A new report by research firm ‘Africa: The Big Deal’, an investment research entity with focus on fund raising by emerging companies in the Africa, indicated that Nigeria accounted for 14% of the total $56 million raised by African start-ups in August this year.
This impressive performance of the country is attributed to one of the fast growing start-ups in the country – Waza – a Y Combinator-backed B2B payment and liquidity providing entity for emerging market businesses in the continent.
According to data contained in the latest report, the company raised $8 million in equity and debt funding during the month under review, comprising a $3 million seed equity and a $5 million in debt funding.
The report reflected that the Waza deals represented one of the three biggest deals consummated by African start-ups in August, with the other two deals being the Dutch DFI FMO’s $10 million investment into Ghanaian fintech – Fido – as part of its series B round; and Solarise Africa’s $9 million deal.
The report’s findings showed that from a $443 million raised by the start-ups in the preceding month, the the $56 million raised by the start-ups represented 87% decline month-on-month, thereby making August 2024 the second slowest month in four years of fund raising by the start-ups.
A further analysis of the report indicated that the substantial part of the funds raised by the entities in August was from equity, which accounted for 87% of the total, while debt accounted for 9% compared to 4% in grants.
In addition, the report revealed that a total of 27 start-ups raised funds in the month under review, a number that was lower than the 40 monthly average recorded over the past year.
