Did Nigerian startups take 80% of Africa’s money, or 7%? It depends on who is counting.

Every few weeks a new total arrives: African startups raised this much last month, this much so far this year. These totals come from trackers, small teams who collect announcements of funding rounds and add them up. They are useful. They are also built on choices: which deals count, whether loans count alongside shares, and which country a company belongs to.

What does the first tracker say?

Africa: The Big Deal, a widely cited database, says African startups passed $2 billion in funding in the third week of September, not counting exits, when investors sell out.[1] From January to August, funding came to $1.92 billion, about 9% below the same period of 2025.[1] Equity, money paid in exchange for a share of ownership, reached $1.35 billion in those eight months, up 23% on a year earlier.[1]

August was the busiest month: $455 million across 31 deals, after just $102 million in July.[1] By this count, Nigeria took about $364 million of August’s money, roughly 80%.[1] The month’s biggest deal was a $250 million Series C, a later-stage funding round, for Moove, a company that finances vehicles for ride-hailing drivers.[1]

What does the second tracker say?

A second tracker, compiled by an African tech publication from 230 publicly announced deals between January and September, puts disclosed funding at about $2.45 billion.[2] Amounts were published for 174 of the 230 deals, and its shares are calculated on those.[2]

Its picture of Nigeria is very different. Nigerian startups accounted for 26% of deals but only 7% of the money.[2] The typical, or median, Nigerian round was $1.5 million, against $6.6 million in Kenya.[2]

How can both be right?

Mostly through one company. The second tracker counts Spiro, a battery-swap network for electric motorcycles, and Moove together at $595 million, nearly a quarter of all disclosed capital.[2] Spiro raised $345 million across five rounds,[2] which leaves $250 million for Moove (derived), the same as its Series C.

Now test each tracker’s Nigeria figure against Moove. In the first tracker’s August, all deals came to $455 million. Take away Moove’s $250 million and only $205 million is left (derived), less than the $364 million credited to Nigeria. So the first tracker must count Moove as Nigerian. In the second tracker, 7% of about $2.45 billion is about $172 million (derived), less than Moove’s single round. So the second tracker cannot be counting Moove as Nigerian.

Answers on Moove derived by RainingMoney from each tracker’s totals. Sources 1 and 2.

Neither tracker is necessarily wrong. Trackers decide differently whether a company belongs to the country of its founders, its headquarters or its main market, and fast-growing African startups are often registered abroad. Which rule each tracker applied to Moove is not stated in the figures we reviewed.

What do both trackers agree on?

Money is concentrated in a few large deals. In August, the five largest deals made up 84% of the month’s funding.[1] Across the nine months, the second tracker found that 32 rounds above $20 million took 77% of disclosed capital while making up only 18% of disclosed deals, and the ten largest rounds took almost half.[2] The 108 rounds of $5 million or less shared about 7% of the money.[2] Pre-seed and seed rounds, the first money a young company raises, came to $177 million across 84 deals.[2]

Fewer companies are getting funded. The number of startups raising at least $100,000 fell 19%, from 332 to 269, compared with the same period last year, and the number of active named investors fell 22%, from 368 to 288.[1] The money is recovering; the number of companies receiving it is not yet.

Lenders matter more than headlines suggest. Development finance institutions, which are government-backed investors, and banks took part in 26% of disclosed deals but supplied 51% of the capital.[2] In the first quarter, debt, money lent that must be repaid, outweighed equity; from the second quarter, equity took the lead again.[2] Most of the money for clean energy (89%) and farming technology (83%) came as debt or blended finance, a mix of public and private money.[2]

Where did the money go?

In Kenya, 73% of disclosed capital went to mobility, mostly Spiro.[2] In Egypt, 71% went to fintech, the financial technology companies behind apps for payments, savings and loans.[2] In Nigeria, nine clean-energy deals raised $27 million in total.[2] At the earliest stage, one company stood out: Terra Industries raised $51.75 million across three seed rounds, 36% of all seed capital counted.[2]

Female co-founded teams raised similar amounts to male-only teams at Series A, a median of $11.25 million against $11.5 million. But only two of the 32 rounds above $20 million had a female co-founder.[2]

Why it matters for Nigeria

The difference between the two counts is not a technicality. A government agency, a foreign investor or a commentator quoting “80% of Africa’s funding” would be describing one month and one large deal. Someone quoting “7%” would be describing nine months under a different rule about where companies belong. Both are real numbers. Neither, on its own, is the state of Nigerian tech.

For founders and investors, the practical point is to read the fine print. A country total can swing by hundreds of millions of dollars depending on how one company is classified. The median round, the number of companies funded and the share of money going to the largest deals say more about the health of a country’s startups than any single headline total.

Looking ahead, the first tracker says total funding for 2026 could approach $3 billion if the current pace continues.[1] Whether Nigeria’s share of that looks large or small will again depend on a handful of big rounds, and on where the trackers decide those companies live.