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Caban African Growth Capital MonitorVol. 3 · Q1 2022Retrospective series

Q1 2022: Peak Momentum

The African growth capital quarter in review — funding flows, instruments, and what it meant for founders and investors, from the Caban research desk.

African startup funding 2021 to 2025 five-year arc, Q1 2022 highlighted

1. The high-water mark

Flutterwave's $250 million Series D at a $3 billion valuation in February and Wasoko's $125 million in March made Q1 2022 the crest of the cycle — the largest quarterly flows African venture had recorded.

2. B2B commerce joins fintech

Wasoko's round marked the thesis broadening beyond payments into informal-retail supply chains — venture capital reaching Africa's real economy.

3. The last quarter of easy term sheets

Global rate expectations were already turning; African deal-making, running on a lag, hadn't yet felt it.

“Q1 2022 was the top. Every raise closed in these twelve weeks would look, in hindsight, like the last train out.” — Caban research desk

Reading this as a founder? The through-line of every quarter since 2022 is that preparation, not timing, decides who raises. See how investors would read your business today. As an investor? Our pipeline is built on exactly these dynamics.

About this edition. Part of the Monitor retrospective series: Volumes 1–19, covering Q3 2021 through Q1 2026, were compiled by the Caban research desk in July 2026 to establish the full five-year record; the Monitor publishes quarterly from Vol. 20 onward. Figures per Africa: The Big Deal ($100k+ deals excl. exits), Partech Africa reports, and AVCA data, as cited; company-round details as publicly reported at the time. Citation with attribution welcome. © 2026 Caban Corporate Advisors.
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