2021 has been an outstanding year for Nigerian startups with the country having a record number of billion-dollar startups.
This traction has however been of a larger scale, with the US ambassador to Nigeria disclosing that Nigerian creators were the recipients of 60% of venture funding from her country into the continent.
Africa-based tech startups have raised more than $2.9 billion in 2021 alone.
“Nigerian startups, which are creating new products, services, and platforms, raised $1.7 billion of this total or about 60% of it. Africa boasts a total of seven tech ‘unicorns’ or companies valued at over $1 billion, Mary Beth Leonard, US Ambassador to Nigeria said.
The current list of tech organizations valued at over $1 billion include:
Jumia – Pan-Africa
Flutterwave – Nigeria
Wave – Senegal
Opay – Nigeria
Fawry – Egypt
Interswitch – Nigeria
Andela – Pan-Africa
The African crypto space has also not been left behind with key crypto startups raising substantial amounts according to Bitcoinke include:
YellowCard
OVEX
NestCoin
BitMama
Busha
WiCrypt
Ejara
Revix
According to a different industry forecast, fund raising by African startups is set to reach $5 billion in 2021, a higher amount than the figure raised in the previous 3 years combined.
The increase in funding is said to reflect greater interest from investors in the U.S., China, as well as institutional bankers.
