According to a recent report by Disrupt Africa, African startups brought in $185,785,500. The data reflects funding raised by 125 tech startups last year.
“2015 was an exciting year for African tech startups. Our data shows the increasing vibrancy of our ecosystem, with more quality tech startups, and more investor activity than ever before. We’re very pleased to make our data available in the Disrupt Africa African Tech Startups Funding Report 2015, and trust it will contribute to understanding and growing the ecosystem,” said Gabriella Mulligan, co-founder of Disrupt Africa.
The report reveals that the big three hot spots for startups are South Africa, Nigeria and Kenya. These countries attract the most investors and are the best places for startups to have continued success. The report also shows that 36 percent of the startups that raised funding were based in South Africa, 24 percent were in Nigeria, and Kenya holds the third-place spot with 14.4 percent of startup deals.
In fact, these three countries have brought in the majority of the funding over the last few years. South Africa had funds that totaled $54,568,000 throughout the year, while Nigerian startups received over $49,404,000 and Kenyan startups brought home over $47,365,000.
Disrupt Africa looked at 10 different business sectors to see which one was funded the most. They discovered that out of those 10, solar energy gained the most investors. The report indicated that this sector garnered 32.9 percent of the total funds raised.
The report looks at the startups of every country and tries to predict this year’s investors’ projections.
According to Tom Jackson, co-founder of Disrupt Africa, “There will have been many funding rounds across the continent that have taken place quietly. But in terms of demonstrating the development of the ecosystem, these figures are an excellent starting point. We expect to see further growth in 2016.”
