Total investment into the African technology startup ecosystem increased by almost 50% to $1.64-billion in 2025, as the sector began to slowly recover from the impacts of the global capital shortage, says startup news and research portal Disrupt Africa in its eleventh yearly 'African Tech Startups Funding Report'.

This comes after two years of decline, which saw startup funding fall to $1.12-billion in 2024, as the sector bore the brunt of the global funding winter.

A total of 178 startups raised the combined total over the course of the year. The results also show a slight decline in terms of the number of funded ventures, but an increase of 46.2% on total raised funding, the startup organisation says.

The number of active investors, including individual or institutional investors, fell again in 2025 by 4.6% to 330 from 346 in 2024.

However, this represented a stabilisation after two years of significant decline. In 2022, there were 987 investors, and in 2023 there were 527, it notes.

Further, Egypt, Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa raised more funding than in 2024 when steep declines occurred as a result of the global capital shortage.

They accounted for much of the continent’s growth in 2025. Even though there are signs the funding winter is coming to an end, capital remained focused on markets perceived as being less risky, Disrupt Africa adds.

Additionally, financial technology again proved the most popular sector for investors in African technology startups in 2025, and increased its share of funded ventures and generally matched its proportion of total funding from 2024.

“2024 was a very difficult year for African tech, from a funding perspective, having seen a significant decline in investment for the second year in a row. While we have seen a big boost in 2025, funding levels have not recovered, although it seems that we are seeing light at the end of the tunnel from an investment perspective,” said Disrupt Africa co-founder Gabriella Mulligan.