In 2022, a total of 633 African tech startups received $3.33 billion in investment, which means that the $3 billion mark has been passed for the first time in history, the African Tech Startups Funding Report 2022 said.
Although the total investment growth rate was smaller than the previous year (55.1% in 2022 against 206.3% in 2021) because of harsher global economic conditions, the number of funded startups is unprecedented and increased by 12.2% compared to 564 in 2021.
The average deal size grew by 38.2% from $3.29 million in 2021 to $5.27 million in 2022.
Since 2015, when the portal started publishing its reports, the total number of funded startups has increased by 406% (from 125 to 633), with the total funding growing by over 1,000%.
According to the report, Nigeria, Egypt, South Africa, and Kenya remain the continent's "big four" in terms of funding. However, startups from a record number of African countries – 27 – secured investment in 2022.
In February last year, the report says, Nigerian fintech startup Flutterwave secured an all-time Africa record, raising $250 million. In the list of the continent's startups with the best investment, it is followed by Nigerian mobility fintech Moove ($181.8 million) and Egyptian fintech platform MNT-Halan ($150 million), Algerian super app Yassir ($150 million), Kenyan retail-tech Wasoko ($125 million), Tunisian AI startup InstaDeep ($100 million), South African e-commerce startup Clickatell ($91 million), and Kenyan PAYG solar firm M-KOPA ($75 million).
The number of disclosed investors grew by 28% – to 987 from 771 tracked in 2021 – with the most active investors being early-stage funds (e. g. Launch Africa Ventures, LoftyInc Capital Management, and Future Africa) and accelerators (including Y Combinator, Techstars, Flat6Labs, and Startup Wise Guy). Late stage-investors such as large global ones (Tiger Global, Sequoia Capital, and SoftBank) have become more active in the market.
It was earlier reported that the Affirmative Finance Action for Women in Africa (AFAWA) initiative by the African Development Bank (AfDB) had reached $1 billion in approved funding. The program is mainly focused on small and medium-sized women-run businesses that play a key role in Africa's agriculture.
In November 2022, Akinwumi Adesina, the president of the AfDB, called for more active investment in Africa, noting that the continent is "not as risky as you think" and positively compared the investment climate in some African countries with a number of European ones.