Samuel Ogbonyomi, CEO and co-founder of PipeOps, is upbeat concerning the prospect of placing up new funding conversations with potential traders when he speaks to African Enterprise on the Nigerian startup’s exhibition sales space at Increase North Star in Dubai – a aspect occasion to Gulf Info Know-how Exhibition (GITEX) International designed to hyperlink startups to traders.
Based in 2021, PipeOps is an AI-powered platform that “automates advanced cloud workflows for companies and software program builders to allow them to rapidly transition to the cloud with none core cloud experience in-house,” Ogbonyomi explains. He provides that it has validated its product and purchased prospects with pre-seed backing from a number of angel traders, and is now making ready to hunt additional funding. “We will probably be trying to open a seed spherical in direction of the tip of the 12 months or early 2026. We need to associate with traders and establishments who truly perceive what we’re constructing,” he tells African Enterprise.
It’s a well-timed transfer in view of the continued rebound in enterprise capital flows in Africa’s startup ecosystem. After a pointy downturn in 2024 – when African startups raised $2.8bn throughout 750 offers, down from $3.9bn throughout 930 offers in 2023 – funding exercise is exhibiting indicators of restoration.
In line with the Q2 2025 Enterprise Capital Report from the African Non-public Capital Affiliation (AVCA), the primary half of 2025 noticed 239 offers, an 11% year-on-year enhance. Seed-stage exercise in the course of the interval surged, with seed funding climbing 40% to $171m throughout 82 reported early-stage transactions.
Traders return to fundamentals
Whereas investor sentiment is bettering, African startups face more durable scrutiny within the present funding atmosphere, Ogbonyomi notes. “After what occurred up to now two years, traders are actually progressively coming again. Nevertheless, loads of them have fallen again to the fundamentals, which is, ‘if you would like me to speculate, what are your numbers like?’ The basics are beginning to matter much more than the story you inform traders.”
“In some methods it’s unlucky for the companies which can be simply getting began. Nevertheless, for us, who’ve already began and gotten to the purpose the place we’re making income, what we simply have to do is optimise for extra income,” he says.
Kola Aina, founding associate at Ventures Platform, a $46m enterprise capital agency targeted on early-stage startups, concurs with this evaluation. “I’d describe 2025 as a 12 months of cautious restoration; one marked by extra disciplined capital deployment and a return to fundamentals. Traders are actually putting a premium on robust unit economics, capital effectivity, and clear paths to profitability,” he tells African Enterprise.
“The ‘development in any respect prices’ period is behind us. What we’re seeing as a substitute is the emergence of extra sturdy enterprise fashions and traders who’re more and more long-term in orientation,” he continues.
“The reset of the previous 12 months has been wholesome for the ecosystem, and I consider it’s paving the best way for extra significant exits and stronger firms within the decade forward,” he provides. Since its launch in 2016, Ventures Platform has backed greater than 90 African startups throughout numerous sectors, with no less than one portfolio firm in each area of Africa, Aina notes. He says that, given the bettering sentiment, the fund is “doubling down on early-stage firms fixing basic issues”.
Cleantech and AI drawing investor curiosity
Fintech continues to command the lion’s share of startup funding in Africa, accounting for roughly 30% of all offers and 59% of whole capital raised in 2024. The continent’s top-funded ventures – spanning cellular funds, buy-now-pay-later (BNPL) platforms, and digital banking and lending options aimed on the unbanked – replicate this dominance. Nevertheless, knowledge from AVCA and TechCabal Perception reveals {that a} shift is underway. Startups in cleantech and AI are securing a better share of funding offers in 2025 relative to fintech.
“Fintech has been the spine of Africa’s digital transformation, however what we’re seeing now could be a wholesome diversification of innovation. The rise of cleantech and AI displays each necessity and alternative – necessity as a result of Africa faces pressing local weather and productiveness challenges, and alternative as a result of these applied sciences have reached a degree the place they will ship scalable, regionally related options,” Aina says.
“Over the subsequent few years, I anticipate to see cleantech emerge as a important driver of inclusive development – from distributed vitality options to climate-smart agriculture and sustainable mobility. In parallel, AI will more and more underpin effectivity throughout sectors, powering monetary inclusion, well being diagnostics, logistics, and even governance,” he continues. The actual worth, he insists, will come from startups making use of AI and cleantech inside distinctly African contexts, fixing issues others would possibly overlook.
One other main shift in Africa’s startup ecosystem, Aina observes, is the more and more outstanding position performed by African traders. He notes that extra African common companions, household workplaces, and institutional gamers are stepping as much as fill gaps left by retreating worldwide capital.
“This native capital base brings not simply funding but in addition contextual understanding, and that’s important for market-creating innovation to thrive. We’re additionally seeing governments and DFIs [development finance institutions] enjoying a extra catalytic position in de-risking investments and supporting innovation-friendly regulation,” he says.
Delivering returns and influence
Aina notes that, with the entry of DFIs into African enterprise capital, founders now have a twin mandate to ship each returns and influence. The 2 aren’t mutually unique, he asserts. “Founders have to see influence and revenue as two sides of the identical coin. When influence is embedded within the core of the enterprise, it turns into a development engine slightly than a constraint,” he says.
“Essentially the most profitable founders don’t see influence and revenue as competing priorities, they design their merchandise, operations, and development technique in order that fixing actual issues drives each outcomes.”
DFIs not solely convey capital, however a special set of expectations, which is reshaping which startups and sectors get funded. “We’re seeing a stronger emphasis on enterprise fashions that exhibit each industrial viability and measurable influence. Corporations that may scale responsibly, generate jobs, enhance monetary inclusion, or advance local weather options are more and more prioritised.”
For enterprise capitalists, the necessary lesson from these shifts is that supporting startups goes past offering capital, Aina contends. “Palms-on steerage, connecting founders to networks, and serving to them navigate operational, regulatory, and market challenges is usually what separates success from stagnation.”
So how can African startups stand out within the present atmosphere and safe the capital wanted to scale up? Aina believes that “for entrepreneurs, the takeaway is to deal with sustainable enterprise fashions, unit economics, and resilience whereas addressing important market gaps.”
Ogbonyomi, on his half, argues that past technical know-how and industrial acumen, African founders should domesticate mushy expertise equivalent to resilience and persistence. These are simply as essential for achievement. “Founders typically think about that their thought will rapidly make them billionaires, however there are various troublesome moments alongside the best way. It’s by no means at all times up. There are a lot of down days too, and also you have to be mentally ready for that.”
