Startups across the world and majorly in Africa faced various challenges in the past decade leading to most of them closing shop.
The closure of these businesses has been traced to the lack of liquidity in the market, and the difficulties in raising capital as venture capital investors have become much more selective.
According to DisruptAfrica, in the first half of 2023, funding by Venture capitalists almost halved during the period highlighting a reduced enthusiasm by investors as well as falling demand amid rising interest rates.
53 startups shut down across seven African countries in the last decade
Startupgraveyard.africa has curated 53 startups across seven African countries that shut down due to various issues between 2013 and 2024 and they include:
| Rank | Country | Closed Startups |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Nigeria | 25 |
| 2 | Kenya | 12 |
| 3 | South Africa | 7 |
| 4 | Egypt | 4 |
| 5 | Ghana | 4 |
| 6 | Uganda | 2 |
| 7 | Tanzania | 1 |
Nigeria led the table as 25 startups closed shop during the period. Among the affected startups in Nigeria are Mocality with offices in Kenya and Pillow with offices in Ghana.
The startups affected were involved in sectors like fintech, health, e-commerce, logistics, agriculture, transportation, and media among others.
Experts have argued that underfunding may not really be the main reason for the closure of the startups as most of them were heavily funded in the past years.
Nigerian financial services platform, Pivo, shut down due to co-founder conflict. Another startup based in Ghana, Dash, a platform for payments interoperability, shut down after internal audits revealed that the company’s founder & CEO misappropriated company funds, and engaged in other fraudulent practices.
Qefira, an Ethiopian e-commerce classifieds platform, shut down after the new owners of the platform decided to cease operations.
According to Nairametrics, $70 million of investor funds raised in the past two years was lost following the closure of nine Nigerian startups in 2024.
Venture capitalists have, however, advised on the need to conduct enough due diligence before funds are committed to most of the startups to prevent a recurrence of the mass business closure.