Only 11.1% of African startups are managed by women CEOs

Region’s ecosystem home to 2,786 tech startups

About 11.1 per cent startups in Nigeria, Zambia, South Africa, Kenya, Egypt, Senegal and other parts of Africa are led by women. But 17.3 per cent of tech startups have at least one female co-founder.

According to ‘Diversity Dividend: Exploring Gender Equality in the African Tech Ecosystem 2024’, a report by Disrupt Africa, the gender gap remains a major challenge in the region.

The report was the second edition, done in partnership with Africa-focused pre-seed investment programme, Madica. The researchers studied 2,600 African tech startups for their findings.

The report noted that there has been progress since the first edition, when 14.6 per cent had a female on the founding team while just 9.6 per cent were led by a woman CEO.
Disrupt Africa said the findings can only be characterized as “baby steps” for diversity in the region given the significant disadvantage women still face within the tech startup ecosystem.

Co-founder of Disrupt Africa, Gabriella Mulligan, said this second edition of the pioneering research publication, ‘Diversity Dividend,’ tracks small but significant steps toward a more gender-diverse African startup ecosystem, but more needs to be done to ensure the sector more quickly toward the gender parity it needs to scale and succeed.

ConnectAfrica reported that as of June 1, 2024, there were 483 startups with at least one female co-founder out of 2,786 total African tech startups. This was up from 350 female-founded startups in 2023.

“While it is clear from the data that African tech remains very much a male-dominated landscape, there are positives to be drawn from the growth in female leadership we have seen over the last year, however small. That said, much serious work still needs to be done to get women anywhere near parity from a leadership perspective within the space,” the report said.

In terms of country specifics, the report noted that Zambia was the most diverse nation, with 24 per cent of its startups having female representation at the founder level.

Senegal was close behind at 23.4 per cent, followed by Rwanda at 22 per cent. Nigeria, Kenya and Ethiopia had almost 21 per cent of their tech startups including a female founder. Tunisia was nearing 20 per cent and South Africa had just over 18 per cent of its startups including a female founder.

The report claimed Zambia also had the highest percentage of female CEOs followed by Tunisia, Senegal, Rwanda, Ghana and Kenya.
In terms of fundraising, the report disclosed that the total African tech funding raised by ventures with at least one female co-founder increased to 16.6 per cent in 2023, from 9.3 per cent in 2022.

Meanwhile, the share of funding raised by female-led startups was up to 8.2 per cent in 2023, compared to just 2.8 per cent the year before.

Disrupt Africa disclosed that $6.2 billion was raised by African tech startups between January 2022 and the beginning of June 2024 – of that, only $747 million (11.9 per cent) went to startups with a female co-founder and just $289 million (4.6 per cent) to startups with a female CEO.

Accordingly, the report said between January 2022 and the beginning of June 2024, 21.9 per cent of funded African tech startups had at least one female co-founder and 11.8 per cent had a female CEO.

The report said geographically and vertically, the direction of funding into female-founded ventures over the last two-and-a-half years follows wider trends, with Nigeria by far the most attractive country and fintech the leading sector.

Head of Madica, Emmanuel Adegboye, said: “Gender inequality has continued to challenge women in Africa’s tech community, and some of the findings have made for grim readings. For instance, the total share of funding raised by ventures with at least one female co-founder declined again in 2024.
“Ultimately, what we find is that after all is said and done, a lot more is being said than done.”

Further, the report disclosed that African startups received investment from 575 venture capital (VC) firms between the beginning of 2023 and the middle of 2024. Geographic and gender-based data was available for about 423 of this sample, or 73.5 per cent of VCs investing during this period.

Disrupt Africa found that VC funding came from many geographic areas, however, its data suggests the biggest chunk of investment into African tech startups, or 33.8 per cent, came from within the continent. Interestingly, among these African VC firms, 44 per cent had female leaders.

The U.S. was the second most active investor base, and 49.6 per cent of US-based VC firms involved had female leaders. There were also many Europe-based firms, and 52 per cent of these had female leaders.

The report said that while it is positive to see an average of 40 per cent to 50 per cent of VC firms boasting a female leadership member, “resoundingly the reality is that there is one single woman on the leadership team, surrounded by multiple male peers.”

“Real equality would be where leadership comprised similar numbers of male and female candidates,” the report noted.

Besides Madica, other partners in the report include impact investing firm Goodwell Investments; agriculture and climate-focused accelerator programme SAIS, powered by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ); and the International Trade Centre’s NTF V programme.