African Startups Raised $636M in Funding in Q3 2024, More Than Twice the Amount Raised in Q2 2024

According to a new report by Africa: the Big Deal, 2 deals represented more than half of the amount raised during the period.

African startups raised $636 million in funding in Q3 2024, more than twice as much as in Q2 2024, according to a new report by Africa: the Big Deal.

The report found that two deals represented more than half of the amount raised during the period.

Overall, 44 start-ups raised $1 million or more during the period, better than Q2 2024, but lower than the 2023 quarterly average for instance (55/quarter).

Of the $636 million that were raised in Q3 2024, through $100k+ deals on the continent:

Fintech ($363 million, 57%) and Energy ($199 million, 31%) alone attracted almost 9 out of every $10 invested in start-ups in Africa.

“The numbers are highly skewed by the d.light deal for Energy and the MNT-Halan’s $157.5m raise for Fintech (though five other fintech ventures raised $20m or more in Q3: Nala, FlapKap, Fido, valU and Paymob).”

– Africa: The Big Deal

Again, as a result of the quarter’s two mega deals:

which also means that three quarters of the funding raised in Africa in Q3 2024 went to these two markets alone, said the report.

Four other markets attracted $10 million of more in funding during the period:

Ten additional countries attracted at least one $100k+ deal while 38 markets registered no significant start-up funding activity during the period.

Since the beginning of the year, startups have raised a combined $1.4 billion, which is 38% less funding than they had at the same time last year.

Kenya ($437 million, 31%) and Egypt ($373 million, 27%) come out on top again with a combined 58% of all the funding raised on the continent in 2024 so far.

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Nigeria’s share (15%, $218 million) is comparable to what it was last year (14%).

“With 9% ($125 million) of the funding raised in 2024 so far, South Africa is at the moment recording its worst performance since 2019 in terms of its share of continental funding (6%), much below its average share in the past few years (18% between 2020 and 2023),” said the report.

So far in 2024, only 18% of the funding has gone to the ‘rest of Africa’ with 23 markets recording at least one $100k+ deal since January 1 2024.

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