In 2019, total funding for startups in Africa was $1 billion.rapidly expanding population and a rising middle class are Keet van Zyl begins his keynote address of the Viva AfricArena conference by telling how an ignorant remark by a prospective US funder for his venture capital firm Knife Capital made him blindingly mad.
An inconsiderate question from a potential investor, however, soon tested their self-control in a way they had not expected.Van Zyl was so taken aback, he spent the evening writing an angry post blog post, which went unpublished after he decided to sleep on it.
Van Zyl said factors such as a rapidly expanding population, a rising middle class, young urban citizens entering the workforce at scale, and increased connectivity, were providing a lot of opportunities.Rather, it must be seen as a conglomeration of ecosystems, which are very different from each other.
Another thing that makes African startups different, is that they tend to be more sustainable, as entrepreneurs have limited access to funding and have to be more efficient with their capital.