 Funding for African startups reached $5.2B in 2021, growing over 18x in the last six years. Funding rounds reached a total of 451 in the same year, nearly double the 241 from the previous year. The year-over-year funding growth was triple the 2020 number of $1.68B and well more than double the $2B in 2019. More: - The figures come from a new report by Endeavor.
- In general, African startups at the earliest stages have gained the most attention, though $50M+ rounds from companies like Zola, Yoco, and Zipline have become more frequent after declining during 2020.
- Seed rounds totaled 1,500 last year, but there is a massive 84% gap between the seed stage and Series A in terms of round frequency.
- That makes it the highest in the world by region, compared with, for example, 37% in the U.S., 66% in Europe, and 70% in Southeast Asia.
- More generally, the report asserts that the African continent’s startup ecosystem is at the same stage of development that Southeast Asia and Latin America were at five years ago.
- Moreover, the analysts believe that the continent will follow the same exponential growth trajectory that characterized those two regions in the last half-decade.
- The funding is concentrated in four countries: Nigeria, South Africa, Kenya, and Egypt.
- Those markets make up 32% of Africa’s population, 51% of its mobile network connections, 50% of its professional developers, and 51% of its output.
The wide lens: - Africa’s potential digital economy is massive and should top $712B by 2050, according to projects.
- Currently, the continent’s digital economy has a total market of $115B and is still in its earliest phases.
- Only 33% of individuals use the internet compared to a global average of 63%.
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Juni, a Swedish startup providing an e-commerce-centric neobank, raised $100M Series B led by Mubadala Capital. It also pulled in $106M in debt from TriplePoint Capital to finance its credit products. Additional participation in the equity round came from EQT Ventures, Felix Capital, Cherry Ventures, and partners of DST Global. More: - The 2020-founded company launched just last year and raised a total of $73.5M Siers A over two tranches last year.
- While the company did not disclose its valuation, sources report it in the neighborhood of $800M.
- CEO and co-founder Samir El-Sabini claims that growth has topped "multiple hundred percent" without giving specific figures for customers or revenue.
- By targeting SMBs with a strictly e-commerce-focused business model, Juni is trying to bridge a gap that has emerged in the neobank space, where general SMBs and consumers already enjoy a variety of options.
- With large but irregular revenue streams, operations in multiple geographies, and offerings on multiple internet platforms, e-commerce SMBs have a specific set of needs that Juni caters to.
- It offers credit cards and capital advance/cashback services, in addition to bespoke accounting and analytics.
The wider lens: - The e-commerce market is on track to pass $5.5T in global revenue this year.
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 PitchBook data points to investment in climatetech remaining strong in the coming months as global awareness of the climate crisis increases. Global climate tech startups have raised $13.7B in VC investment across 369 deals so far this year, putting them on pace to match or surpass last year’s total. More: - Climatetech, like all sectors, benefited from the larger boom in venture funding in 2021. Over the entire year, companies raised $33.3B in fresh capital, trouncing all previous records.
- Moving forward this year, the question is whether funding will decline as quickly as has already happened in other sectors or maintain a steadier pace.
- An additional factor will be whether oil and gas companies, flush with cash from astronomical prices, invest in green tech to shore up and diversify their business models.
- The largesse of 2021’s funding landscape was largely determined by several massive funding instances, such as the $5.1B raised by EV maker Rivian and the $2.7B for lithium battery producer Northvolt.
- Beyond EVs and battery production, 2022 has seen investors eye sectors including carbon capture technology, lithium mining, and indoor vertical farms.
- As such, this year has already seen a fair number of mega-deals in those sectors, such as carbon-capture company Climeworks’ $650M funding in April and Crusoe Energy’s $500M for its natural gas flaring reduction technology.
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Immuta has raised a $100M Series E round at a $1B valuation for its data privacy and access controls services. NightDragon led the round with participation from Snowflake Ventures, Dell Technologies Capital, DFJ Growth, IAG, Intel Capital, March Capital, StepStone, Ten Eleven Ventures, and Wipro Ventures. More: - According to co-founder and CEO Matthew Carroll, many companies are stuck in the ‘90s in terms of the technology they use for data monitoring.
- Specifically, the role-based access control techniques originating in that era are unable to comply with new privacy regulations like GDPR and CCPA.
- Beyond that, as remote work continues expanding and more data is migrated from on-premises data stores to the cloud, locality-based problems emerge that often involve multiple borders and regulatory frameworks.
- Immuta’s customers include the S&P Global and Mercedes-Benz Group, as well as the U.S. Army.
- They are offered a dashboard designed to automate aspects of the data policy federation.
The wider lens: - At least one analytics firm predicts that the data governance space will be worth $6B by 2026.
- Venture spending in the broader security segment grew to nearly $30B in 2021, more than doubling its total from the previous year.
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 Today’s Funding 💸 AI/ML - Continual (San Francisco, Calif.), AI platform for the modern data stack: $14.5M A led by Innovation Endeavors, participation from Amplify Partners, Illuminate Ventures, Inspired Capital, Data Community Fund, Activation, New Normal, et al.
Biotech/Health - Code Biotherapeutics (Philadelphia, Pa.), non-viral delivery of genetic medicines: $75M A led by Northpond Ventures, participation from Amgen Ventures, Hatteras Venture Partners, UCB Ventures, New Enterprise Associates, et al.
- Nava Benefits (New York, N.Y.), modern benefits brokerage: $40M B led by Thrive Capital, participation from Avid Ventures, Quiet Capital, Sound Ventures, et al.
- Anagenex (San Francisco, Calif.), AI/ML-based small molecule medicine discovery platform: ...
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Quick Hits - If you’re looking for a little guidance on how to rev up your influencer marketing programs, Impact’s got you covered with the ultimate influencer program starter kit.*
- EV companies Lucid and Rivian compensated their CEOs last year at $566M and $422M, respectively, largely through equity. The ratcheting up of executive pay comes as the startups attempt to accelerate production and after entering public markets.
- Obvious Ventures raised its fourth flagship early-stage fund at $355,111,553 and a second opportunities vehicle at $106,111,601. The firm now has $1.1B in AUM.
- Israeli VC firm Titan Capital Partners has closed a $100M fund after being founded just last year. In addition to its flagship, Series B-focused fund, it also manages $100M-$200M in co-investment vehicles, which it will deploy in the next three years.
- Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund took a $1B/8% stake in Swedish gaming company Embracer, making it the country’s second foray this year into the Nordic country’s video game industry. It has also recently taken a 5% stake in Nintendo as it targets the gaming sector, which is in the throes of a consolidation spree.
- 64% of companies used this channel to generate nearly half of their revenue — and it’s not paid ads or content.*
*This is a sponsored post.
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 |  | Inside VC's writer/curator Stephen currently lives in Berlin and is pursuing a Master's degree in philosophy. He otherwise spends his time trying his hand at recipes from India and Southeast Asia, escaping it all at the kickboxing gym, and offending aural sensibilities with his band. |  | | Editor | Aaron Crutchfield is based in the high desert of California. Over the last two decades, he has spent time writing and editing at various local newspapers and defense contractors in California. When he's not working, he can often be found looking at the latest memes with his kids or working on his 1962 Ford. | |
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