Venture funding: How African startups raised $3.2bn in 2025

2025 was a successful year for African startups, as far as venture funding is concerned. Startups on the continent raised $3.2 billion in total. This is according to data from the African venture funding analytics company, Africa the Big Deal.

This is the highest the continent has seen in the last three years. Indeed, the $3.2 billion raised trumps the $2.2 billion raised in 2024, indicating an impressive 45.4 per cent increase.

It also represents a 6.6 per cent rise compared to the $3 billion raised in 2023 and the first year-on-year growth recorded after two consecutive declines.

“Firstly, start-ups in Africa raised $3.2 billion in 2025 (exc. exits). This is an impressive number in itself, of course, but it also represents very solid growth compared to 2024: +40% YoY. This is particularly welcome after two consecutive years of decline (-35% YoY in 2023, -25% YoY in 2024). The year ended at fundraising levels not only higher than 2024, but also 2023,” part of the report reads.

African startups raised $3.2 bilion

How African startups raised $3.2 billion in funding in 2025

In the wake of the late venture funding rally of 2024, which saw several major deals at the end of the year, analysts expected the rally to continue into the new year. And it did just that as startups raised $289 million, making it the second-best January recorded since 2019, bested only by January 2022, when African startups raised over $400 million.

A mild decline would set in in February as startups $119 million, making it the least-funded February since 2019. Thus decline would get worse in March with only $5o million raised, making it one of the slowest months since late 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic was in full swing.

This brings the total funding raised in the first quarter of 2025 to $458 million.

Q2 2025

The second quarter began with a bang, as startups raised $343 million in April 2025, making it the second-best April on record in terms of funding, surpassed only by April 2022, which was during the funding boom across the continent.

The impressive run would continue in May as startups raised $254 million to cross the $1 billion mark after just five months of the year.

The quarter would round up with its best month as a startup, which raised $365 million in June. This brings the second quarter total to $962 million (more than double the first quarter total) and the first half of 2025 to $1.42 billion.

Q3 quarter

The third quarter arrived with an intent to outdo the previous one, as July saw an astounding total of $550 million. This surpasses the entire first quarter in what would become the best month of 2025 and indeed the best month of the previous two years.

It also brought the year within a hair’s breadth of the $2 billion mark ($1.97 billion).

The entire funding space would witness a drastic decline in August 2025 as startups across the continent raised $93 million during the month, becoming the second-slowest funding month in 2025, behind the month of March. The numbers would rebound a bit in September with a total of $140 million raised.

With that, the third quarter finished with $783 million raised, bringing the year-to-date total to $2.20 billion, effectively surpassing 2024 by the end of the third quarter.

Q4 2025

The fourth quarter began almost as impressively as the third, as startups around the continent raised $442 million in October 2025. This makes October the second most-funded month of the year, behind July, when startups raised $550 million.

As with the previous quarter, October’s impressive tally was followed by a decline in November when $162 million was raised.

Going by these, the quarter would witness a massive rebound in December as startups raised $393 million in December, finishing the quarter with $997 million, effectively making it the most-funded quarter of the year.

Nearly 500 startups raised $100k or more

Behind the impressive 2025 numbers are startups whose businesses are being invested in. In all, nearly 500 startups raised at least $100,000 on the continent in the year under review. Of these, 215 raised at least $1 million. This is 11.4 per cent higher than 2024, when 193 startups raised $1 million or more.

Moving to the more exclusive group, an impressive 69 African startups were able to raise $10 million or more. This is 72.5 per cent more than 40 in 2024 and the second-highest number since 2019, only behind 2022 with 97.

Even more exclusive are the 8 startups which announced more than $100m in funding. This is more than 5 in 2024 and 4 in 2023.

The post Venture funding: How African startups raised $3.2bn in 2025 first appeared on Technext.