2024 Was The Lowest Year For Funding To African Female Founders

Funding for female-led and female-founded ventures in Africa reached a record low in 2024, ‘Africa: The Big Deal’ reported. These figures are the lowest they’ve been since 2019, as female CEOs received only $48 million in funding in 2024. That number is four times less than in 2023. In contrast, $2.2 billion went to their male peers in 2024. Additionally, female CEOs only received 2% of the total invested last year.

Funding for gender-diverse teams was slightly better as they received $123 million in funding, while $21 million went to solo female founders or all-female founding teams. This isn’t great compared to solo male founders, who raised $430 million, and $1.6 billion went to all-male founding teams.

These figures look even worse when you break them down into percentages. Only 1% went to solo female founders or all-female founding teams, 5.5% for gender-diverse founding teams, and 95.5% for solo male founders or all-male founding teams.

How much money was raised for African startups in 2024?

Africa’s startups raised $2.2 billion in equity, grants, and debt (excluding exits). While this is an impressive figure, it highlights a 25% decrease compared to last year, when startups in Africa secured $2.9 billion. But, the decrease in funding from 2023 to 2024 can be linked to a decline in debt funding, according to a report by ‘Africa: The Big Deal.’

The total of $2.2 billion was primarily driven by two significant deals by Nigeria’s Moniepoint and South Africa’s Tyme Group. A gross of 188 ventures secured $1 million or greater (excluding exits) in funding, 10% less given in 2023 despite the 25% dip in 2024. 

East Africa raised $725 million in total, equal to 1 in 3 dollars raised in Africa. Kenya received $638 million in funding on its own, which makes up 88% of the overall funding in East Africa. Most of these deals were in the climate tech space to companies like d.light, SunCulture, or Basigo. 

 Image: Nappy Stock