Kenya beats Nigeria and South Africa by netting Sh35bn in tech start-up funding

MK254 · 2019-04-23T14:47:42+00:00

Kenya posted an impressive 136 percent year-on-year growth in tech start-up funding in 2018 to net Sh34.8 billion ($348m), pipping traditional main rivals South Africa and Nigeria, a report shows. PHOTO | NMG Kenya posted an impressive 136 percent year-on-year growth in tech start-up funding in 2018 to net Sh34.8 billion ($348m), pipping traditional main rivals South Africa and Nigeria, a report shows. The funding came through 44 new deals, which translated to a 76 percent year-on-year growth. “A total of 11 start-ups raised 13 rounds equal to or higher than $5 million (Sh500m),” US-based global investment firm, Partech, said in a report for 2018. Top in the country’s funding list in 2018 are financial tech inclusions Tala (Sh5bn), Cellulant (Sh4.75bn), and Dlight (Sh4.1bn). Others were Branch (Sh2bn), Twiga Foods (Sh1bn), MKopa (Sh1bn), Africa’s Talking (Sh862m), Lori Systems (Sh617m), Mobius (Sh600m), while BitPesa and WeFarm got Sh500m each. The other deals by Tala and M-Kopa were not disclosed. “Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa are still leading the race, absorbing 78 percent of the total funding, exactly as per last year with Egypt closing up at fourth place,” Partech said. Malawi, Ivory Coast and Uganda finished bottom of the list with single funding each in the annual list that had only 19 participating countries out of 54. “2018 saw another record year for the African VC market. It’s quite simply astonishing. When we started our journey to create the Partech Africa Fund in 2015, we had anticipated the $1 billion (Sh100bn) mark to be broken by 2020. We are now already two years ahead of our projections,” the report states. Investment stages “Even better news, the ecosystem is shaping up at every investment stage, already including the early growth stage, which is very promising from a maturity curve perspective and a very critical step forward to keep the rise of African Tech mainstream.” https://www.businessdailyafrica.com/datahub/Kenya-nets-Sh35bn-in-tech-start-up-funding--outpaces-SA--Nigeria/3815418-5083844-11asclk/index.html

Thread starter MK254
Start date Apr 23, 2019

MK254

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Kenya beats Nigeria and South Africa by netting Sh35bn in tech start-up funding

MK254

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