African Startup Funding Steadies at $1.44bn as Debt, Climate Tech and Consolidation Reshape Market – Report

African startup funding dips 6% year on year

African startup funding dipped by 6% year on year to $1.4 billion in the first six months of 2026, after the number of early-stage companies securing venture capital investment fell, data from Africa The Big Deal shows. The largest agreement for the year so far happened in June, when four-year-old electric motorcycle maker Spiro raised $270 million. That helped raise the total for the half year, but the number of startups raising $100,000 or mor…

African startup funding steadies at $1.44bn as debt, climate tech and consolidation reshape market – report

African startups raised $1.44bn in H1. While deal numbers fell 42%, acquisitions, cross-border expansion and corporate partnerships increased sharply.

Women Leading African AI Startups And Building Local AI Solutions

Female-founded African startups raised $254 million in equity funding in 2025, up 60% from the previous year, but still received only 10% of the continent’s total equity capital. Despite that gap, women leading African AI startups are building technologies around problems that global AI companies often overlook, including African languages, environmental data, healthcare, skills development and the shortage of locally relevant datasets. Their im…

Digital Africa Launches $58 Million Seed Fund As African Startup Investment Expands Beyond Major Tech Hubs

Digital Africa has unveiled a $58 million seed investment fund aimed at accelerating startup growth in underserved African markets, marking a significant shift in venture capital allocation as investors increasingly look beyond traditional innovation hubs such as Nigeria, Kenya and South Africa. The new funding initiative is designed to support early-stage technology companies in countries that have historically attracted limited venture capital…

FGN Opens $110 Million debt financing window for tech & creative startups under the iDICE programme

The Bank of Industry (BOI), the Implementing Agency for the Investment in Digital and Creative Enterprises (iDICE) Programme of the Federal Government of Nigeria, has launched two dedicated debt-financing windows to expand access to affordable growth capital for startups in Nigeria’s technology and creative sectors. The two facilities — the BOI-iDICE $45 million Debt Fund […] The post FGN Opens $110 Million debt financing window for tech & creat…

African Female Founders Gain Ground In Startups But Lose Even More Ground In Funding

The number of African tech startups with female founders has edged up over the past two years, but a new report shows that women-led ventures are receiving a shrinking share of venture capital, raising concerns that the ecosystem is moving backward on gender equality just as funding begins to recover. The third edition of the “Diversity Dividend” report, released on Monday by Disrupt Africa in partnership with Madica, Thinkroom and Jumpstarter C…