Nigeria retakes Africa startup funding lead with $635m in nine months

Nigerian startups raised $635 million between January and September this year, more than double the $247 million recorded in the same period of 2025, according to data from Africa: The Big Deal, a tracker of African startup funding.

The figure puts Nigeria back on top of the continent's startup funding table, a position it lost to Kenya in 2023. It is the country's strongest first-nine-month showing since 2022, and it already beats the $442.8 million Nigerian startups raised in the whole of 2025.

For ordinary Nigerians, the money points to where jobs and new services may come from. Startups that raise capital typically spend it on hiring, expanding into new cities and building products such as payment apps, delivery services and transport financing.

Four deals did most of the work

Much of the total came from a handful of large rounds. Moove, the mobility financing company, raised $250 million; payments firm Flutterwave secured $100 million; e-commerce platform Jumia raised $50 million; and crypto infrastructure company Yellow Card attracted $40 million.

Together the four accounted for $440 million, or about 69% of Nigeria's total. That concentration means the headline figure does not by itself show that smaller and early-stage founders are finding money more easily.

Still, the number of Nigerian startups raising at least $100,000 rose to 77 from 70 a year earlier, a 10% increase. Nigeria was the only one of Africa's four biggest startup markets to record more funded ventures. Excluding pan-African ventures, Nigeria took 37% of funding raised by country-specific startups on the continent, its highest share since 2021.

The rebound contrasts with weaker performances elsewhere. Egypt attracted $445 million, up 10%. Kenya raised $201 million, down 73%, though its figures were partly affected by how the tracker now classifies Spiro, which operates widely in Kenya but is counted as pan-African. South Africa secured $182 million, a 58% decline.

Across Africa, logistics and transport overtook fintech as the biggest sector by value, raising $780 million or 36% of the total, against $760 million or 35% for fintech. Spiro's $345 million and Moove's $250 million made up about 76% of that sector's funding. Fintech still led on the number of funded ventures, with 80 startups raising at least $100,000.

Not every sector shared in the recovery. Energy startups across Africa raised $187 million, down 74%, and healthcare funding fell 88% to $21 million.

The data also showed a persistent gap for women. Startups with at least one woman co-founder made up 28% of ventures raising at least $100,000 but received only 8.9% of total funding. Their median round was $240,000, less than a third of the $750,000 median for startups with at least one man co-founder.

What happens next

Africa: The Big Deal says African startups need about $1 billion more in the fourth quarter to beat the $3.2 billion raised in 2025. For Nigeria, the test is whether the momentum holds and whether more companies, beyond the big four, can attract capital.