In early May, we detailed the fundraising journey of African startups on the continent, stating that $101.6 million was raised by startups in the month of April. Unlike April, the month of May saw $255.2 million raised from 38 startups compared to April’s 27.
May’s fundraising saw 10 startups secure funds from the West African region compared to the 14 previous. East increased to 8 compared to the previous 3, North Africa also increased from 8 to 12. Southern Africa also saw an increase from 3 to 8, with the Central African region adding one entrant.
Out of the 38 startups, 8 announced undisclosed funding with Nigeria’s fintech company, Interswitch raising $110m, making it the biggest disclosed funding for African Startups in May 2022.
Nigeria, Egypt and Kenya continue to dominate their respective region. Health tech (7) raised the most funding, while e-commerce and fintech shared 4 startups each.
Here is a look at the fundraising by region:
West Africa
A total of $138.6 million was raised in this region excluding undisclosed funding from Nigeria’s Kwaba. All the 10 startups that raised funds in this region are Nigerian.
Notable funding includes Nigeria’s Norebase ($1m), Identitypass ($2.8m), BridgeCard ($$440k), Topship ($2.5m), Carepoint ($10m), Betastore ($2.5m) and Ayoken ($1.4m), Cassava ($8m).
Like April, Nigeria continues to dominate the West African startup scene as it acquired 100% of the total disclosed funding of the region.
North Africa
12 startups in this region secured up to $145.4m.10 out of these startups are Egyptian, with fintech Paymob raising $50m, followed by Instabug with $46m. 4 startups didn’t disclose their funds (Teegara, Gooo, Natrify and Morocco’s Blink Pharma).
What is exciting about Egypt’s tech ecosystem? What are the other countries in this region doing to match up? From January to May, Egypt has dominated the North African fundraising scene.
Egypt acquired 99.3% of the total disclosed funding in North Africa.
Other Egyptian startups are Mylerz ($9.6m), Mara ($23), Instabug ($46m), Doxx ($1.5m), Esaal ($1.7m), Sylndr ($12.6m). Moroccan logistic startup raised $1m.
East Africa
8 startups in this region raised $26.7m. Kenyan Fintech, FlexPay and Zimbabwean Blockchain Flexid secured undisclosed funding.
The rest of the startups include Topup Mama ($1.7m), Zuri ($1.3m), Babma ($3.2), and Victory Farms ($5m), Africa Greenco ($15.5m), Untapped ($10.3m)
More Kenyan startups secured funding in May compared to April.
South Africa
7 out of the 8 that raised $34.9m in this region are South Africans, the other remaining one is Nambia’s logistics startup, Jabu ($15m).
Health tech IndygeneUs AI and E-commerce platform Shopstar secured undisclosed funding.
Others include Gometro ($1m), Nile ($2.5m), TooMuchWifi ($585k), Foondamate ($12.6m), LifeCheq ($3.3m)
South African startups accumulated 53.7% of the region’s total funding.
Central Africa
Crypto exchange platform Jumbo took the centre stage in this region as it raised $30m in funding.
Watch out for this space to get a round-up of fundraising by African startups for May.
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