Africa’s startup frenzy: January 2025 funding hits $289M

Africa’s startup frenzy: January 2025 funding hits $289M. African startups raised $289M in January 2025, nearly 3.5x January 2024’s total, marking the second-strongest January for fundraising since 2019.

Africa: The Big Deal has reported that African startups raised $289 million in January 2025, nearly 3.5 times January 2024’s total, marking the second-strongest January since 2019.

Now, on to some good news! January 2025 has been a pretty solid month when it comes to start-up fundraising in Africa, with a total of $289m raised through $100k+ deals (exc. exits). This is nearly 3.5x times the amount that was raised back in January 2024 ($85m) and actually the second-best month of January since at least 2019, second only to January 2022, in the heart of the funding heatwave. More than 90% of the funding raised in Jan was equity ($262 million), 4.4x times more than in Jan 2024, and again the second-best month of Jan when it comes to equity fundraising since at least 2019.

Excerpt from Africa: The Big Deal’s Substack Blog

Africa: The Big Deal reported the biggest deals:

• PowerGen raised over $50 million to build a scalable platform for distributed renewable energy in Africa.
• LemFi secured $53 million to expand into Asia and Europe.
• Insurtech firm Naked closed a $38 million Series B to enhance automation and broaden its product lineup.
• Eriko Education raised $24 million to grow it’s network of schools across Africa.