From securing funding rounds worth millions in its early days to attracting billions in investments today, Africa's tech ecosystem has experienced exponential growth in recent years.
For a fact, the successes are not hard to track; they are unmistakably evident in the surging numbers of startups across the continent and the daily funding rounds that grab our attention.
Between 2022 and April 2023, 711 individual African tech startups raised a combined total of just over $4 billion in funding. But despite this massive run, the African tech ecosystem falls short of gender diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI).
Of the over $4 billion raised by ventures in the period in question, only 9.1 per cent went to companies co-founded by a woman, and just 2.9 per cent to startups with a female CEO or equivalent. $369,102,000 (9.1%) went to female co-founders, and $119,053,000 (2.9%) went to female CEOs, according to a Disrupt Africa report.
Of the 2,395 startups tracked for the report, only 350 (14.6%) have at least one female co-founder, and 230 (9.6%) have a woman CEO.
From a funding perspective, the report analysed 711 African tech startups that secured funding in 2022 and so far in 2023. Of those, just 21 per cent had at least one female co-founder, while only 11.7 per cent had a female CEO.
Gender diversity varies from country to country, but not one market has more than 23 per cent of its startups, counting a female co-founder or CEO amongst its founding team.
Generally, in markets with enough tracked startups to discern any trends, the smaller ecosystems outperform the larger ones from a diversity perspective, with greater ratios of female leaders in markets such as Zambia, Rwanda, Tunisia and Senegal than in traditional hotspots such as South Africa, Nigeria, Egypt and Kenya.
There is serious work to be done to get women anywhere near parity from a leadership perspective within the space because innovation undoubtedly requires more diversity.
Here are the best-performing African startup ecosystems for gender diversity:
| Rank | Country | Startups | Female co-founded | Female CEOs |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Zambia | 24 | 5 (20.8%) | 5 (20.8%) |
| 2 | Rwanda | 40 | 9 (22.5%) | 6 (15%) |
| 3 | Tunisia | 36 | 8 (22.2%) | 8 (22.2%) |
| 4 | Senegal | 37 | 8 (21.6%) | 6 (16.2%) |
| 5 | Ethiopia | 28 | 6 (21.4%) | 4 (14.3%) |
| 6 | Uganda | 62 | 13 (21%) | 6 (9.7%) |
| 7 | South Africa | 521 | 71 (13.6%) | 46 (8.8%) |
| 8 | Nigeria | 502 | 83 (16.5%) | 54 (10.8%) |
| 9 | Egypt | 470 | 58 (12.3%) | 29 (6.2%) |
| 10 | Kenya | 331 | 55 (16.6%) | 37 (11.2%) |