African startups raised $289 million in January 2025, a 240 percent increase from 2023, signaling a strong start to the year.

In comparison, January 2023 saw $85 million in startup funding, making it the second-best January for funding since 2019, surpassed only by January 2022 during the funding boom, according to Africa: The Big Deal, a funding tracker.

The report highlighted that equity financing dominated the fundraising scene, comprising over 90 percent of the total raised at $262 million, a significant increase from January 2024. This also marks the second-highest January for equity fundraising in the past six years.

Africa: The Big Deal noted that the four largest deals in January 2025 came from the big four (Nigeria, Kenya, Egypt and South Africa), and they accounted for about 60 percent of the total funding raised across the continent.

The Big Deal said, “PowerGen, an energy-focused startup raised $50m+ to establish a scalable platform for distributed renewable energy solutions across Africa, LemFi (Fintech) secured $53m to further expand into Asia and Europe.

“Naked, an insuretech firm, bagged a $38m Series B to automate and expand its product offering; and Enko Education secured $24m to keep expanding its network of African schools.”

Notably, three of these deals highlight a growing trend of African startups expanding their operations beyond the continent.

Experts believe that the performance in January 2025 signals a promising wave of funding in Africa’s startup ecosystem, which faced significant funding challenges in 2023 and 2024.