Investor Updates: Oracle commits $1m to support African startups

Oracle commits $1m to support African startups

Highlights

• Oracle has launched a $1 million program aimed at helping African startups across different industries implement the latest digital technologies to drive business growth.
• Led by Oracle for Startups, the multinational cloud computing company will provide extra resources and support to technology startups across the continent over the next two years. Businesses will also have access to hands-on technical support, executive mentoring, go-to-market resources, and customer engagements.
• The program, which follows Oracle’s recent announcement of its first cloud region in Africa to meet the rapidly growing demand for enterprise cloud services on the continent, is open to all African tech startups.

Source: Disrupt Africa

Our Takeaway

Investments in startup communities from large corporations often help foster innovation. Through initiatives such as Oracle’s, startups benefit from not only technical support but also expertise in areas like market access, marketing, business planning. This is even more significant when it comes to Africa, a continent filled with hubs of tech entrepreneurs without sufficient business support. Over the past year, Oracle has seen a 39% increase in enrollments from startups based in over 13 African nations.

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African tech startups raised $5.2B in equity last year

Highlights

• Tech startups in Africa secured a total of $5.2 billion in 681 rounds of equity fundraising last year, according to the newly released Partech Africa report on VC Funding for African Startups. With debt, this total reaches $6 billion in 724 rounds. 
• Similarly, the number of deals almost doubled, increasing by 92% year-on-year. This rate of growth makes African tech one of the fastest-growing ecosystems in the world. 
• Africa also witnessed 14 megadeals (above $100 million, equity only) coming from 12 companies last year. Before 2021, only 8 megadeals had been recorded in the entire history of the African funding ecosystem.

Source: Partech Africa

Our Takeaway

While there is no agreed, single methodology for measuring investments attracted by African startups annually, all of the available reports suggest the ecosystem witnessed exponential growth in terms of funding in 2021. Partech Africa’s report indicates African tech grew faster than any other region with 2x the activity of the previous year and more than 3x the amount invested, indicating a super-active ecosystem, where almost 3 deals are closed every weekday.

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Africa-focused PalmPay raised $100m Series A last year

Highlights

• Payments startup PalmPay raised a $100 million Series A round in August last year, per Partech Africa’s end-of-year report on venture capital investments in Africa.
• PalmPay came into Nigeria’s payments scene in June 2019 and later launched with a $40 million seed round—the largest of its kind on the continent—from Chinese investors.
• The UK-headquartered startup also took money from Chinese investors for its Series A round, the second largest of its kind after unicorn Wave’s $200 million. Since its Nigerian launch in 2019, PalmPay has expanded to Ghana, serving over 5 million users.

Source: TechCrunch

Our Takeaway

Last year, the fintech sector maintained its dominance in Africa’s fundraising ecosystem, accounting for nearly $3 billion, or two-thirds of all the investment realized by startups across the continent. Among the largest beneficiaries were Opay ($400 million Series C), Wave ($200 million Series A), Flutterwave ($170 million Series C), TymeBank ($180 million Series B), Jumo, and MNT Halan ($120 million rounds each), MFS Africa ($100 million), and PalmPay ($100 Series A).