Hopes that funding for African tech startups would take a leap in 2025 have been dented as 55 ventures raised US$284 million in Q1, marginally down from the same quarter last year and suggesting we can expect similar funding numbers this year as we did last.
This was according to the 10th edition of the annual African Tech Startups Funding Report released by Disrupt Africa, which is available free to all as part of an open-sourcing initiative in partnership with Art of Scale.
Significant rounds late last year for the likes of Moniepoint and Yellow Card had provoked hopes of a recovery, yet the figures for the first quarter of 2025 suggest more of the same for now. Q1 saw 55 startups secure a combined US$283,925,000, numbers which extrapolated over the year would be only marginally up from 2024 numbers.
Indeed, compared to Q1 2024, we are still seeing a decline in funding. The number of funded startups was down 49.1 per cent on 82 in 2023, which itself had been down from 87 in 2022.
The overall funding total was down 8.4 per cent on US$310 million in Q1 2023, which had in turn been down 52.3 per cent on the US$650 million raised by startups in the corresponding period of 2023.
So the decline continues, yet at least it is slowing, with Q1 2023 funding having been down 57.2 per cent on Q1 2022.
The biggest rounds of Q1 2025 went to Nigeria’s LemFi, South Africa’s Naked, and Togo’s Gozem.
