Women continue to receive marginal share of funding in Africa

The report, released for International Women's Day, highlights a glaring lack of parity in financing access for startups, even in the modern world.

Women-led African startups received $209.3 million in funding between 2019 and 2023, according to a report issued on March 8 by TechCabal Insights.

Entitled "Breaking Barriers: Female Pioneers in African Tech 2024," the report points out that this figure represents only 1.54% of the total amount of funding secured by startups operating across the continent during the period under review.

This demonstrates that the African tech ecosystem remains deeply misogynistic, despite significant successes achieved by women. The restricted access of women-led startups to funding primarily results from women's underrepresentation in the tech sector. Being a minority in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) disciplines and startup leadership positions, women are naturally less present during funding rounds.

Another factor could be the weak presence of women at the top levels of venture capital funds, which hold the keys to funding. Hard-to-eradicate gender bias, whether conscious or unconscious, observed in Africa as elsewhere, also explains the venture capital industry's lukewarm interest in female entrepreneurship on the continent...Read more on Ecofin Agency

Source: Ecofin Agency