Agritech attracts strongest African angel investor interest despite funding decline

In 2025, agriculture and agtech startups attracted the strongest interest from Africa’s angel networks, according to a new report by the African Business Angel Network (ABAN), an industry group.

The report, produced in partnership with Briter Intelligence, a market intelligence and data platform, and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), surveyed more than 60 angel investors and angel network managers across Africa. It examined investment preferences, ecosystem trends, funding constraints, and the role of angel investors across the continent.

The renewed attention on agriculture comes despite a difficult funding year for the sector, underscoring a gap in the funding ecosystem. While agriculture is attracting stronger interest from angel networks, agritech startups continue to struggle to attract larger pools of institutional capital. 

A separate Briter Intelligence report showed that agritech funding declined to $168.1 million in 2025, down from $206.9 million in 2024, while other sectors, including fintech, logistics, and energy, captured a larger share of capital. Still, the growing interest from angel networks suggests that early-stage investors see long-term potential in the sector despite the funding slowdown.

Angel investors are typically high-net-worth individuals who invest personal capital into early-stage startups and fund companies before institutional venture capital firms step in. Angel networks allow these solo investors to pool capital and share investments across multiple startups. Across 37 African countries, there are more than 75 active angel networks and over 5,000 individual angels, according to the report.

The report found that agriculture and agtech ranked as the top sector of interest among angel networks in 2025, although it ranked second among individual angel investors, trailing behind fintech. Logistics and supply chain startups attracted the strongest angel investor participation across the ecosystem, per ABAN’s 2024 report,  highlighting how investor priorities are evolving.

Alongside shifting sector preferences, the ABAN report showed how angel investing itself is evolving across Africa. The report found that more than 35% of surveyed investors prefer startups already generating revenue, reflecting caution in a tighter funding environment where investors want evidence of traction before deploying capital.

Ticket sizes also remain relatively small among the group. The report stated that more than 90% of individual angel investors wrote cheques under $25,000 in 2025, up from 76% in 2024. Angel networks, however, demonstrated a greater capacity for larger investments, with 8% reporting writing ticket sizes above $100,000. Still, the ecosystem faces structural constraints.

According to the report, limited exit opportunities and liquidity remain one of the biggest challenges facing angel investors across Africa, despite the continent recording more than 100 startup exits between 2023 and 2025. 

The report also identified limited deal flow, limited investor knowledge, and economic and regulatory gaps as key barriers to scaling angel investment activity across the continent. Nearly 29% of respondents indicated that they have either paused or reduced their investments in the market.

“If Africa is to build stronger innovation ecosystems and convert entrepreneurial energy into broad-based development, angel investing must be recognised not as a peripheral activity, but as part of the continent’s growth infrastructure,” Fadilah Tchoumba, CEO of ABAN, noted in the report.

As Africa’s venture funding remains constrained due to the pullback of development finance institutions (DFIs) and global investors, the report suggests that angel investors and angel networks could play a more influential role in determining which startups receive the early backing needed to scale.