Since 2015, 242 Kenyan startups have raised $1.28 billion from 435 investors. It is the second most dynamic market on the continent behind Nigeria. Its particularity is to display unprecedented growth because the pace of fundraising by startups has accelerated particularly this year, notes a study just published by Disrupt Africa, a research and information platform specializing in ecosystems. technology in Africa.
It goes up, it goes up, it goes up. If Kenya is the second largest destination for venture capital funds looking for African tech deals in 2022 (until November 15), behind Nigeria (641 investors and $2.06 billion) , but ahead of heavyweights like South Africa (382 investors for 993.6 million dollars injected into 357 startups) and Egypt (791.07 million dollars), it should not remain so for long, given the dynamism displayed by its startup ecosystem.
The Disrupt Africa report highlights that the pace of fundraising by Kenyan start-ups has accelerated significantly since the beginning of the current year. The number of tech nuggets that managed to seduce investors between January 1 and November 15, 2022 has already reached 63. The amount of fundraising carried out on the Kenyan market since the beginning of 2022 amounts to 506, 6 million dollars, i.e. a level which represents almost double the amount recorded for the whole of 2021.
The biggest fundraiser concerns 75 million dollars operated by the startup specializing in energy transition M-Kopa Solar, which deploys solar kits to supply electricity purchased by the day through SMS.
The distribution of startups in this East African country by sector shows that fintechs hold the upper hand, with 93 entities, or 30.2% of the total, ahead of agritechs (10.1%) and startups operating in the health sector (10.1%). Next come start-ups in e-commerce (9.4%), recruitment and human resource management (6.2%), the education (5.8%), logistics (4, 5%), mobility (2.6%), energy (2.3%) and marketing (2.3%).
In addition, 140 Kenyan start-ups, or 45.5% of all start-ups, have benefited from acceleration or incubation programs. This rate places Kenya at the top of African countries in terms of supporting tech nuggets through incubators or accelerators, ahead of Nigeria (45.1%), Egypt (38.6%) and India. South Africa (25.7%).
Kenya has about thirty incubators and start-up acceleration, private and public, spread across the country.