‘Funding winter’ ends as investments in African startups climb

The African tech startup ecosystem climbed by over 50% to US$1.64 billion in 2025, as the sector gradually recovered.         

by Dumisani Sigogo

After experiencing the global "funding winter" in 2024, overall investment in the African tech startup ecosystem climbed by nearly 50% to US$1.64 billion in 2025, as the sector began to gradually recover from the effects of the global capital crisis.

This is according to the 11th edition of the annual African Tech Startups Funding Report released by startup news and research portal Disrupt Africa, which is available for free to all, thanks to support from partners TVC Labs and Opus.

178 startups raised a total of US$1.64 billion over the course of the year, representing a slight decrease in the number of funded businesses but a 46.2 percent increase in total raised funding.

This follows a two-year dip in startup capital, which fell to $1,119,802,000 in 2024 as the sector faced the brunt of the worldwide "funding winter".

The number of active investors, whether individual or institutional, declined again in 2025, by 4.6% to 330 from 346 in 2024. However, this constituted some type of stabilising following two years of significant deterioration.

This meant they accounted for much of the continent’s growth in 2025, as even though there are signs the “funding winter” is coming to an end, capital remained focused on markets perceived as being less “risky”.

Fintech was once again the most popular industry for investors in African start-ups in 2024, increasing its share of funded projects and roughly matching its proportion of total investment from 2024.

The report is available for free download here. Aside from providing a full list of the funded startups, who invested in them, and, where possible, the amount raised, from the previous year, the annual reports also provide deep-dives into investment trends within key startup geographies and verticals, as well as data on African startup acquisitions.

“2024 was a very difficult year indeed for African tech from a funding perspective, with a significant decline in investment for the second year in a row. Yet we’ve seen a big boost in 2025, and though funding levels have by no means ‘recovered’, it seems like we are seeing light at the end of the tunnel from an investment perspective,” said Disrupt Africa co-founder Gabriella Mulligan.