The fintech sector once again dominates tech investments in Africa representing 43% out of all 90 investments by YCombinator across the continent.
YCombinator is an American technology startup accelerator launched in March 2005. It has been used to launch more than 3,000 companies, including:
- Stripe
- Airbnb
- Cruise
- PagerDuty
- DoorDash
- Coinbase
- Instacart
- Dropbox
- Twitch
- Flightfox and
Twice a year, YCombinator invests $500, 000 per company in selected startups before a 3-month program to get them into the best possible shape and refine their pitch to investors. Each cycle culminates in Demo Day when the startups present their companies to a carefully selected, invite-only audience.
In Africa, a recent analysis by The Big Deal, which tracks startup investing across the continent, established that, besides fintech dominance, the accelerator (effectively a VC as well) has mostly selected startups from Nigeria – in a portfolio that totals 90 startups.
Here is a breakdown of African countries that attract the most attention from YC:
- Nigeria – 49%
- Egypt – 11%
- Kenya – 7%
- Ghana – 5%
Based on YCombinator investment into Africa:
- The above 4 countries cumulatively take in 72% of YC’s investments out of 16 countries on the continent that have startups on YC’s portfolio
- The fintech sector dominates YC’s portfolio with 39 startups or 43% of the entire portfolio. In contrast, fintech represents 12% of YC’s global portfolio
- YC startups have gone on to raise about $1.5 billion after being selected in YC’s accelerator
- Out of this $1.5 billion, once again Nigeria and fintech take a major chuck
- More than 2/3rd ($1B) of the total raised was by YC startups in Nigeria
Breaking down the different sectors:
- 80% went to fintech startups
- 8% went to logistics & transport startups
- 6% went to agritech
- 4% went to healthtech
- 2% went to all the other sectors
19 of the start-ups have already raised more than $10 million, 3 of which have bagged $100 M+ mega deals. These are:
- Flutterwave
- Paystack
- Wave
It was also found that ‘less than 6% of the funding (post YC) was raised by female co-founded start-ups, and almost none of the funding (<0.1%) has gone to female-led ventures.’
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RECOMMENDED READING: African Startups have Raised Over $1 Billion in 2022 So Far
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