State of AgTech Investment in Africa 2024

Executive Summary

The State of AgTech Investment in Africa 2024 is the first in a series of reports utilising the AgBase platform powered by Briter Intelligence to offer an analysis of the evolving AgTech landscape in Africa.

This first report looks at the last decade of funding where more than $1.56 billion was raised across 700+ deals from 400+ active AgTechs between 2014 and Q3 2024. It shows that there has been a marked shift in the funding landscape for AgTechs. From rapid year-over-year growth peaking in 2022, by 2023 the bubble had burst leading to the establishment of a new baseline characterised by higher deal flow, but lower funding volumes with fewer active commercial funders. While lower than the preceding two years, this new baseline for AgTech is about 50% higher than where the ecosystem was in 2019 and 2020. However, the nature and characteristics of this new baseline is different from previous periods.

12 trends from the last twelve months

1. AgTech funding volume stable, but wider ecosystem still in decline

Over the last twelve months, 131 AgTech companies have raised $215 million in investment across 158 deals. This is similar to the previous twelve-month period, but while that only accounted for 14% of deals, the latest figures amount to nearly 25% of all deals to Africa’s digital and technology innovation landscape.

2. Very early-stage funding grows, later-stage funding steady

The two most common publicly disclosed ticket size ranges for deals to AgTech startups were below $100,000 and more than $1 million. Deals below $100,000 accounted for 59% of deals in the last twelve months, up from just over a third in the previous period. Deals above $1 million remained stable at around 20%.

3. Funding from outside Africa flat, while local funder deal flow halves

The last twelve months saw a limited change in the number of deals from funders headquartered outside Africa, following a big drop the previous year, while deals from Africa-headquartered funders fell by 59%. A major driver stabilising funders headquartered outside Africa was increased activity from DFIs and impact investors headquartered outside of the region.

4. Semi-commercial funders drive deal flow, as commercial funders retreat

Deals from commercial funders have declined by more than 40% over the last twelve months, while accelerator and other support organisation deals have dropped by 18%. Semi-commercial deals have also dropped by 6%, however lead the charge in deal flow and are particularly active in later-stage deals with nearly 70% of AgTech deals over $1 million having at least one DFI or impact investor as a funder.

5. Increasing diversification of funding instruments emerges

While the majority, 61%, of AgTech funding in the last twelve months has been equity-based, this is down from 80% in the previous period. Further, the share of funding from debt and grant funding also fell, replaced by non-traditional financing instruments such as bonds, convertibles and blended finance.

6. Mixed-gender AgTechs secure larger volumes of funding, but funding for all-women founded teams lag

Over the past twelve months, AgTech startups with at least one woman co-founder have accounted for 17% of the total volume of funding, up from 5% in 2023. However, all-women-founded AgTechs have not fared as well. Their share of volume is much lower at 2% in the last twelve months compared to 8% in the past decade. This is more in line with the wider ecosystem where funding to startups with all-women founders has fallen below 1.5% in 2024.

7. On-farm and post-farm funding falls as retail and consumer grows

Over the last year, funding to AgTechs in the on-farm and post-farm value chain fell, while retail and consumer value chains increased. AgTechs in the post-farm value chain fell the most by more than 80%, whereas AgTechs in the on-farm funding fell marginally and still accounted for the majority of funding to AgTechs in Africa. This includes Agriculture Marketplaces, Agriculture FinTechs and Farm Management Services. The biggest growth was in the retail value chain where funding more than doubled.

8. Asset-heavy AgTechs attract more funding

Over the last ten years, funding to asset-heavy AgTechs has lagged asset-light and primarily digital or software-based AgTechs, accounting for only 10% of the total funding volume raised. However, this has fluctuated quite a bit year-to-year with funding to asset-heavy AgTechs reaching its peak at 34% over the last twelve months.

9. AI gains traction in number of deals, but not volume

The last year has seen a big increase with AI-related deals growing from 9% to 15%, but funding volume has been limited. The majority of these deals over the last twelve months have been at the very early-stage, accounting for less than 1% of the total funding to AgTechs over this period.

10. Climate shapes the direction of funding

In the past decade, AgTech startups offering direct or indirect climate-smart solutions have accounted for 40% of total funding across all AgTech startups. Over the past twelve months, AgTechs offering climate-smart agriculture solutions have attracted 53% of total funding, with most of those products addressing both climate adaptation and mitigation.

11. Kenya, Ethiopia, DRC and Zambia see growth in funding share

Out of the top 10 AgTech markets in 2023, only four remained in the top group in 2024 namely Kenya, Nigeria, Ghana and Egypt. However, while Kenya saw a 45% increase in the share of funding volume captured, the others all saw a drop-off in the share of funding volume. Newcomers included Ethiopia, Zambia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo which accounted for nearly 10% of funding with the highest year-on-year funding growth in Ethiopia.

12. Funding becomes less concentrated within and across the top 5 AgTechs

Over the last twelve months, 5 AgTechs raised 60% of Africa's overall funding volume to AgTechs. While the top 5 AgTechs have consistently raised 60-70% of overall funding volume, the difference in the deal size among the top 5 AgTechs is reducing each year.

Read our report to learn about 5 focus areas that could help shape where the ecosystem goes from here.