Startups are created with the strategy of scaling up quickly and opening a new market entirely. The Bond Collective defines a startup as a system of organization designed to search for, identify, and adopt a repeatable and scalable business model. Repsol; a multinational energy and petrochemical company based in Madrid, defines a startup as a newly created company that uses ICT to market its products or services, with a scalable business model prioritising quick growth.
In Africa, startups have increased significantly in visibility and funding opportunities, even as the industry moves towards sectors such as fintech, ed(edu)tech and healthtech. In 2024, fintech startups in Ghana contributed to 43% of the total funding volume of $127 million.
In 2024, Fidelity Bank Ghana, for instance, awarded various investment prices to 17 businesses in their GreenTech Innovation Challenge at their annual Fidelity Bank Sustainability Conference. These businesses included AgriSupport, Chan-Tico, Agricom, Monger Foods, Fresh Aura, Sunify,Enactus UMAT, Verte Tower, AgriEase Limited, and Farmitecture. These were all businesses that stood out as excellent startup ideas. These businesses received GHS 50,000 each to develop their ideas. Agrimercarb, Freshline, Nastech Power Solutions, and Wobil Technologies Ltd were awarded GHS 100,000 each for their positive impact on local communities in Ghana. Skin Gourmet, a startup business that began in 2014, was awarded with GHS 200,000 for their innovative solutions to doing business and their potential societal impact. As a start-up, Skin Gourmet has helped about 113 women in Northern Ghana get access to organic certification. Axis Drone Services and Farm 360 are also businesses that have benefited from the GreenTech Innovation Challenge.
Policy programs like the National Entrepreneurship and Innovation Programme(NEIP), the Ghana Venture Capital Trust fund(VCTF), and Ghana Start-Up Capital fund aim to bridge the gap of early stage funding problems, funding for black founders, women led startups and underrepresented groups.
A report released in December, 2024 by Daba, showed a significant number of startups were all in the fintech industry. These included Egypt’s MNT-Halan, securing funding of 4157.5 million, Nigeria’s Moniepoint and Moove, securing $110 million and $100 million respectively, Kenya’s M-KOPA at 51 million, Tanzania’s NALA at $40 Million, amongst others.
Despite these initiatives, there is a growing trend in the preferability of tech business startups to acquire funding and it raises the question whether Africa has narrowed its path when it comes to bringing attention to its startups?
