Disrupt Africa Affirms that 2018 was Best Funding Year for African Startups, But its Figures Differ from Others

African tech publication, Disrupt Africa has released its 2018 funding report for African startups. And as any one would expect, 2018 was by far the biggest year for African startups so far.

According to the report, African Startups raked in $334.5 million worth of investments in 2018. That signifies an incredible 71% increase from the total funding of 2017.

Disrupt Africa reports that once again and to no great surprise, fintechs appear to be most attractive investment. This segment accounted for 39.7% of all funding in 2018.

However impressive the new record appears, it’s significantly lower than other estimates.

Of course, 2018 always looked like a fantastic year for African startups. With the awesome funding news constant all through the year, there was no doubt, 2018 was bound to be the biggest year for startups so far.

But according to report by WeeTracker and another by Digest Africa, total funding for African startups in 2018 was nearly $700 million. Although, each group used different methodologies, their figures are way above the $334.5 million figure posted by Disrupt Africa.

Top 10 African #fintech #startups raised US$300M in 2018 pic.twitter.com/uG4LKSKbeS

— Francesco Magagnini 🧔🏼🎩🦄 (@the____mag) January 13, 2019

One notable aspect of the Disrupt Africa report is that it is based on the funding report of 210 African startups. Meanwhile, Digest Africa reports that $300 million was raised by just 10 fintechs. The latter’s report also shows that African startups raised $686 million through 415 funding rounds.

Another striking difference in the Disrupt Africa report is a rearrangement of the highest grossing countries. According to other reports, startups from Kenya raked in the most money on the continent. However, Disrupt Africa reports that Nigerian startups scooped the most funding.

According to their report, 58 Nigerian startups raised $94.9 million. Meanwhile South African and Kenya came second and third, with South African startups reportedly raising $59.971 million.

However, according to our own findings from 2018, five startups from Nigeria raised $83.2 million. And the top ten funding rounds from Nigeria in 2018 was $116.3 million.

Once again, the methodology used by Disrupt Africa may account for this difference. Nevertheless, it doesn’t detract the fact that 2018 was a blast for startups from Africa.