African startups raised $345.9 million in June, the strongest single month of the year so far, according to data tracked by Launch Base Africa. The headline number tells a rebound story — a recovery from the fluctuating investor confidence that has defined much of the past two years. But beneath it sits a far more uneven picture: one country capturing nearly half the continent’s capital, and another watching its historical dominance evaporate to a rounding error.
A Rebound Built on Bigger Checks
June’s total pushes Africa’s year-to-date funding to roughly $1.45 billion, a modest but real recovery from the capital drought that gripped the continent through 2023 and into early 2024. Just as notable as the total is who’s writing the checks: African investors accounted for 42% of participation in June’s deals, ahead of North American investors at 25%, Europeans at 21%, and Asian investors at 19%. That local-capital share reflects a broader shift — the growth of regional fund managers, development finance institutions, and corporate venture arms across Kenya, South Africa, and Egypt increasingly willing to write the first check rather than wait for a Silicon Valley lead to validate a deal. Launch Base’s own analysts frame that shift as more than a stopgap: when local capital moves first, it signals to global investors that the ecosystem itself is maturing, not just weathering a rough patch.
Senegal’s Outsized Month
Senegal’s dominance in June came down almost entirely to one company. The country accounted for 43% of all funding volume on the continent, driven overwhelmingly by Wave’s last-minute $137.2 million raise — a single fintech round large enough to reorder the entire continental leaderboard on its own. Kenya took the next-largest share of capital at 23%, followed by South Africa at 16%, with the remaining 18% spread across the rest of the continent. Deal activity told a slightly different story than deal value: South Africa actually recorded the highest number of individual transactions, 20% of the month’s total deals, even though its share of capital raised trailed both Senegal’s and Kenya’s — a sign of a broader base of smaller rounds rather than one outsized deal.
Fintech Still Rules, But Climate Tech Is Closing In
Fintech remained Africa’s best-funded sector in June, pulling in 46% of total capital. But clean energy and climate tech posted a striking 33% share, fuelled by large rounds for Kenya’s Burn Manufacturing and South Africa’s Wetility, Open Access Energy, and Zero Carbon Charge — a sign that investor appetite is broadening beyond payments and lending into energy infrastructure. Mobility, software, agritech, and healthtech split the remaining 21% of capital between them. Agritech’s numbers were a study in contrast: strong on deal count, weak on capital, taking just 4.3% of total funding — evidence the sector is still dominated by small, early-stage checks rather than the larger rounds now flowing into climate tech.
Nigeria’s Historic Slide
Set against Senegal’s outsized month, Nigeria’s June was one of its weakest in years. Nigerian startups raised just over $15 million, a mere 4.35% of total disclosed funding — startling for a market that, as recently as three years ago, saw Lagos alone pull in more capital than entire regions of the continent. The causes aren’t mysterious: tough macroeconomic conditions, a volatile naira, and a broader funding-cycle correction have combined to make investors far more cautious on Nigerian bets, even as Nigerian investors themselves stayed active elsewhere on the continent.
The mood on the ground reflects the numbers. One Lagos-based founder, who has postponed a fundraise twice this year, described the current climate as “dry and disillusioned” — building hasn’t stopped, but for many founders, closing a round at any stage now feels like beating the odds rather than following a playbook.
What It Adds Up To
Read together, June looks less like an anomaly and more like an early signal of where African venture capital is heading: toward infrastructure, energy, and climate resilience rather than the unicorn chase that defined the previous cycle, and toward a wider, more diversified set of markets rather than a Lagos-centred one. Whether that’s a temporary reshuffling or a genuine recalibration of where investors see the best returns on the continent is the question the rest of the year will have to answer.
