African startups raised $151m in March, a 202% YOY increase

Venture funding into African startups has continued to flow rather steadily in 2026 with the latest data indicating that startups around the continent raised $151 million in March. This is according to numbers shared by the African venture funding analytics platform, Africa the Big Deal.

The good news is that the $151 million raised represents an overwhelming 202 per cent year-on-year increase compared to the $50 million raised in the same month in 2025. Indeed, March 2025 is on record as one of the slowest months since late 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic was in full swing.

The not-so-good news is that the March total is a far cry from the $272 million raised in February, representing a 44.5 per cent decline. Indeed, it also doesn’t look so good when compared to the $174 million raised in January, a 13.2 per cent drop. This essentially makes March the slowest funding month of 2026 so far, exactly as it was in the previous year.

The story also doesn’t look too good when compared with the monthly average of $226 million over the last 12 months, a 32.2 per cent difference. Regardless, it is still a good March as the months of March go, and per The Big Deal report, “month-to-month moves are an unfairly volatile metric.”

Speaking of 12-month numbers, in the 12 months leading to March 2026 (April 2025 to March 2026), African startups have raised $3.3 billion, including $1.8billion in equity and $1.4billion in debt. This is still higher than the $3.2 billion raised in the entire 12 months of 2025. Thus, as contributions to a ‘larger cause’ go, March 2026 hasn’t done too badly.

On the equity versus debt scale, March turned out to be a debt-heavy month as $96 million of the $151 million raised came in the form of debt. This means 63.6 per cent or nearly two-thirds of the month’s total came as debt. $55m came in the form of equity, representing 36.4 per cent of the total.

Sistema.bio and MNT-Halan lead African startups in March

22 African startups that announced at least $100,000 in equity, debt, or grants contributed to the total $151 million raised. This represents the lowest monthly count since 2021 when official tracking of deals began.

Of these 22 deals, Sistema.bio led the pack with the close of its $53 million debt round for FarmCarbon, a new climate finance fund for smallholder farmers across Africa, Asia, and Latin America.

The round was led by BNP Paribas Asset Management, British International Investment (the UK’s development finance institution), and supported by Shell Foundation. With the new funds, the Nairobi-based biogas company will support the deployment of over 90,000 biodigesters, which convert livestock waste into biogas for cooking and electricity, as well as organic fertiliser that reduces reliance on chemical inputs for farms.

Next on the log is Egypt’s fintech giant, MNT-Halan, which raised $40 million with the completion of its bond issuance, which began last year. The offering, which marks the largest of its kind in the Egyptian market to date, received an investment grade BBB+ rating from Middle East Ratings and Investor Services (MERIS).

Next on the Top 3 is Zeno, an East Africa-based electric mobility startup, which raised $25 million in Series A funding to improve the production of Emara e-motorcycles and increase its battery-swap network across Kenya and Uganda.

The round was led by Congruent Ventures, which contributed 82% ($20.5 million), with participation from Active Impact and Lower-carbon Ventures. The remaining $4.5 million was a debt facility from Camber Road and Trifecta Capital.

On the exits front, five acquisitions were recorded in March, led by Moniepoint’s acquisition of Orda Africa, a cloud-based restaurant management platform operating in Nigeria. The deal folds Orda into Moniebook, Moniepoint’s point-of-sale and business management platform, giving the fintech a direct play in a food service sector valued at $50 billion across the continent.

Just like every other exit recorded during the month, the value of the acquisition was not disclosed.