Startups in Africa continue to grow rapidly compared to other mature markets, despite venture capital (VC) funding slowly retreating from the African market this year, according to figures from PitchBook, a capital markets firm. The startup ecosystem in Africa posted an investment of $ 2.9 billion in 2022 across 689 venture rounds, according to Pitchbook, making it the only region with a year-on-year increase in both deal value and count.
However, in Q1 2023, Venture Capital -backed African startups completed only 91 deals, worth US$ 419 million, a big drop on the 257 rounds totaling US$ 948 million in the same period in 2022.
Startups in Nigeria, Kenya and South Africa take up most deals in Q1, Q2 2023
Nigeria, Kenya, and South Africa accounted for more than half of all deals closed by startups in Africa during Q1 and Q2 of 2023.
Nevertheless, while the number of deals stood at pre-2020 levels in Q2, the capital raised climbed to bring the total to $1.1bn in the first six months of the year.
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