AS a testament of the growing influence of Nigerian entrepreneurs on the emerging tech-driven market in Africa, the country attracted $306 million in equity funding, including $50 million raised by five of its fintech start-ups in 2018
This was contained in a report published, recently, by the Partech Africa team led by Cyril Colon and Tidjane Deme, general partners at Partech, a French venture capital firm.
According to the report, a total of 12 Nigerian start-ups raised 13 rounds equal to $5 million each. Out of the 12 companies, five specializes in financial technology (fin-tech), among which were Mines, Flutterwave, Paga, Paystack, and Lidya.
In the breakdown of the funding raised by the companies, Mines raised $13 million, Flutterwave and paga made $10 million each, Paystack raised $8 million while Lidya raised close to $7 million.
Also, part of the 12 Nigerian start-ups is five enterprises, among which were frontier Car group captured twice, Wakanow, an online and mobile consumer services company, Kobo360, SystemOne, Terragon Group and Jumia whose raised funds were not disclosed.
One of the five companies which specialise on financial inclusion, Mines, had six main investors in 2018, among which were The Rise Fund, X/seed Capital Partners, Western Technology Investments, Velocity Capital, Trans Sahara Investment and Singularity.
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Paga also had five main investors for the year under review. They include Global Innovation Fund, Adlevor Capital and Omidyar Network, among others; while Paystack and Lidya also had five main investors each.
The report also revealed that unlike Nigeria, South Africa had a lower turnover in equity funding as the country raised $250 million over 37 deals which are about $56 million lesser than what Nigeria attracted last year.
Also, for 2018, 146 African tech start-ups were said to have raised close to two billion dollars in equity funding which translates into a growth rate of 108 per cent higher than the $560 million raised in the previous year.
In the report, Kenya topped the list of equity funding raised by African countries with $348 million for 2018; Nigeria came second while South Africa occupied the third position.
The sector breakdown published in the report revealed that financial inclusion remains the main investment sector on the continent, attracting 50 per cent which translated into $379 million of the total funding, while the off-grid technology takes $194 million of the total funding.
On the list, online and mobile consumer services stayed flat in absolute funding at $228 million representing 19.6 per cent of the total funding. E-commerce accounted for $131 million, translating into 11 per cent of the total funding, while Edtech and Healthtech accounted for 31.8 million dollars and 18 million dollars, respectively.
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