Key questions:
- The African tech ecosystem has been experiencing a funding winter in 2023. Did this continue or reverse in the third quarter of 2023?
- Nigeria typically leads funding in Africa. Has this trend continued so far in 2023?
Ten months into 2023, the African technology ecosystem (hereafter “tech ecosystem”) has had an unfavourable year. The funding winter, triggered partly by rising interest rates globally and which materialised in the third quarter of 2022, has continued its chilly path, leading to a further slowdown in startup funding, as highlighted in Stears’ previous analysis. Here, we present key themes from the recently released numbers making up the third quarter of 2023.
#1: Funding winter continues
The recently published September numbers from Africa: The Big Deal complete an entire quarter, allowing us to assess how funding performed in the third quarter of 2023. The data shows that in Africa, $499 million was raised across 102 equity and debt