African female founders raised 0.9% of $3.2bn total funding in 2025; lowest in 4 years

While venture funding into women-founded startups has always been a source of concern, 2025 saw a decline, as female-founded startups accounted for only 0.9 per cent of the total $3.2 billion funding.

This is according to data from the venture funding analytics company, Africa the Big Deal.

In sum, only $28.8 were raised by women-only founders. This is the lowest share of annual funding recorded since 2021.

Yet, the outlook is a little positive when you note that startups led by both male and female founders raised 8 per cent of the total. This means $256 million of the $3.2 billion went to mixed founding teams. This is an improvement from the 6 per cent raised by mixed founding teams in 2024.

However, 91 per cent of the total funding went to male-only founding teams, representing over $2.9 billion of the 2025 continental total. While this remains an overwhelming share, it is nonetheless a decrease from the 93 per cent recorded the previous year.

Women CEO raised an all-time low, too

The story becomes more stark when you realise that female-led startups (startups with female CEOs) raised only 2.2 per cent of 2025’s total funding. The remaining 97.8 per cent were raised by men-led startups.

This is the widest gap between startups led by both genders since 2019, when tracking of venture funding officially began. The number is lower than the previous all-time low of 2.3 per cent in 2024.

“As the CEO is almost always one of the co-founders, the numbers look equally dreadful if we split the funding by the gender of the CEO,” the report noted.

An interesting note from the data indicates that investors part with small and losable sums to female founders.

For emphasis, when you consider the share of startups that raised at least $100,000 in 2025, female-led startups make up 14 per cent. This also pales when compared to the 17 per cent in 2024.

Interestingly, all-women founding teams secured 20 per cent of all grant funding in 2025. This gives credence to the fact that many investors see them as charity projects.

Perhaps, as the Executive Director of BigCheq Consulting, Linda Obi opined, female founders perform better than their male counterparts in several key sustainability metrics like capital-efficient growth and better burn rates, which are characteristics of better-run enterprises.

“Women-led startups in Africa are delivering capital-efficient growth, often with 30–40% lower burn rates than male-led teams. In Nigeria, startups like Shuttlers (Damilola Olokesusi) and Herconomy (Ifedayo Durosinmi-Etti) are proving women can build tech with scale, structure, and sustainability,” she stated.

See also: “Ownership is the ceiling, let’s stop integrating women into a broken model”- BigCheq’s Linda Obi on funding

Maybe, with such impressive feats, they require far less funding than their male counterpart after all.

On the brighter side, though, the actual amount of funding invested in start-ups with at least one woman founder almost doubled between 2024 and 2025, rising from $152 million to $275 million (81%).

Putting a name to the numbers, here are some female founders who attracted investments in 2025:

For female founders who form part of a mixed team, Co-founder Nour Taher represents Egypt’s Intella as the startup raised $12.5 million in Series A funding.

Odyssey Energy Solutions, which has Emily McAteer as a co-founder, raised $7.5m debt facility. Miishe Addy’s Jetstream raised $5 million in debt financing, Aune Aunapuu’s Yaga raised $4.6 million in pre-Series A funding, while Rocio Perez Ochoa’s Bidhaa Sasa raised $2.6m grant.

For Women CEOs of start-ups with a woman solo founder or an all-women founding team, Petro Terblanche’s Afrigen Biologics raised $6.2 million in grants, while Joanna Bichsel’s Kasha raised $4 million in equity funding.

Ines Serra Baucells’ Biosorra raised $3.5 milion in a pre-Series A round, while Sona Shah Neopenda and Claire van Enk of Farm to Feed raised $1.5m seed round.

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