2023 Africa Tech investor funding highlights

Emeka Ajene

Jan 20, 2024

∙ Paid

Today’s article is a quick recap of investor fundraising activity across Africa in 2023. [P.S. The first Afridigest Live event of the year is happening in February in Lagos. Sign up here.]

• Organizations appearing include Partech, Norrsken22, Founders Factory Africa, Goodwell Investments, Alitheia Capital, Enza Capital, Verod-Kepple Africa Ventures, Knife Capital, E3 Capital, Gaia Impact, Equator, Novastar Ventures, Kazana Fund, EMURGO Africa, AAIC, Aduna Capital, Plesion Capital, Flat6Labs, Launch Africa, Persistent, Kalon Venture Partners, EchoVC, 4DX Capital, HAVAÍC, DFS Lab, AXIAN Investment, and more.

If you’re new here: welcome — the Week in Review is sent on Mondays, the Fintech Review goes out on Sundays, and other content goes out on Wednesdays and/or Saturdays. For past essays and digests, visit the archive & Afridigest.com.

Despite the global downturn, investors continue to be bullish about opportunities in African tech.

Here's a look at the top ten fundraising commitments announced by Africa-focused tech investment vehicles last year.

In total, Africa-focused tech investors announced securing well over $1 billion in committed capital in 2023.

And that’s not including investors with a broader mandate than Africa like Flourish Ventures ($350 million in new capital), Bidra Innovation Ventures ($200 million), and Capria Ventures (an estimated $40 million committed).

Partnerships

Another indication of the continued global interest in African tech in 2023 was the establishment of significant partnership agreements.

Novastar Ventures entered into a strategic partnership with Japan’s SBI Holdings that sees SBI commit $40 million to anchor Novastar’s upcoming funds. SBI also committed to raise another $40 million from Japanese institutional investors for Novastar.
Japanese VC firm Inclusion Japan (ICJ) announced a partnership with Ethiopia’s Kazana Fund to allocate up to $100 million to Ethiopian startups. ICJ announced its investment in Ethiopia’s Gebeya in Week 2 2023.
EMURGO Africa and Kepple Africa Ventures established a joint venture (EMURGO Kepple Ventures) to invest in African Web3 businesses.

It’s worth noting that all of the above partnerships involve Japanese entities. And if you’ve been paying attention, Japan’s growing interest in African tech has been hard to miss over the years.

I talked a bit about the subject with Nobu Ichiyama from AAIC back in 2021. And I was supposed to write an article on it with Riki Yamauchi — it hasn’t happened yet, but check out his take here. (And congrats to Riki on joining Novastar’s investment team as part of the SBI partnership!)

I did, however, have the chance to moderate a panel with Verod-Kepple Africa Ventures’ Olivia Gao last year, and I couldn’t resist asking about the topic:

New fund managers

While investors in Japan seem to be particularly optimistic about the investment opportunity that tech in Africa presents, right now doesn’t seem like an ideal time for anyone to raise capital — startups and investment firms included.

That said, a few new Africa-focused fund managers announced themselves in 2023; here are the brave newcomers to venture capital in Africa.

[FYI] The first Afridigest Live event of 2024 is happening in February in Lagos.

We’ll dive deep into all things earned wage access alongside a few CEOs pioneering this unique fintech model in Africa. If you’ll be in Lagos and you’re interested in attending, fill out this form. (And if you’re interested in sponsoring/partnering on this or other events this year, reach out!)

New funds from experienced investors

In addition to new fund managers, 2023 also saw a flurry of new Africa-focused funds announced by existing global & local fund managers.

First up are those who were transparent about the target fund size.

Kenyan Africa-focused climate venture builder Persistent launched its Africa Climate Venture Builder Fund with a $100 million target.
Egypt’s Flat6Labs launched the $95 million-target Africa Seed Fund to invest in North, East, and West Africa. The fund initially said it expected to announce a first close before the end of 2023.
Launch Africa Ventures is raising a $75M second fund. This comes after the firm announced the $36.3M final close of its first fund in June 2022.

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