Where Does the Funding Go?

Over the past few months, we’ve had the pleasure of working with Shell Foundation, EchoVC, Briter Bridges and TripleLine to interrogate why there is a demographic imbalance of funding towards start-ups in Africa. While the total amount of venture capital (VC) investment on the continent grew to between USD 4.3 billion and USD 5 billion in 2021, representing a 16-fold increase from 2017, our indicative research points to black African-owned start-ups winning a slim proportion of investment. With our partners, we sought to better understand why funding isn’t so inclusive and highlight ways in which the playing field could become more level. Please see the report here.