African startup funding struggled in March, with startups across the continent securing only $50 million throughout the month.
This makes March 2025 one of the slowest months for startup funding since late 2020 when the COVID-19 pandemic was at its peak. The sluggish performance is largely due to the dominance of smaller deals during the period, the report said with no startup raising $10 million or more.
“As you may remember, the ecosystem started the year on a high, with close to $300m raised by start-ups in January. February wasn’t as good ($119m), yet we still found reasons to be optimistic. The performance in March was poor in comparison, though, as only $50m in funding was announced, one of the lowest monthly tallies since late 2020,” the report said.
This figure dragged down the Q1 2025 performance which came down to $460 million, according to a funding report by venture analytics firm, Africa: The Big Deal.
The so-called big 4 countries took 83% of the funding during the quarter:
- Kenya, Nigeria, and South Africa attracted approximately $100 million each (24%, 24%, and 22% of the total, respectively).
- Egypt followed with $61 million (14%), while
- Togo secured a spot in the top five, largely due to Gozem’s $30 million Series B funding round
FUNDING | Togolese Super App, Gozem, Raises $30 Million Series B After Crossing 1 Million Users in Francophone Africa
Currently, the company has nearly 10,000 registered drivers, and says its monthly users number in the hundreds of thousands.https://t.co/cmCx7ioPDq pic.twitter.com/fCt3cTaZWF
— BitKE (@BitcoinKE) February 27, 2025
Looking at sectors:
- Fintech startups dominated the funding landscape, accounting for 46% of the total, with major rounds including $53 million for LemFi and $38 million for Naked.
- The energy sector came next with 18%, followed by
- Logistics and transportation at 10%
FUNDING | Emerging Markets Remittance Fintech, LemFi, Secures $53 Million Series B Funding, Now Handling Over $1 Billion in Monthly Payment Volume
60% of its customer base is active yearly with 70% retention rate since day one.https://t.co/QEHqcrityl @UseLemfi pic.twitter.com/JazcXwSRvM
— BitKE (@BitcoinKE) January 16, 2025
While March 2025’s $50 million in funding may seem like a sharp drop from February 2025’s $119 million, the month-over-month decline follows a similar pattern. February’s total had already fallen by 59% from the $289 million raised in January 2025, while March 2025 saw a 58% drop from February’s numbers.
Looking further back, African startups secured $340 million in December 2024, marking a 15% decline in January 2024. This suggests that January’s funding level may have been a lingering effect of the late-2024 funding boom, which now appears to be fading.
Notably, February 2025 was the slowest February since 2019, and with an even weaker March 2025, the year seems to be setting the wrong kind of records, the report said.
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