Seed Stage Deal Activity is Up 70% YoY in African Agrifoodtech Investment

As published in agfundernews, and the newly launched 2022 African AgriFoodTech Investment Report, early-stage investing in African agrifoodtech startups gathered significant momentum in 2021. While seed-stage deals typically dominate venture capital investment activity, the number of seed stages deals in Africa increased nearly 70% compared to 2020. That compares with just an 8% increase in seed-stage deal activity on the global stage YoY.

African seed stage activity also represented a larger piece of overall deal activity with 121 deals accounting for 80% of all African agrifoodtech deals closed during the year. On the global stage, that number was nearly 60%.

It’s not just in agrifoodtech where early-stage investing gathering momentum;  in 2021 the dominance of seed stage was evident across VC investment in Africa. According to a Partech Partners’ report, 74% of deals were at seed stage.

Part of the reason could be attributed to an increasing number of early-stage funds that are launching across Africa, dedicated to the local market. The top three most active investors during the year are all local funds and are all focused on investing in startups at the earliest stages; Launch Africa, Flat6Labs Cairo, and LoftyInc Capital Management all back startups between the seed and Series A stages. 

Other firms that have sprung up to support early-stage startups include Microtraction, Future Africa Fund, Savannah Fund , and Google’s Black Founders Fund for Africa. You can read more about 2021 agrifood investors here.