Key facts about African tech start-ups

According to the 2016 Disrupt Africa African Tech Startups Funding Report, last year saw a 16.8 percent increase in the number of successfully funded start-ups over 2015.

What else do we know about this lucrative African sector? We summarise here:

• South Africa, Nigeria and Kenya remained the three most popular investment destinations on the continent, accounting for 80.3 percent of funding
• Egypt experienced a 105 percent growth in fundraising
• The number of start-ups that raised funding increased from 125 to 146
• Eight Egyptian start-ups raised $9.7 million, compared to $4.7 million last year. This is the largest increase of any country that had over five start-ups secure investment for the year.
• Not surprisingly, fintech was the sector with the most start-ups, followed by e-commerce, e-health, agri-tech, and the recruitment, transport and marketing sectors were tied
• Fintech also gained the most funding. Entertainment followed, then solar, e-health, agri-tech, and marketing.
• Morocco appeared on Disrupt Africa’s list for the first time this year. The North African country raised about $3.4 million, coming in at sixth place.
• While more start-ups found funding last year, the total amount raised fell from 2015, a sign that more early stage startups are finding funding now
• Sources of funding have yet to change much from international sources.

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Source: Forbes, Quartz