Kenya Surpasses Nigeria in Tech Funding in 2023, Takes The Lead in Africa’s Tech Market

In a 2023 Africa’s tech market report, there was a shocking readjustment, which saw Africa’s most populous nation Nigeria, concede its leading position to Kenya in the amount of tech funding raised in 2023.

According to ‘Africa: The Big Deal’, a tech research firm, the ‘Big Four’ Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, and Egypt, attracted 87% of all the start-up funding in Africa, their largest share since 2019. 

They were home to 71% (357 out of 500) of the start-ups who raised $100k or more on the continent last year.

Here is How the ‘Big Four’ performed in 2023

kenya

With just under $800m raised in 2023, Kenya attracted the most funding, 28% of the continent’s total, which saw it take the lead position. Despite suffering a decline (-25% YoY), its share of Eastern Africa’s funding grew from 86% in 2022 to 91% in 2023.

Egypt

In Egypt, there were 48 such ventures raising $100k+ in 2023, the lowest number out of the Big Four. Egypt’s share of North African funding grew substantially from 72% in 2022 to 95% in 2023 (+23pp, by far the strongest progression), due both to the magnitude of MNT-Halan’s fundraising, and Algeria and Tunisia’s inability to repeat their strong 2022 performance.

South Africa

South Africa which sits in third position, recorded a share of regional funding at 97%, which remains the highest. The 70 start-ups who raised $100k or more in the country cumulated $600m in funding i.e. 21% of the continent’s total. South Africa was the only one of the Big Four not to see its total funding shrink between 2022 and 2023 (+8% YoY).

Nigeria

Finally, Nigeria which sits in the fourth position, is reported to be the country where the most dramatic change happened in 2023. While the country still claimed the highest number of start-ups to raise $100k or more (146, 29% of the continent), the amount they raised was divided by 3 YoY (-67%) to reach $410m, compared to $1.2b in 2022, and $1.7b in 2021. 

As a result, its share of Western African funding continued to drop to reach 68%, down from 85% in 2021, and 77% in 2022. This is the lowest regional share of any Big Four market since we started collecting the data in 2019.