When non-disclosed transactions were excluded, African startups active on the continent and led by a woman raised 203.2 million US dollars. This is 58% less than what enterprises of this sort mobilised in 2021.
The Big Deal gathered and disclosed this information, which includes funding transactions worth more than $100,000 USD.
According to the same report, this decline in performance for African start-ups led by women contrasts with the overall trend in the sector. At least 129 of them were able to mobilize resources compared to 141 in 2021.
“Despite the little rise, the total amount of financing deals for African start-ups over $100,000 reached a new record with at least USD 4.8 billion, or about USD 200 million more than in 2021. Despite the relative success of venture capital on the continent, less than 3% of start-ups with female founders and just 4% of female entrepreneurs have benefited from it,” indicates the source.
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According to Africa the Big Deal’s research, “the gender gaps seen in sub-Saharan Africa continue to be consistent with the limited interest of foreign venture capital for female entrepreneurship in Africa.”
And to add: “According to World Bank data, just 34% of enterprises are started or managed by women, compared to 66% for men, in Nigeria, which dominates the financing of start-ups by venture capital on the continent.
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The International Monetary Fund (IMF) produced a study in 2020 that examined the difference between males and women’s access to funding in Africa. One of the arguments made was that the latter were given less funding since they felt they were excluding themselves and their actions would not have a chance of succeeding.
African women startups African women startups
Charles Rapulu Udoh
Charles Rapulu Udoh is a Lagos-based lawyer, who has several years of experience working in Africa’s burgeoning tech startup industry. He has closed multi-million dollar deals bordering on venture capital, private equity, intellectual property (trademark, patent or design, etc.), mergers and acquisitions, in countries such as in the Delaware, New York, UK, Singapore, British Virgin Islands, South Africa, Nigeria etc. He’s also a corporate governance and cross-border data privacy and tax expert.
As an award-winning writer and researcher, he is passionate about telling the African startup story, and is one of the continent’s pioneers in this regard