In 2024, Kenya beat giants South Africa and Nigeria in attracting startup funding after securing $638 million or 88 percent of the financing received by economies in East Africa.

Powered by significant deals in green finance, this performance not only solidified Kenya’s leadership in East Africa but also catapulted the nation to the forefront of startup financing across the continent.

According to an analysis by startup financing platform Africa: The Big Deal, the amount received by startups with presence in Kenya was 29 percent of the total $2.2 billion, which was raised on the continent in 2024.

Data shows the East Africa's largest economy was by far the market that attracted the most funding in a year that experienced a 25 percent decrease in financing targeting startups compared to 2023.

Large financing deals in the climate tech space, in particular solar lighting equipment providers d.light, SunCulture, as well as green mobility company, BasiGo, helped boost the numbers in favour of Kenya. 

Tanzania was a distant runner-up in the region with $53 million realised in 2024 and number seven across Africa. Uganda ranked third in East Africa having recorded $19 million (and number 11 in the continent. There was also some level of activity in Rwanda, Sudan and Ethiopia economies in startup funding.

Across the continent East African economies attracted one in every three dollars raised in 2024 for startup funding. 

"While the region secured $725 million in total, reflecting a -18 percent year-on-year decrease, it was the region attracting most funding across the continent for the second year in a row," stated Africa: The Big Deal in an update.

Key deals that powered Kenya to the top

In July, d.light announced the closure of a new $176 million securitization facility to drive for affordable off-grid solar investments in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda. 

Earlier in April 2024, an alliance of Netflix co-founder Reed Hastings, and former Google CEO Eric Schmidt, through his foundation, took part in a funding round for an African solar irrigation start-up, SunCulture, pumping roughly $27 million in Nairobi-based SunCulture alongside InfraCo Africa and Acumen Fund.

What's more, electric bus company BasiGo announced it has secured $42 million in financing aiming to invest in the electrification of public transport systems in key markets in Africa. 

BasiGo said the deal helped unlock $10 million credit from US Development Finance Corporation (DFC) and another $7.5 million loan from British International Investment (BII) to scale BasiGo’s E-bus investments in Rwanda.

Africa's 'Big Four' in attracting startup funding

The continent's big four economies Kenya, Nigeria, Egypt and South Africa took the lion share of startup funding or 84 percent of the money investors pumped into startups (excluding exits) across the year. These four economies performed in a similar manner in 2023, and have been at the pole position in attracting funding since 2019. 

"It was Western Africa ($587 million, 27 per cent) that claimed the second spot in 2024, after ranking fourth in 2023. Nigeria attracted just over $400 million in funding last year, roughly the same amount as Egypt and South Africa. Western Africa is actually the most ‘balanced’ region, where the regional lead represents the smallest share of the total (70 percent still)." 

West Africa's performance last year was pretty similar to 2023, when economies in the region registered a pretty a drop and lost its top spot across the continent. 

In 2024, data shows that Western Africa was also home to four of the seven countries that attracted between $10 million and $100 million in startup funding.

In the 12-month period, the startup ecosystem in Ghana secured $68 million, Benin $50 million, Côte d’Ivoire $33 million and Senegal $22 million.

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