managed by women including Angela (Nigeria), PayItUp, InstaDeep (Tunisia), BitPesa (Kenya), SweepSouth (South Africa), Neopenda (Uganda), Framcrowdy (Nigeria) and MdaaS Global (Nigeria).
Performance By Sectors
- Dominating the list are fintechs. The increase in investment in fintechs is a reflection of the growing financial services industry and the need to deepen inclusion.
- They accounted for 34 per cent at $156.4million, followed by the logistics and transport that took 13 per cent at $94.9 million, then energy for 11.1 per cent at $72 million; healthtech 11.1 per cent at $24.5 million; jobs ($4 million), and agritech ($8 million) at 5.6 per cent both, among others.
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Percentage African startup fundraising by sector Jan-August 2019
The Indispensability of Technology Startups Towards Driving SDGs
Meanwhile, the Global System for Mobile telecommunications Association (GSMA) has said that technology startups will play crucial role in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). It stressed that low-tech mobile tools will meet this need and beyond. Several mobile innovations reaching scale today in Africa and Asia Pacific that are driving impact on the lives of low-income mobile users are driven by low-tech, offline solutions. Even in the age of smartphones, low-tech solutions are indispensable to addressing the SDGs.
- Mobile operators play an important role in granting start-ups and third parties access to lowtech mobile channels, such as APIs and USSD, for deploying life-enhancing services with a direct impact on the SDGs.
- For example, in November 2018, SMS-based weather forecasting service, Iska, launched in Nigeria with 9mobile, while MTN Uganda launched its mobile money API, enabling developer access to MTN Mobile Money’s proprietary software platform.
- Meanwhile, Orange runs the platform #303# My Store that enables developers to plug into a standardised USSD API. #303# My Store is active in Côte d’Ivoire, Cameroon and DRC, with around 50 third-party services accessible on the platform.
Charles Rapulu Udoh
Charles Rapulu Udoh is a Lagos-based Lawyer with special focus on Business Law, Intellectual Property Rights, Entertainment and Technology Law. He is also an award-winning writer. Working for notable organizations so far has exposed him to some of industry best practices in business, finance strategies, law, dispute resolution, and data analytics both in Nigeria and across the world.