African & South African start-up funding statistics

Total African start-up funding in H1 2026 as reported by four trackers: Launch Base Africa $1.21bn, Africa: The Big Deal ~$1.4bn, TechCabal $1.44bn, Condia $1.5bn — a 24% spread driven by definitional treatment of debt.

H1 2026 total funding versus H1 2025 on Africa: The Big Deal’s like-for-like tracking; equity specifically was −7%.

Raised in June 2026 alone — 91% of it equity, the strongest equity month since March 2022 — after a five-month period tracking ≈21% below the prior year.

Share of H1 2026 funding absorbed by the “Big Four” (Egypt, Nigeria, Kenya, South Africa). Their share of deal activity fell to 53%, from 64% a year earlier.

Benin — continental leader, entirely on Spiro’s raises (electric mobility). Egypt matched at $327m; Nigeria $254m; Kenya $126m; South Africa $83m.

Raised by South African start-ups in H1 2026 — fifth on the continent. Tracked venture funding only; excludes M&A, private equity and listed-market activity.

Share of all disclosed continental capital taken by one company: Spiro’s $327m across four rounds, including a $270m equity round in June — the largest African half-year raise since MNT-Halan’s $400m in H1 2023.

Fall in start-ups raising $100k–$1m: from 179 in H2 2025 to 100 in H1 2026. Seed-stage deal count is reported down 60%.

Median disclosed deal size in H1 2026, nearly halved from $4.65m. The mean held near $12m — the gap held open by the Spiro outlier.

Median time from seed to Series A for African start-ups, up from 18 months two years earlier.

Share of Q1 2026 funding to women-led or women-co-founded companies — roughly half the prior year’s level.

Share of disclosed H1 2026 capital carrying a debt label, up from 18.5% in H1 2025 — the definitional fault line behind the trackers’ 24% disagreement.

TechCabal’s H1 2026 split: equity versus debt. The largest debt transactions were asset-backed — vehicle fleets, solar assets, green bonds.

African tech M&A transactions in H1 2026 — an all-time half-year record, against 33 in H1 2025.

Announced African start-up exits in H1 2026, on pace to exceed 2025’s full-year total of 48. Among them: South Africa’s DocFox acquired by US-listed nCino for $75m.

Value of 384 successful M&A deals by South African exchange-listed companies in 2025 — up 5.35% on 2024. The market the venture trackers don’t count.

JSE delistings versus new listings in 2025 — value migrating from public to private hands, largely via private equity.

Cross-border deals by SA listed companies in Q1 2026 involving European counterparties — the largest single bloc, evidencing the UK–SA capital corridor.