Nigerian mobility startup, Moove, has emerged as the most funded startup in Africa as the continent’s startups raised $466 million in Q1 2024.
The Funding report which was released by research firm, Africa: The Big Deal , revealed that Moove raised 24% of the total funds raised by African startups in the first three months of this year. The startup raised a total of $110 million, including a $100 million Series B round led by Uber.
According to the report,the $466 million raised by African startups in Q1 was realized through 121 startups that secured $100,000+ deals. This, represented a 27% decrease quarter on quarter, and was only half of the amount that was raised a year earlier in Q1 2023.
The report indicated that Moove is the only African startup that managed to raise more than $25 million in Q1 2024. The startup so far secured a total of $110 million this quarter in total: a $100 million Series B round led by Uber, and a $10 million debt deal to finance its India expansion. Moove alone attracted 24% of the funding on the continent in Q1, therefore influencing other trends.
The report indicated that 87% of the funding went to start-ups founded in the Big Four with 60% going to Nigeria (2/3 of which were the Moove deals) and Kenya. Few other countries managed to claim more than $5m in funding during the period.
In terms of the sectors transport & logistics led the total amount of funding raised . Moove’s deals got nearly 3/4 of that amount, followed by fintech. For $100k+ deals, fintech topped while Agri & Food became second.
Combined, ClimateTech cutting across multiple sectors represented 31% of $100k+ deals and 27% of the total amount invested,” the report highlighted.
The report also revealed that equity formed the majority of the disclosed funding by African startups in Q1, representing 71%, with debt making up the rest 29%. While equity held up QoQ, the amount of debt disclosed was halved between Q4 2023 and Q1 2022.
According to the report, funding continued to favor male-founded and male-led ventures with less than 1% allocated to start-ups without at least one male founder, and 6.5% to female CEOs.
At the end of the first half of 2023, capital investment into Africa’s startups surpassed a big milestone, exceeding the $20 billion mark over a period of 15 years. Over the last year, there has been a significant change in the funding environment putting pressure on startups and investors alike.
Many startups have shut down, while many funds have struggled to meet their target closes. Others have been forced to take write-downs on their valuations and make deep cuts to their teams. This year, deals valued at $100m or more, startup funding in Africa experienced a decline to $1 billion during the first Half of 2023, contrasting with the $1.5 billion in the second half of 2022 and $1.8 billion in the first half of 2022.