Nigerian startups raised $343 million in 2025 as venture funding declined by 16.3%

While 2025 was a good year for venture funding in African startups, it wasn’t as favourable for Nigerian startups, which raised $343 million during the year. This is according to data from the African venture funding analytics company, Africa the Big Deal.

The 2025 numbers represent a decline of 16.3 per cent from the $410 million raised in 2024. It also means the country was only responsible for 10.7 per cent of the $3.2 billion raised across the continent during the year. This is a sharp decline from the previous year, when Nigeria was responsible for 18.6 per cent of the $2.2 billion raised on the continent.

It also represents the least contribution among the Continental Big 4: Nigeria, Egypt, Kenya and South Africa.

Indeed, Nigeria’s underperformance in 2025 is underscored by the fact that it is the only country among the four that witnessed a drop in funding compared to 2024 and a decrease in its share of total funding raised on the continent.

“This is the lowest share we have ever recorded for Nigeria since we started tracking the numbers back in 2019. In fact, no Big Four market dipped so low in terms of its share of overall funding since 2020. Equity – which represented 83% of the total raised in the country – dropped -22% YoY,” the report noted.

Indeed, Nigeria’s decline in the venture funding space is also reflected in the realisation that other Western African markets are beginning to catch up. Aside from the Big 4, the next two are Senegal, where startups raised $157 million and Benin, which saw $100 million in startup investments.

Nigeria also witnessed a 14 per cent drop in the number of ventures that raised $100,000 or more in 2025. Despite this, however, the country still leads in this category with 86, signalling investor interest in early-stage Nigerian startups, a good trend for the future of the ecosystem.

See also: Venture funding: How African startups raised $3.2bn in 2025

Kenya is Africa’s top startup funding destination for the 3rd consecutive year

Kenya has enjoyed a massive growth in venture funding, making it the investment destination of choice on the continent for the third consecutive year.

Startups in the East African country raised $984 million, representing a 54.2 per cent increase from the $638 million raised in 2024, and nearly a third of total funding into the continent (30.7 per cent).

While a majority of the funding ($582 million representing 59.1 per cent) was debt, the amount of equity funding raised ($383 million) nearly doubled over the year, representing a return of investor confidence.

A bulk of Kenya’s total was down to large rounds by bigger energy companies like d.light, Sun King, M-Kopa, Burn and PowerGen. However, early-stage funding appears to be in decline in the country, as only 75 ventures raised $100k or more. This represents a 22% decline, and the lowest performance on this metric among the Big Four.

Egypt displaced Nigeria in second place after coming close in 2024, but for a late funding blitz by Nigerian startups. With $614 million raised in 2025, the North African country witnessed a 53.5 per cent increase from the $400 million attracted the previous year and lays claim to 20 per cent of the continental total of $3.2 billion.

Roughly half of the amount raised was equity. With $278 million coming by way of debt, Egypt also emerged as the second-largest market in terms of debt funding, representing 24 per cent of Africa’s total. 61 start-ups raised $100k or more in the country last year.

South Africa took one step up, climbing to third place from fourth place in 2024. Startups in the country raised $600 million in 2025, indicating a 52.3 per cent increase from the $394 million raised the previous year. This also represents 18.7 per cent of the total raised on the continent.

Over 90 per cent raised by South African startups in 2025 ($545 million) came in the form of equity, making it the biggest market in terms of equity funding with 29 per cent of Africa’s total). 83 startups also raised at least $100,000 and above, the second-most on the continent only behind Nigeria.

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