African ventures raised $674 million across 83 disclosed deals in Q3 2026, a 27% decrease in value from Q3 2025. This is according to a report by Briter Intelligence.
Kenyan Venture firms raised a total of US$86million and relied heavily on debt, which made up over 92% of its capital to fund asset-heavy operators like M-Kopa and Spiro.
African Venture firms from the Big 4
Kenya is among the big four in Africa leading in Venture Capital Raising, behind the leader Nigeria ($375.3million), which led in venture equity through major deals like Moove and Jumia, backed by global investors such as BlackRock and the IFC.
Egypt ($101.6million) and South Africa ($100.6million) posted higher median deal sizes ($2.4million and $6.7million), supported by diverse instruments such as ValU’s corporate bond.
Outside the Big 4, only $10.4million was raised across six countries, led by Morocco ($5.4million), Ghana ($4.3million), and Cameroon ($450,000), with funding primarily concentrated in seed and pre-seed deals.
Nigerian Moove’s $250 million Series C made up 37% of that total.
Excluding Moove’s round, the quarter falls to roughly $424million, the lowest Q3 since 2019. Q3 accounted for 22% of all capital raised so far this year, with African tech ventures raising $674million across 83 disclosed deals, bringing total funding for the year to $3billion.
However, Q3 funding value fell 27% year on year, and Q3 disclosed deals dropped by 50%.
The quarter was also characterised by a concentration of funds and large mega rounds.
Moove’s $250million Series C alone accounted for 37% of the quarter’s value, and the top ten funded companies accounted for almost 80% of the total funds raised.
Taking a bit of a step back and looking at African Venture funding so far this year (Q1 to Q3 2026), there is a 10% increase when compared to the same period last year, (Q1 to Q3 2025).
However, that gain also rests on a few mega deals announced in 2026: $215million by Spiro, $330million by Optasia, $250million by Moove, $150million by Zipline and $105million by OneBank.
Without these mega deals by African Venture firms, year-to-date funding stands at $2B, only slightly above the $1.8B recorded in the same period last year after removing that year’s mega deals.
The number of disclosed deals is also down 32% year-on-year, suggesting that the increase in total funding is being driven by larger cheques going to fewer companies, rather than a broader recovery in deal activity.
Although the number of deals in Q3 dropped to its lowest level since 2019, median deal size surged to $500,000, a fivefold increase from $100,000 in Q3 2025. Together, these figures point to fewer small cheques and more capital per deal, a contrast with volume-driven peaks such as Q3 2022.
Moove’s $250 million Series C equity round to support the expansion of its autonomous vehicle business was the largest in the quarter, contributing 37% of the total funds raised.
Other major raises include Jumia’s $50million round to boost working capital, strengthen its balance sheet, and fund supply chain investments; Yellow Card’s $40million round to scale its Global US$ Accounts for businesses and extend its Stablecoins rails, Paymob’s $35million raised to fund expansion across the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), and Mission Mobile’s $30.6million round, raised to grow its customer base and expand its team.
Mobility was the most funded sector in Q3 2026, receiving $271million, largely driven by Moove’s round.
Fintech remained the most active sector, capturing 47 deals and $230.2million in disclosed funding value. Education, health and agriculture each recorded high deal counts but small funding values, which points to early-stage activity.
Equity remained the dominant instrument in Q3, accounting for 35 of 83 disclosed deals and 72% of total funding value.
Debt and bond structures accounted for significant capital inflows among asset-heavy and credit-focused operators, including M-Kopa ($30million, raised for new electric motorbike financing in Kenya), ValU ($21million), and Bridgement ($20.3million, raised to expand its direct lending to South African SMEs).
Grants were the second most common, with 21 deals, but represented less than 1% of funding value, highlighting the much larger ticket sizes of equity and debt transactions.
Grant initiatives such as the Mastercard Foundation EdTech Fellowship sustained early-stage activity in Nigeria.
Together, equity and debt accounted for around 95% of funding value, despite representing about 60% of disclosed deals.
Venture capital firms (34.5%) and private equity funds (21.8%) together accounted for over half of deal participation, anchoring large equity rounds through institutional investors such as BlackRock, Left Lane Capital and Franklin Templeton.
Strategic corporates and CVCs took part in 13.4% of deals, while DFIs, impact investors and commercial lenders supplied much of the debt financing, through institutions such as FMO, Mirova and the Africa Go Green Fund.
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