African Funding round in 2017 increased by 28 Percent compared to 2016 according to WeeTracker

2017 faded away,  the Funding report from Wee Tracker has it that we increased our investment funds by 28% compared to 2016. With the Big Names like CZF and Bill and Melinda Gates having being involved in the making of this possible and other Accelerators and Investors like YC, Cox Ventures and Social Capital and many more.

African startups saw $167.7 million in disclosed risk capital being infused in 201 startups between January and December 2017. According to WeeTracker Research, the disclosed funding announcements have shown an increased growth of 28 percent YOY  compared to the last calendar year (2016). Not only this, the number of startups that got funded in 2017 has also jumped by 32 percent compared to last year.

The Research has SA leading with the number of Startups being funded then Kenya then Nigeria ( The Triangle Countries have a great competition )  “South Africa bagged the top country title with 74 startups getting funded last year, followed by Kenya, which counted for 46 startups. The third spot was grabbed by Nigeria with 34 startups.” Says Wee Tracker. With the three countries making up to 77% of the total number of startups Funded.

South Africa also topped the charts in terms of the funding amount with $ 39.60 M infused into its startups, followed by Kenya that attracted an investment of $ 31.4 M followed by Nigeria which secured $ 24.2 M. A special mention here goes to Andela, a coder training company, that raised $ 40 M alone. We considered Andela as a Nigeria based startup, however, we have not taken the funding amount into an account for investment calculation.

“Predictably, the sector with the most activity was fintech, seeing 47 deals with a total of $30.68m invested, obviously spurred on by Paystack and Flutterwave getting into and launching out of Y-Combinator. Cleantech (Energy et al.) was second, with $18.1m invested in 19 deals. While Edtech and Health-tech had 17 and 12 deals respectively. (They excluded Andela’s $40m series C from the report because it would have skewed things irreparably.)”

Knife Capital, Chandaria Industries, Kalon Venture Partners, Omidyar Network, Algebra Venture and 4Di Capital, Are the top names of Investors that made 2017 a buzz.

While quite a few deal amounts were undisclosed during the last year; Weetracker based its analysis on the numbers and choice of a startup that were funded by these investors.

” 2017 felt like the year where the eco-system dots got connected. Maybe not all of them but there is visible ‘connection’. 2018 will be the year where (South) Africa will see the initial benefits of a ‘connected’ eco-system. An increased number of entrepreneurs are addressing real gaps in their respective markets, aiming to build Gazelle-style businesses rather than “Apps”. More Corporates are starting to take the SME world with its innovation and potential for disruption serious, moving away from the “let’s sponsor an event and put our logo on” approach and start real engagement. I expect even Governments to start acknowledging the importance of entrepreneurship and act accordingly and not just talk about it. How far will we get in 2018? We will know in a year’s time. But I predict 2018 to be the year of visible traction”  as told by Andrea Bohmert of Knife Capital.

Quoting TechCabal :

” But this is…tiny?

Context: I’m subscribed to a newsletter called Inside Venture Capital, and its estimate for *last week* was $3bn. In fact, Israeli startups alone raised $5bn in 2017. This suggests to me that while some people [myself inclusive] think there are too many accelerators/early-stage funds popping up in these ecosystems, we actually need *more* of them, not less. Of course, that depends on there being enough high-quality fundable companies in the first place… ”

Check also Venture Capital’s Report on Funding .