Nigerian on-demand delivery platform Chowdeck and 32 other African startups raised about $93m in funding in August despite a relatively low level of activity in the ecosystem.
According to the latest update from Africa: The Big Deal, last month was a relatively quiet month on the fundraising front for start-ups in Africa, although the outlook for the year remained positive.
Especially when compared to July, which was extraordinarily busy, August was quiet. It was ranked the second-most quiet month this year so far, after March.
Chowdeck raised $9m in Series A funding to launch a quick commerce strategy and expand into more cities in Nigeria and Ghana. The equity round was led by Novastar Ventures, with participation from Y Combinator, AAIC Investment, Rebel Fund, GFR Fund, Kaleo, HoaQ, and others.
The report authored by Max Giacomelli read, “But this is not really a cause for concern: the amount raised is still higher than what was raised in August last year, and the number of start-ups that raised is comparable to the same month in 2024 and 2023. Plus, the 2025 numbers to date continue to look strong.
“Thirty-three start-ups raised $93m in funding through $100k+ deals (exc. exits) on the continent last month. Three-quarters of this amount was raised as equity; the rest was debt and also includes a $9m+ securitised bond issuance by valU in Egypt.
The other largest rounds announced, all equity, were Koolboks’ $11m Series A, Hewatele’s $10.5m raise, Breadfast’s $10m Series B2, Chowdeck’s $9m Series A, as well as Ampersand’s new round (probably 8-digit).”
Further analysis revealed that the markets that attracted the most funding last month were Egypt, Kenya and Nigeria, which claimed 75 per cent of the total tally. From a sectoral point of view, things were quite balanced, with five sectors claiming at least 10 per cent of the funding.
During the period under review, there were also a handful of exits, the most notable being Nedbank’s acquisition of iKhokha for over $93m in South Africa.
Already in 2025, African start-ups have raised $2bn in funding, including $1bn in equity.
“We can now be pretty confident that the ecosystem will raise more in 2025 than it did in 2024, and that we’ll finally see positive YoY growth after two consecutive years of YoY decline. The year 2025 numbers so far look quite comparable to 2023 and make us hopeful we could finish the year closer to $3bn than to $2bn, especially if the rumoured mega deals materialise,” Giacomelli concluded.
