Kenyan startups attracted $984 million (Sh126.9 billion) in funding in 2025, receiving the largest debt and equity financing in Africa for the second year, according to a research firm that tracks such transactions in on the continent.
Young companies in the country had raised funding of $638 million (Sh82.3 billion at current exchange rates) in 2024 when they also led the rest of the continent in receiving capital to back their growth.
This represented an increase of 54.2 percent, with startups in energy and consumer credit among the prominent firms that received funding in the review period.
The research by Africa: The Big Deal covers debt and equity deals of more than $100,000 (Sh12.9 million) and excludes exits.
“Kenya topped the charts in terms of funding raised, almost hitting the $1 billion mark. This is the most funding an individual market has attracted in a single year since 2022,” the research firm said in a statement.
“In fact, it represented almost a third of the total raised on the continent in 2025. Debt ($582 million) represented 60 percent of the total raised, and the amount of equity raised ($383 million) almost doubled year-on-year.”
The research firm said that most of the performance was driven by large energy and consumer credit players such as d.light, Sun King, M-Kopa, Burn and PowerGen.
Sun King, for instance, received a financing package of $156 million (Sh20.1 billion) last year from a consortium of lenders comprising Citi, Absa, Co-operative Bank of Kenya, KCB Bank, and Stanbic Bank Kenya.
Companies like d.light, Sun King and M-Kopa are active in rural parts of the country and low-income zones in towns where there is strong demand from households seeking to acquire solar energy solutions and gadgets like mobile phones and television sets.
The report noted that 75 young businesses raised $100,000 (Sh12.9 million) or more in Kenya in 2025.
Egypt followed Kenya in startups funding last year at $614 million, with South Africa and Nigeria ranking third and fourth respectively with hauls of $599 million and $343 million.
The big four, as they have been referred to since 2019, attracted a total of 82 percent of the funding.
“Egypt came second with $614 million raised, 20 percent of the total. Funding in the country grew at a similar rate as Kenya,” the report said.
“Roughly half of the amount raised was equity, and the rest debt. Egypt was also the second-largest market in terms of debt funding ($278 million, 24 percent of Africa’s total). 61 start-ups raised $100,000 or more in the country last year.”
South Africa was the biggest market in terms of equity funding, with 90.9 percent or $545 million received in the form of payment for ownership stakes.
The country accounted for 29 percent of Africa’s total equity funding.
At a regional level, Eastern Africa was in the lead in 2025 when it came to the total funding raised (34 percent), followed by Western (24 percent), Northern (23 percent), Southern (19 percent) and Central Africa (0.1 percent), according to the report.
