Nigerian mobility startup, Moove, emerged as the leading star in Africa as the continent’s startups raised $466 million in Q1 2024.
According to the Q1 2024 funding report released by the research firm, ‘Africa: The Big Deal’, Moove alone accounted for 24% of the total funds raised by African startups in the first three months of this year. Within the period, Moove raised a total of $110 million, including a $100 million Series B round led by Uber.
The report indicated that the $466 million raised by African startups in Q1 was realized through 121 startups that secured $100,000+ deals. This, however, represented a 27% decrease quarter on quarter, and was only half of the amount that was raised a year earlier in Q1 2023.
Recommended reading: Uber in talks to invest $100 million in Moove – Report
Moove’s record deals
According to the report, only one African startup raised more than $25 million in Q1 2024 and that was Moove.
- “Moove leads with $110 million announced this quarter in total: a $100 million Series B round led by Uber, and a $10 million debt deal to finance its India expansion. Moove alone attracted 24% of the funding on the continent in Q1, therefore influencing other trends.
- “87% of the funding went to start-ups HQ’ed in the Big Four with 60% going to Nigeria (2/3 of which were the Moove deals) and Kenya. Few other countries managed to claim more than $5m in funding during the period,” the report stated.
From a sectoral standpoint, transport & logistics snatched the number 1 spot in terms of the total amount raised . Moove’s deals make nearly 3/4 of that amount, followed by fintech.
- “For $100k+ deals, fintech was top, and Agri & Food second. Combined, ClimateTech (cutting across multiple sectors) represented 31% of $100k+ deals and 27% of the total amount invested,” the report highlighted.
More insights
The report also revealed that equity formed the majority of the disclosed funding by African startups in Q1, representing 71%, with debt making up the rest 29%. While equity held up QoQ, the amount of debt disclosed was halved between Q4 2023 and Q1 2022.
A further analysis of the report indicated that funding continued to favor male-founded and male-led ventures with less than 1% allocated to start-ups without at least one male founder, and 6.5% to female CEOs.
Aside that, 7 exits were announced last quarter, including HRtech PaySpace’s acquisition by Deel (amount undisclosed but rumored to be over $100 million) and fintech nCino’s acquisition of DocFox for $75 million, both in South Africa.
