African Startups Raised $2B So Far This Year, Just 10% Went To Teams With A Female Founder
Women-led startups continue to attract only a small portion of investment in Africa’s tech ecosystem. So far in 2025, male-led startups in Africa have received 75% of all funding raised. This leaves the remainder shared between women-led and mixed gender teams, according to the latest Africa Venture Pulse report by Briter, a research and business intelligence firm focused on emerging markets.
Of the more than $2 billion raised across the continent, about 10% has gone to companies with at least one female founder.
Gender funding gap in Africa
Over the past five years, male-led teams have, on average, captured nearly 90% of total funding, the African Venture Pulse report found. In 2024, funding for female-led and female-founded ventures in Africa reached a five-year low.
Female CEOs received only $48 million in funding in 2024. That number is four times less than in 2023. In contrast, $2.2 billion went to their male peers in 2024. Additionally, female CEOs only received 2% of the total invested last year, ‘Africa: The Big Deal’ reported.
Funding for gender-diverse teams was slightly better as they received $123 million in funding, while $21 million went to solo female founders or all-female founding teams.
Other key findings from the report
Since 2022, African startups have made fewer deals, but the ones happening in 2025 are bigger. As a result, the average amount of money raised per deal is higher, and the total funding announced so far this year is already twice as much as it was at this time last year.
Fintech startups continue to receive the most funding, with over $1 billion allocated to them. Cleantech companies received over $950 million, whilst health startups took home a total of over $150 million.
The top active investors include Visa, Mastercard Foundation, Google, for startups, and UNICEF.
Image: senivpetro
