Debt financing for African start-ups through institutional investors grew from less than $300 million in 2021 to $1.2 billion in 2025.

Over the same period, the debt share of total disclosed start-up funding (excluding grants and exits) rose from seven per cent to 38 per cent, making it a meaningful part of the market rather than a niche sidenote.

Data compiled by Africa: The Big Deal revealed this, further showing that between 2021 and 2025, 169 start-ups announced a debt round, versus 1,880 that announced equity funding: roughly a one-to-11 ratio over the period.

The data showed that the gap has narrowed, though: in 2025, the ratio was closer to one to seven, with 53 start-ups announcing debt against 363 announcing equity (13 per cent).

It further noted that in 2025, 87 per cent of debt-raising start-ups announced just debt, as opposed to debt tied to an equity round. That is up from 75 per cent in 2022-2023, suggesting debt is increasingly being used as a standalone financing tool rather than an add-on to an equity raise.

According to it, the median disclosed debt round was $2 million in 2021, $5.5 million in 2022, $3.6 million in 2023, $2.1 million in 2024, and $5 million in 2025. So, while the market has clearly matured, it has not done so smoothly: progress has come in jumps, setbacks, and rebounds.

Africa: The Big Deal disclosed that in every year from 2021 to 2025, the single largest debt round represented between 18 per cent and 26 per cent of all disclosed debt raised that year. For instance, in 2025, d.light’s $300 million facility alone accounted for roughly a quarter of all announced debt, which helps explain why annual totals and medians can swing quite sharply.

It noted that West Africa regularly contributed the largest share of debt deals, while East Africa repeatedly captured the largest facilities, especially in the Energy sector.

But this is exactly where concentration matters: one or two very large rounds can redraw the regional picture in a single year.

The data stated that in 2021, crowd and retail lenders still appeared in about 35 per cent of debt deals; by 2025, that figure was down to about three per cent. Over the same period, DFIs, banks, and especially specialist non-bank lenders became much more visible, suggesting the market is moving away from smaller platform-led debt and toward more structured institutional financing.