For years, the three sub-Saharan countries of Nigeria, South Africa, and Kenya have dominated headlines on startup activity across the continent.
However, in the last 3 years, Egypt has emerged as a tech leader on the continent, with hundreds of startups starting to thrive, cushioned by government action, incubators, and accelerators.
Egypt has the 4th largest startup ecosystem in Africa accounting for 19.8% of all active tech startups across the continent.
Some of these startups that have made headlines in 2021 include:
- Swvl – Transportation
- Fawry – Fintech (achieved Unicorn status)
- Vezeeta – E health
- Trells – Logistics
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According to a report by Disrupt Afrika, unlike much of the continent where fintech attracts the most innovation, the startup activity in the North African giant is led by e-commerce and retail sector with 117 startups out of a total of 562 startups identified by the research.
That number of startups has trended upwards since 2015 boosted by government action and increased venture interest
However, according to the report, in 2021, fintech startups have led as Egypt startups raised more funding than startups from other areas in Africa.
According to the research, the $403.5 million raised by 82 Egyptian start-ups was only out-funded by those in Nigeria.
Moreover, while e-Commerce and e-Health have usually led in startup funding, in 2021, for the first time, fintech startups have accumulated more funding in Egypt at over 38% with payments and remittance platforms dominating in the fintech space.
This reflects a consistent growth trend in the last 4 years.
Here is the proportion of fintech funding in the last 4 years in Egypt:
- 2017 – Less than 1%
- 2018 – 3%
- 2019 – 4%
- 2020 – 9%
- 2021 – 38%
Some of the leading fintech startups in terms of number of employess include Paymob, MNT Halan, Masari, and Raseedi.
Interestingly, 49.2% of the country’s 32 fintech ventures are reported to have taken part in some kind of acceleration or incubation programme.
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Read/Download full report here
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RECOMMENDED READING: Introducing PayMob – An Infrastructure Enabler Powering 85% of Mobile Wallet Transactions in Egypt
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