Digital Africa is ready to assist African startups with $79m
Digital Africa, a French government-supported organization that helps African tech startups, has announced that it will provide 70 million euros ($79 million) in seed and Series A funding by 2025.
In a press conference, the initiative’s executive director, Stephan Eloise-Gras, stated that Digital Africa aims to fund 200 African startups with seed funding ranging from 20,000 to 200,000 euros.
The initiative, launched in 2018 by French President Emmanuel Macron, began as a nonprofit organization with the mission of equipping Africa’s tech entrepreneurs with the skills needed to design and scale-up game-changing innovations for the real economy.
Digital Africa has shifted away from the nonprofit model, backed by 130 million euros from Proparco, a division of the Agence Francaise de Developpement (French Development Agency).
“To bring these changes to life, Digital Africa is looking to move away from its initial nonprofit model, with the ambition to get closer to the African and global private sectors by focusing on early stage startups,” the organization stated in its White Paper 2022, which was released on Tuesday.
About Digital Africa
Digital Africa brings together a multinational community of partners – incubators, financial institutions, venture capitalists, and tech clusters – who support Africa’s digital entrepreneurs.
The French Development Agency (AFD) was instrumental in the creation of Digital Africa and remains an important partner.
The initiative’s programs focus on high-impact digital startups, fundraising and sourcing finance to scale-up Africa’s tech innovations, and advocating for policies that will drive digital entrepreneurship throughout Africa.
In 2020, Digital Africa and Proparco established the 5 million euro Bridge Fund, which has so far distributed seed funding ranging from 175,000 euros to 600,000 euros to ten companies. Last year, Africa raised a record $5 billion in startup capital.
With the new model in place, the initiative intends to broaden its focus beyond the three key nodes of South Africa, Nigeria, and Kenya, which account for nearly four-fifths of all funds raised by African startups.
According to the announcement, it will also look to fund hubs in countries ranging from Ivory Coast to Tunisia.
In recent years, the entrepreneurial and technology space in Africa has seen a significant infusion of funds, ranging from the Women Entrepreneurship for Africa initiative, which aims to empower women, to the Visa Everywhere Initiative.
Overall, strong year-on-year growth at all check sizes reinforces the perception in Africa that more investors are eager to enter the startup arena, whether at the early or growth stages.
