Are these the 10 biggest deals by African tech startups in 2019?

Big money. That’s what African 86 tech startups raised this year.

While not every startup wanted to disclose how much they raised, those that did made a ton of it — almost $290-million going on data from 88 venture capital (VC) disclosed deals reported by Ventureburn in 2019.

The figure is 63% higher than the over $178-million going on data from 48 venture capital disclosed deals reported by Ventureburn in 2018 (see this story).

Either startup founders are opting to disclose more of their deals, or Africa’s VC sector has grown significantly over 2018.

Of the $289.9-million, the logistics and mobility sector (including ride-hailing) accounted for one of the largest chunks in investment raised — $81.3-million through eight deals. This was followed by fintech (which received the highest share in 2018) with $53.5-million in 26 deals. Startups that enable better distribution (related to logistics) raised $38-million from five deals.

Ventureburn’s calculations relate to only those deals that have been disclosed and that were concluded by companies founded in the last seven years and based on the African continent.

African tech startups raised almost $290-million going on data from 88 venture capital deals that were disclosed and reported on by Ventureburn in 2019

Because of this we did not include several large VC deals in the $289.9-million figure.

These include Andela‘s $100-million deal (see here), Chipper Cash‘s $2.4-million round (see this story) as well as its $6-million seed round announced last week in a Techcrunch article and Migo‘s $20-million (see this story) deal. While founded by African founders, all three are based in the US. We also didn’t include VertoFX‘s $2.1-million deal (see this story), as the startup is based in the UK.

The figure could well be a lot higher than $290-million, as we didn’t include figures for 41 deals which we reported on where the investment amounts were not disclosed (see the list of those deals, below).

Egypt tops disclosed deal value

Egyptian startups dominated those disclosed VC deals for early-stage companies (no more than seven years old) that Ventureburn reported on this year.

In all Egyptian startups raised $73.3-million through 24 deals (with Swvl‘s $42-million deal accounting for the majority of this). Egypt’s position out front confirms that the country’s tech startup scene has blown up this year (see this story).

Next up were Kenyan tech startups, which raised $69.4-million through 15 deals, followed by Nigerian tech startups with $55.1-million through 12 deals. South African startups raised $47.4-million through 30 deals (see this story).

The remainder of the deals were made up by Ghanaian, Zimbabwean, Zambian, Algerian, Tunisian and Cameroonian startups.

Startups founded by expats raised $35.3-million from seven deals (with Copia’s $26-million deal making up with bulk of this). Of this, $30.3-million was in Kenya (about 44% of deal value in that country).

Logistics and transport sector dominates

Of the $290-million, logistics and transport sector (including ride-hailing and mobility) accounted for one of the largest chunks in investment raised — $81.3-million through eight deals. Most of these deals were in Egypt (3) and Nigeria (3).

This was followed by fintech (which received the highest share in 2018) with $53.2-million in 25 deals (we included cryptocurrency and insurtech under fintech). Most of these deals were concluded in South Africa (12 deals) and Kenya and Nigeria (three each) and Egypt (two).

Distribution platforms (closely related to logistics) raised a further $38-million from five deals and medtech and healthtech raised $19.8-million from nine deals, with edtech raising $10.3-million from six deals.

The remainder of the firms were from a range of other verticals, including ecommerce, agritech, data analytics, agritech, software development, artificial intelligence (AI), Internet of Things (IoT) solutions and edtech.

Here is a ranking of the top 10 disclosed deals that Ventureburn reported in 2019 (with the origin of startup and date it was founded)

These include Copia ($26m) and

1. Swvl (Egypt, 2017) mobility: $42-million
2. Twiga Foods (Kenya, 2014) distribution: $30-million
3. Copia (Kenya, 2013) ecommerce: $26-million
4. Kobo360 (Nigeria, 2016) logistics: $20-million
5. Payitup (Zimbabwe, 2017) fintech: $13-million
6. Adzily (Egypt, 2018) adtech: $12.2-million
7. RapidDeploy (SA, 2014) platform: $12-million
8. mPharma (Ghana, 2013) healthtech: $9-million
9. Max.ng (Nigeria, 2015) mobility: $7-million
InstaDeep (Tunisia, 2014) AI: $7-million
10.Lulalend (SA, 2014) fintech: $6.5-million

 

 

The 78 other disclosed deals were:

MaxAB (Egypt) ecommerce ($6.2m)
TeamApt (Nigeria) fintech ($5.5m)
Gokada (Nigeria) ride-hailing ($5.3m)
Kudi (Nigeria) fintech ($5m)
Twiga Foods (Kenya) distribution platform ($5m)
PEG Africa (Ghana) solar platform ($5m)
54gene (Nigeria) healthtech ($4.5m)
Almentor.net (Egypt) edtech ($4.5m)
SweepSouth (SA) on-demand platform ($4.2m)
Nomanini (SA) fintech ($4m)
TemTem (Algeria) ride-hailing ($4m)
uLesson (Nigeria) edtech ($3.1m)
Sokowatch (Kenya) fintech ($2.5m)
3X4 Genetics (SA) biotech ($2.5m)
Copia (Kenya) ecommerce ($2m)
Sendy (Kenya) logistics ($2m)
Aerobotics (SA) aerial-data analytics ($2m)
Snapplify (SA) edtech ($2m)
Kuda (Nigeria) fintech ($1.6m)
Inclusivity Solutions (SA) insurtech ($1.5m)
Zazu (Zambia) fintech ($1.4m)
GovChat (SA) govtech ($1.4m)
Flow (SA) proptech ($1.4m)
Centbee (SA) crypto investment ($1.3m)
FlexClub (SA) fintech ($1.2-million)
Turaco (Kenya) fintech ($1.2m)
Coindirect (SA) crypto investment ($1.1m)
MoneyFellows (Egypt) fintech ($1m)
MDaaS Global (Nigeria) medtech ($1m)
Farmcrowdy (Nigeria) agritech ($1m)
Yodawy (Egypt) healthtech ($1m)
Kiro’o Games (Cameroon) games ($1m)
Wasla (Egypt) incentivised mobile browser ($1m)
TechAdvance (Nigeria) fintech ($1m)
Brimore (Egypt) end-to-end distribution platform ($800k)
DigsConnect (SA) proptech ($800k)
Revix (SA) crypto investment ($750k)
Ilara Health (Kenya) healthtech ($735k)
Yellow (SA) pay-as-you-go solar-power devices ($725k)
InvestSure (SA) insurtech ($650k)
SmartBlade (SA) medtech ($600k)
Trella (Egypt) trucking marketplace ($600k)
NowPay (Egypt) fintech ($600k)
Healthcent (SA) healthtech ($550k)
Orcas (Egypt) edtech ($500k)
UTU (Kenya) AI ($500k)
uKheshe (SA) fintech ($470k)
AfricaSokoni (Kenya) online marketplace ($455k)
KudiGO (Ghana), consumer retail solutions ($450k)
DentaCarts (Egypt) healthtech ($450k)
Hive (Egypt) ride hailing ($400k)
Intergreatme (SA) regtech ($400k)
Raseedi (Egypt) telecom optimisation app ($400k)
Asilimia (Kenya) fintech ($350k)
HotelOnline (Kenya) hotel platform ($320k)
The Sun Exchange (SA) fintech ($300k)
Tripdizer (Egypt) traveltech ($300k)
Fincheck (SA) fintech ($300k)
Dabchy (Tunisia) ecommerce ($300k)
The Sun Exchange (SA) fintech ($260k)
XPay (Egypt) fintech ($250k)
Farmshine (Kenya) agritech ($250k)
Glamera (Egypt) health and beauty services ($250k)
Trolley (Egypt) grocery delivery platform ($200k)
ManPro (Kenya) management platform ($200k)
Odiggo (Egypt) ecommerce ($180k)
GotBot (SA) AI ($170k)
PrintX (Egypt) ecommerce ($100k)
Taimba (Kenya) agritech ($100k)
Career 180 (Egypt) edtech ($100k)
Colnn (Egypt) edtech ($100k)
Fancam (SA) photo platform ($100k)
MVX (Nigeria) Motor Vessel Xchange ($100k)
PocketJam (SA) blockchain ($75k)
DentX (SA) repair platform ($70k)
Digemy (SA) HR platform ($70k)
Tulaa (Kenya) agritech ($25k)
Bulrush Agritech (SA) agritech ($17k)

Those deals that were not undisclosed include those by: FarmDrive, SuperFluid Labs, mSurvey, GoodsMart, Dsquares, GBarena, Bwala, SafeBoda, Trove, MPost, DrugStoc, Breadfast, Elmenus, Eksab, SOS Credit, Doctoorum, Sprint, Termii, Lori Systems, Vetwork, Botme, Bit Sika, iFix, Khula, Solvency, My-iMali, Bekia, Jinni, Droppa, Nobuntu, Ozow, Guidepost, Payabill, Ovex, Sentian, Yebo Fresh, SnapnSave, HouseMe, Jonga, Green Machine and R2S Logistics.

Read more: Are these SA’s 11 biggest disclosed VC deals in 2019? [Updated]
Read more: Why the VC sector has taken off in Egypt in 2019
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Read more: Are these the 10 biggest disclosed African tech startup deals of 2018? [Updated]