Q1 2024: Floor-Finding
The African growth capital quarter in review — funding flows, instruments, and what it meant for founders and investors, from the Caban research desk.
1. Activity stabilises at a lower level
Deal counts began holding steady even as values kept drifting down — the classic signature of a market finding its floor.
2. The bar stays high
Investors wrote cheques, but into fewer, cleaner companies: governance, reporting, and capital efficiency were now entry tickets rather than differentiators.
3. Local capital stirs
Domestic funds and DFIs quietly increased their share of activity — the beginning of a structural shift the 2025 data would confirm.
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.