Tech Start-ups in Nigeria, Others Raise $19.7bn in Seven Years
Tech start-ups in Nigeria, South Africa, Kenya, Egypt and others have over the past seven years raised a total of $19.7billion for scaling up.
Nigeria is home to close one million tech startups in the financial technology (fintech), mobility, education, health and other spaces and they have seen significant funding, especially in fintech, with major players such as Flutterwave, Opay, Moniepoint, PalmPay, and Paystack securing hundreds of millions, while others like Moove (mobility fintech) and Andela (talent tech) also raised substantial rounds, demonstrating a booming ecosystem attracting both early-stage and growth-stage investment across sectors such as finance, logistics, and healthtech.
According to data compiled over the weekend, Africa’s startups raised $1.4billion in 2019, $1.1billion in 2020, marking a 21.43 per cent decline and $4.4billion in 2021 marking a significant increase of 300 per cent.
The data sourced from Africa: The Big Deal, a platform for database and newsletter, showed that 2022 posted the highest cash raise hitting $4.6billion, marginal 4.55 per cent. In 2023, the ecosystem recorded a decline of approximately 34.78 per cent by raising $3billion and a further decline of 26.67 per cent to $2.2billion in 2024.
And as of December 8, 2025, the ecosystem has raised $3billion which will likely go up surpassing not only 2024 but also 2023 numbers.
Leaders in fintech and payments space include the unicorn, Flutterwave, a leader in cross-border payments, valued at over $3 billion as of 2024.
Another is OPay, a neobank/payments platform that raised over $570million, including a $400million Series C. Moniepoint (formerly Teamapt) is also a major player in digital banking, achieved unicorn status after a $110million Series C in late 2024.
Among the top fintechs is PalmPay which offers digital payments for consumers and merchants while Paystack, acquired by Stripe, revolutionized online payments and received earlier funding from Visa, Tencent, and Y Combinator.
In the country’s mobility and logistics space, Moove provides revenue-based vehicle financing for mobility entrepreneurs, embedding tech for alternative credit scoring while Kobo360 is a logistics and freight tech company.
Other notable startups include Andela which connects global companies with African tech talent; Helium Health, a digital infrastructure for healthcare in Africa; Remedial Health with focus on pharmacy supply chain management and CowryWise that offers personal finance and wealth management tools.
The report noted: “The ecosystem has performed better in 2025 than in 2024 on start-up fundraising… After two years of YoY decline (-35per cent YoY in 2023 and another -25per cent YoY in 2024), seeing positive double-digit growth (+33per cent YoY so far) is a real breath of fresh air.
“But the fact that start-ups on the continent have now raised more in 2025 than not only in 2024, but also in 2023, feels extra special. It was ‘nearly $3billon’ in 2023; it will be ‘over $3billion’ in 2025 — and the year isn’t even over yet!”
