In April 2025, start-ups across Africa raised a total of $343m through $100k+ deals (excluding exits), involving 39 start-ups.
That’s not just a solid rebound from a disappointing March: it is the second-best April on record, beaten only by the wild funding heatwave days of April 2022. Compared to last year, the difference is striking: funding is up 4.5x from April 2024. A clear sign that investors, though still cautious, remain confident in the potential of the continent…
April’s total got a boost from some large deals: South African healthtech hearX secured $100million through its merger with U.S.-based Eargo, a bold cross-continent move that signals major ambition in disrupting the hearing health market. Also the first mega deal of 2025 so far. In Egypt, Islamic fintech platform Bokra raised $59 million through a sukuk issuance (more on sukuk here), a remarkable feat just a year after announcing a $4.6million pre-seed round in 2024. South African payments infrastructure venture Stitch secured $55million in funding from existing investors as it doubles down on building end-to-end payment solutions across the continent.
On the exit front, there were at least four of those to add to the list, three of which involved fintechs: ADVA in Egypt was acquired by Maseera (UAE); investment company C-One Ventures acquired Bankly in Nigeria; and South Africa-based fintech Peach Payments acquired PayDunya to expand in Francophone West Africa.
With a good April in the bag, the year-to-date numbers look pretty healthy as well with $803m raised by 163 ventures between January and April (exc. exits). That’s 43per cent more than the $563million raised in the same period last year. And more start-ups are getting funded too (147 in Jan–Apr 2024). At least 225 unique investors have already been involved in a $100k+ deal in 2025 so far.
This is the kind of momentum we like to see in the ecosystem. Not just more money, but more breadth. More signals that this isn’t just a one-off bounce but the early stages of a more stable recovery. Sure, it’s still early — one or two hot months don’t make a full year. But if this pace keeps up, 2025 could well be a good year. Not to mention that since early 2024, at least $1.3 billion in funding were closed by VC funds focused on Africa, including Janngo Capital (with a focus on gender), Airnergize Capital, Verod-Kepple Africa Ventures, Saviu’s Fund II (focused on Francophone Africa) or LoftyInc Capital, to name just a few… We’ve said it before, and we’ll say it again: it’s a marathon, not a sprint.
Credit: thenationonlineng.net
