2024 African Startups Review: Unpacking Key Trends and Events – Part 3
As the year winds down, the African startup ecosystem offers a wealth of stories that capture the trials, triumphs, and transformative strides of innovation across the continent. From ambitious AI initiatives and fintech unicorns to satellite internet expansion, these tales intertwine to paint a vivid picture of a year filled with disruption and determination.
This article is the third part of our 2024 recap series. If you missed the first and second instalments, you can check it out here and here. There you can catch up with some of the biggest events in the African landscape in 2024.
The Biggest Mergers and Acquisitions That Shaped 2024
Mergers and acquisitions stole the spotlight in Africa this year, with some of the continent’s biggest players coming together to redefine industries.
In August, Wasoko and MaxAB completed what many called the largest tech merger in Africa in 2024. The union combined Wasoko’s dominance in East Africa with MaxAB’s established foothold in North Africa, creating a retail and logistics behemoth serving over 450,000 merchants across Kenya, Tanzania, Egypt, and Morocco.
The deal wasn’t just a consolidation of market share—it signalled a bold strategy to leverage cross-regional synergies in informal retail. With a focus on integrating private-label products and offering fintech solutions for merchants, the merged entity aimed to unlock the potential of Africa’s USD 600 B informal retail sector.
Meanwhile, Nigerian fintech Rise made its own splash in September with the acquisition of Kenya’s Hisa, an investment startup. The acquisition, which blended cash and stock, gave Rise a foothold in East Africa’s digital investment market for the first time. Hisa’s local expertise allowed it to connect with Kenyan users, while Rise’s broader vision of democratizing global investments made it a natural fit. The acquisition paved the way for Rise to expand its footprint while retaining Hisa’s identity under the leadership of Eric Jackson, now CTO of the combined entity.
Not all acquisitions told a tale of growth. In March, a consortium led by Paystack stepped in to rescue Brass, a Nigerian business banking startup struggling to stay afloat. Brass had faced liquidity issues, customer dissatisfaction due to delayed withdrawals, and operational hurdles, despite raising USD 2.1 M in 2021. The acquisition breathed new life into Brass, with Paystack using its vast fintech expertise to turn the struggling startup into a vital part of its SME strategy.
Adding to the momentum, Ticketmaster, the global ticketing giant, entered Africa with its acquisition of South African platform Quicket in October. Quicket, known for its self-service ticketing tools and presence in markets like Kenya, Uganda, and Zambia, offered Ticketmaster a way to expand its global reach. This wasn’t just about market entry—it was a calculated bet on the continent’s growing events sector. With Africa’s live entertainment market booming, Ticketmaster made the strategic acquisition to position itself to serve a digitally savvy audience that increasingly demands seamless ticketing experiences.
The Year of Local Investors: How Africa’s VCs Stepped Up in 2024
As global venture capital funding slowed, 2024 became the year of local VCs stepping up. In the year, local venture funds were no longer playing supporting roles—they were taking the lead.
For many African startups, these homegrown funds provided much-needed lifelines, demonstrating the growing confidence in the continent’s entrepreneurial talent.
This year, Janngo Capital, based in Côte d’Ivoire, raised USD 78 M for a gender-equal fund aimed at empowering female-led startups across Africa. The fund became the largest of its kind on the continent, reflecting the growing emphasis on inclusivity in investment strategies.
Perhaps the most notable this year was from one of Africa’s most significant players, TLcom Capital with its continued commitment to early-stage ventures, closing its TIDE Africa Fund II at USD 154 M. With a focus on early-stage startups in sectors like fintech, healthtech, and logistics, TLcom solidified it as one of the largest funds focused on African tech startups this year.
Meanwhile, Verod-Kepple Africa Ventures launched its first fund at USD 60 M fund aimed at Series A and B startups.
These funds not only filled the gaps left by a decline in international capital but also reflected a broader shift toward context-specific investment. By focusing on gender equality, youth entrepreneurship, and impactful innovations, local funds ensured that Africa’s startups remained resilient and forward-looking.
Together, these funds symbolized the growing confidence in Africa’s entrepreneurial potential and demonstrated a shift towards more localized, context-aware funding strategies.
Nigeria’s NGN 100 M AI Fund: A Seed Planted in Rocky Soil
In a move aimed at bolstering its tech ecosystem, the Nigerian government teamed up with Google to launch the NGN 100 M (~ USD 61 K) AI Fund, targeting ten promising startups with NGN 10 M (USD 6.1 K) each and access to USD 3.5 M in Google Cloud Credits. These startups, spanning sectors like healthcare, agriculture, and security, embody a hopeful future for AI-driven solutions in Nigeria.
From BetaLife Health, which tackles Africa’s blood supply challenges with predictive AI, to Farmspeak, empowering livestock farmers with disease detection tools, the initiative brims with potential.
Yet, beneath the surface of celebration lies a simmering debate. Nigeria’s tech community was quick to critique the fund’s perceived inadequacy, arguing that the USD 6.1 K (per startup) pales in comparison to the steep costs of AI development. As some pointed out, “NGN 100 M can’t even buy an Nvidia chip,” much less fueling the high-stakes race for AI dominance.
This tension underscores a broader challenge for African AI: the financial and infrastructural barriers that make global competitiveness an uphill battle.
While the fund represents a step in the right direction, its critics remind us that the journey toward a truly thriving AI ecosystem will require bolder, more substantial investments.
Moniepoint’s USD 110 M Series C: A Unicorn That Took Flight
As the debate over Nigeria’s AI fund continued, another homegrown success story captured the spotlight. Moniepoint, a fintech juggernaut, became Africa’s newest unicorn following a USD 110 M Series C round led by Development Partners International.
This significant milestone not only crowned Moniepoint as Africa’s eighth unicorn but also set it on a trajectory to redefine business banking across the continent.
The funding places Moniepoint among Africa’s elite startups, setting the stage for its ambitious continental expansion.
Moniepoint’s journey is more than a tale of financial milestones. The company has been a lifeline for many Nigerian businesses, processing over 800 million transactions monthly and driving financial inclusion across underserved communities.
Now with new gunpowder, it has earmarked it for an ambitious continental expansion. The first port of call? Kenya—a market ripe with potential but fraught with challenges.
Setting its sights on Kenya as the first step in its African expansion, Moniepoint aims to replicate its integrated model of digital payments, banking, and credit services.
But entering Kenya’s fintech market is no small feat. Dominated by Safaricom’s M-Pesa, the market has long been a graveyard for ambitious entrants. By focusing on underserved MSMEs and acquiring local fintech Kopo Kopo, Moniepoint hopes to carve out a niche where others have faltered.
Scaling Moniepoint’s business banking model to Kenya will represent a litmus test for its broader African ambitions. If successful, the fintech giant could establish a template for expansion into other regions, but that remains to be seen.
Starlink’s Tumultuous ‘Success’ Across Africa
The arrival of Starlink, Elon Musk’s satellite internet service, has been one of the most disruptive forces in Africa’s telecom sector in 2024.
What started as a single-country launch in Nigeria in early 2023 quickly morphed into a continental expansion. By the end of 2024, Starlink had established operations in 18 African countries, including Rwanda, Botswana, and Ghana, with Cape Verde joining the list in December. And by all accounts, the service is on track to reach over 25 African countries by 2025.
With Starlink offering a unique proposition to boost internet connectivity in Africa -a continent where only 43% of the population has access to the internet- it is not exactly surprising to see how far it has come in terms of adoption and even daring to throw up dust into the faces of local providers.
Starlink’s appeal lies in its ability to deliver high-speed, low-latency internet — with download speeds exceeding 100 Mbps — to regions that traditional ISPs struggle to serve. Using a network of over 5,500 low-Earth orbit satellites, the service bypasses the need for terrestrial cables and repeater towers. For many rural and underserved areas, this meant connectivity for the first time.
By late 2024, Starlink had grown to become the third-largest internet service provider in Nigeria, with over 23,000 subscribers. The service found similar success in Kenya, where it rapidly gained users despite the dominance of well-established telecom players
However, the year also exposed the hurdles of scaling across Africa. In what would be considered a monumental year for Starlink in Africa, cracks began to appear. From regulatory pushback in some countries to vendetta from local internet providers, Starlink faced it all.
Earlier in the year, Cameroon and Zimbabwe had seized Starlink kits at their borders for licensing issues. The service was only reinstated in Zimbabwe after months of regulatory wrangling. In South Africa, the government’s insistence on local ownership continues to delay Starlink’s launch indefinitely. More recently, Namibia issued a cease-and-desist order in November, citing unlicensed operations, dealing another blow to its continental expansion.
Even in markets where it had initially enjoyed momentum like Nigeria, sales of its residential kits are currently on hold. This came after the NCC opposed its 97% hike in monthly subscription fees. The NCC’s intervention led it to temporarily suspend the order for new residential kit orders.
Meanwhile, local ISPs and telecom giants across Africa are also pushing back against Starlink’s growing influence. In Kenya, Safaricom, the country’s largest mobile network operator has been a vocal critic of Starlink’s entry calling for stricter licensing requirements for satellite internet providers. The company even launched competitive plans to win back customers migrating to Starlink. Similarly, telecom operators in Nigeria, Cameroon, and Zimbabwe raised concerns about Starlink’s “free rein” and its perceived advantages in bypassing regulatory hurdles that traditional providers faced.
Meanwhile, global competitors seeing its “success” are also circling, looking to take a bite of the market. Liquid Intelligent Technologies and Amazon’s Project Kuiper have emerged as formidable rivals, each seeking to claim their share of the satellite internet market.
For Starlink, Africa represents both opportunity and challenge. With its high-speed internet filling crucial gaps, the service has immense potential to transform digital connectivity. But as its journey shows, scaling in Africa means navigating a maze of regulatory landscapes, local competition, and affordability issues.
From transformative mergers to landmark funding and ambitious expansions, 2024 was a year that showcased the promise and challenges of innovation in Africa. Each story offers a glimpse into the challenges and triumphs shaping the continent’s entrepreneurial landscape.
This article is part of our Yearly Round-Up Series, highlighting the biggest stories that shaped Africa’s innovation landscape. Stay tuned for next week’s edition as we continue unpacking the lessons and opportunities that defined the year.
