Tech investment in Africa has seen a surprising up-tick following two years of stagnation, with investment rising 46% in 2025 to some $1.64bn.
According to the latest edition of the annual African Tech Startups Funding Report published by startup news and research portal Disrupt Africa, with support from partners TVC Labs and Opus, the ‘funding winter’ seen across 2023 and 2024 has come to an abrupt end. The report finds that in 2025 178 startups raised a combined total of $1.64bn over the course of the year, which represented a slight decline in the number of funded ventures, but an increase in total funding raised.
This comes after two years of decline, which saw startup funding fall to almost $1.2bn in 2024 – compared to $2.4bn in 2023 and $3.3bn in 2022.
Big four dominate
Geographically, the bulk of the funding went to the ‘Big four’ – Nigeria, Egypt, Kenya and South Africa – driving most of the growth for 2025. The report finds that 88% of the new funding went to these countries in 2025, similar to 88.8% in 2024, but down from 90.4% in 2023.
Egypt had the highest number of startups funded in 2025, at 43, followed by South Africa with 42. Nigeria took the largest portion of funding, at $464.8 million, 28.4% of total.
Outside of these four, Morocco, Tunisia and Ghana had the next highest number of startups funded. The ecosystems in Ghana, Togo and Morocco attracted the biggest portions of funding.
Fintech and AI attractive
Looking at where the funding went, fintech firms received the most money spread over the most startups: 54 startups attracting $694mn. AI and ecommerce came in next with 16 and 14 start-ups receiving $48mn and $67mn respectively. Nine mobility and five ed-tech firms were also rewarded.
