Digest Africa brings you another edition of our reports in the Digest Africa 2020 Index Report. The report features a breakdown of the startup and investor performance for the year 2020 with a detailed analysis of key market trends of the ever-changing African startup ecosystem. We partnered with Crunchbase to showcase Africa’s global position in securing funding. We also partnered with Nairobi-based research firm Vasights Data & Research to support analytics and design. Below is a summary of the report. 

Startup investment growth YoY

COVID-19 took center stage on the African continent with a ripple effect on the economic and social construct, defining a new normal. This report therefore highlights the funding trends in response to the global crisis as African entrepreneurs strive to grow and stay relevant to improve lives and create opportunities on the continent. 

What started off as a promising year of startup investment growth, 2020 took an irresolute turn that the continent is still trying to recover from. Following our analysis on total disclosed funding from 2018 as $1.19 billion that grew to $1.8 billion in 2019 with a 51% YoY growth rate, it was anticipated that this would grow further in 2020. Leading up to 2020, VC funding had seen a 22% compound annual growth from 2016 to 2019.

In 2020, there were a total of 481 funding rounds, of which 361 (74.7%) were disclosed representing $854.6M in total disclosed funding, excluding exits. This is a 28.2% drop in deal count and 52.5% drop in (Read more...)