native African companies took less than 2% of the continent’s startup funding in the first half of 2026, Grégoire de Padirac, CEO of Digital Africa, told BusinessDay. Over the same period, the number of African startups raising at least $100,000 fell to 190, the lowest since 2021
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African startups raised about $1.44 billion in the first half of 2026, but the small cheques that start companies are disappearing. Rounds below $500,000 made up just 19% of deals, down from 52% in H1 2021, and only 190 ventures raised more than $100,000, the lowest tally since at least 2021. Disclosed grants are thinning…
African startups raising between $100,000 and $1 million fell from 179 deals in the second half of 2025 to just 100 in the first half of 2026, a 44% drop in exactly the segment that funds first products. Early-stage founders are being squeezed hardest at the moment AI tooling is changing what a three-person team…
Africa is home to 18% of the world’s people but holds less than 1% of global data centre capacity, and only about 40% of its population is online. That gap in compute, connectivity, and digital skills is what a new pan-African research call wants to close.
