Top 4 Startup Ecosystems in Africa This Year
If you walked around the main co-working spaces of Lagos or Nairobi five years ago, you might have felt the hum of ambition, but you might not have seen the scale that’s visible today. In 2025, something is different. The venture-capital flows are stronger (though still fragile), the number of
How Currency Volatility Impacts African Startup Valuations
When the Nigerian naira lost nearly half its value in a single year, many startups didn’t feel it all at once. It crept in slowly. First, infrastructure bills doubled. Then investor reports, once proudly showing $1 million in annual revenue, now displayed $600,000 for the same naira figure. The story
How Local Investors are Transforming African Venture Capital
At a co-working hub in Lagos, a Nigerian investment executive leans back and observes the room. “We’re not just receiving the leftovers from global funds now,” she says. “We’re writing our own tickets.” In much the same way, across other African cities, there is a subtle but growing shift. Local
Inside the Rise of Convertible Notes and SAFEs in African Venture Deals
On a hot Wednesday afternoon in Lagos, a young founder sits across from a potential investor at a café in Lekki. Between the hum of air conditioning and the clatter of coffee cups, they’re arguing, quietly but firmly, over a single clause in a document. “It’s just a simple agreement
Why African Startups Struggle with Scaling and How to Fix It
Somewhere between a founder’s first seed cheque and their big dream of expansion, something tends to break. It’s rarely a single thing. Sometimes it’s cash flow. Sometimes it’s regulatory quicksand. And sometimes it’s simply that what worked well in Lagos makes no sense in Nairobi. The result is a familiar
The Rise of Remote Founding Teams in Africa
Imagine your startup is based in Nairobi. Your founding product lead is in Lagos, the operations co-founder is in Accra, and the head of engineering is working from Addis Ababa. Your team never meet in a central office every week. Instead, you coordinate across Zoom, Slack and WhatsApp, pulling together
What It Really Costs to Build a Startup in Africa This Year
In cafés, co-working spaces and late-night WhatsApp threads, founders are rethinking what it means to launch a startup in Africa this year. The continent’s ecosystem is no longer just about bold dreams, it’s increasingly about hard numbers, stretching scarce capital, and calculating cost in ways that reflect unique local realities.
How African Founders are Adapting to the Startup Funding Slowdown
It is early morning in Lagos. Twenty-somethings in hoodies sip coffee at a small coworking space, checking dashboards and Slack messages. They’re trying to raise money, scale something, build something with real impact. But the world they’d expected, in which global venture capital flows into Africa like fresh rain, isn’t
How Entrepreneurs can Leverage Open Banking APIs in Africa
In 2018, when Nigeria’s fintech ecosystem was still finding its rhythm, few could have predicted how quickly Africa would embrace digital finance. Mobile money had already taken root in East Africa, but something deeper was brewing, a quiet shift toward openness. Today, Open Banking has become one of the most
10 Mistakes African Founders Make in their First Year
Starting a business in Africa is thrilling and brutal. There’s this rush of optimism at the beginning: you’ve got the idea, the drive, maybe even a co-founder or two who believes in the dream. You’re sketching plans in cafés, posting your “coming soon” teaser on LinkedIn, and imagining the press
