Kenya posted an impressive 136 percent year-on-year growth in tech start-up funding in 2018 to net Sh34.8 billion ($348m), pipping traditional main rivals South Africa and Nigeria, a report shows.
The funding came through 44 new deals, which translated to a 76 percent year-on-year growth.
“Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa are still leading the race, absorbing 78 percent of the total funding, exactly as per last year with Egypt closing up at a fourth place,” Partech said.
“A total of 11 start-ups raised 13 rounds equal to or higher than $5 million (Sh500m),” US-based global investment firm, Partech, said in a report for 2018.
The sector breakdown shows the rise of Enterprise B2B platforms, driven by fintech as financial inclusion remains the main investment sector on the continent, attracting 50 percent of the total funding.
Malawi, Ivory Coast and Uganda finished bottom of the list with single funding each in the annual list that had only 19 participating countries out of 54.
“2018 saw another record year for the African VC market. It’s quite simply astonishing. When we started our journey to create the Partech Africa Fund in 2015, we had anticipated the $1 billion (Sh100bn) mark to be broken by 2020. We are now already two years ahead of our projections,” the report states.