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Getting left behind

Is South Africa’s prominent place in the African startup scene under threat?

Stephen Timm

12 May 2022

Tanya van Lill, Savca. Photo: Karolina Komendera

There are grumblings in South Africa’s tech sector. The country’s dominance as Africa’s top startup country has in recent years been usurped by Nigeria, as venture capital (VC) piles into the West African nation, with Egypt and Kenya snapping at South Africa’s heels.

Partech Africa reported that VC investment in Nigeria quadrupled year-on-year to $1.8 billion in 2021, accounting for over a third of the $5.2 billion raised by African startups, more than twice as much as the $832 million (doubling over 2020) that South African startups netted.

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