The year serious money was invested in African tech
While difficult to put an exact figure on how much Africa’s tech ecosystem is actually worth, the increased level of activity in 2016 is a clear indication of a gear change and the serious money now investing in African tech.
The big headlines were around Zuckerburg with surprise visits to Nigeria and Kenya earlier this year which hyped global media and investors eyes to the African tech scene. However, local and international investors have been very busy in 2016 and long before Zuckerburg touched down in Lagos.
The serious money
The first mega-deal (in African standards) of 2016 was iROKO who raised $19 million, bringing its total funding to about $40 million. iROKOtv, the mobile entertainment group dubbed the Netflix of Africa, secured $19m from investors including France’s Canal Plus to produce original content and expand across the continent.
Nigeria the Lagos StartUp DealDay event resulted in a total of N50 million being committed to three selected ventures by three DealDay syndicates.
In the mobile marketing and content space, Singularity Investments invested an undisclosed sum into Sliide Airtime, Â voted Best African App at the Appsafrica Awards 2016, while SA marketing platform delvv.io raises over $450K.
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