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# CHART: Why Are the African Women-Led Startups Facing a Funding Disparity?
- URL: https://www.techloy.com/chart-why-are-the-african-women-led-startups-facing-a-funding-disparity/
- Published: 2025-06-26T09:46:16.000Z
- Updated: 2025-06-26T09:46:16.000Z
- Description: As women-led startups mature, the funding thins out.
- Author: Kelechi Edeh
- Tags: / Insights, Women in Tech, Tech in Africa, / Money, / Startups

For all the buzz about gender inclusion in tech, the numbers tell a really different story, especially as African startups grow beyond early stages.

New data from *Africa: The Big Deal* shows that between January and May 2025, just 9% of funded startups had a female CEO, and they attracted only 0.9% of total capital — roughly $9.5 million out of the $1.055 billion raised so far this year. That’s down from 3% in 2024 which was already a record low since tracking began in 2019.

When you zoom out to the broader trend, it gets clearer that women-led or co-founded ventures are getting filtered out as they scale. 

Since 2019, only 25% of African startups that raised funding had a female co-founder, and those pulled in just 17% of the $14 billion+ total (about $2.4 billion). Female-led startups, meanwhile, landed just 13% of the deals since 2019, but only 5% of the capital (roughly $700 million).

What this means is that when female CEOs do manage to raise, they raise 2.5x less on average than their male-led counterparts. And the gap widens with every funding stage.

At pre-seed, female-led and co-founded startups are more visible, accounting for 28% of deals and 24% of capital. But by Series B or C, that drops sharply to 14% of deals (and 11% of funding) for female co-founders, and just 5% of deals (and 4% of funding) for female CEOs—across 106 late-stage rounds averaging $40 million each.

[CHART: African startup funding has crossed the $1 billion-mark for 2025Funding slowed down slightly in May, but not enough to derail the momentum.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/c1/a6/c1a6d111-d951-41ad-a392-c1e841210b93/content/images/icon/techloy-avatar-1-2419.png)TechloyKelechi Edeh![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/c1/a6/c1a6d111-d951-41ad-a392-c1e841210b93/content/images/thumbnail/photo-1614023342667-6f060e9d1e04)](https://www.techloy.com/chart-african-startup-funding-has-crossed-the-1-billion-mark-for-2025/)

What we're seeing here isn't a pipeline issue. The pipeline exists as 700+ female co-founded ventures have raised capital since 2019\. The problem is what happens after. As women-led startups mature, the funding thins out. The data shows they’re not just underrepresented; they’re consistently overlooked in the large, late-stage funding rounds that drive real scale.

Why? It could be a mix of old habits and structural headwinds. Female founders often lack access to the investor networks that fuel big-ticket rounds. There’s also persistent bias around what “scalable leadership” looks like. And in many cases, cultural norms may still cast doubt on women managing major capital — even when the track record is there.

And that’s the gap and opportunity growth-stage investors need to step into. Early-stage capital laid the groundwork. Now it’s time to back these ventures all the way, with capital, visibility, and women-focused programs that don't stop at seed. 

One wonders if the rest of 2025 would bring a shift or just more of the same.

[CHART: Funding for Female-Led Startups in Africa Dropped to a Five-Year Low in 2024Women-led startups continue to struggle with investor networks, capital constraints, and visibility.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/c1/a6/c1a6d111-d951-41ad-a392-c1e841210b93/content/images/icon/techloy-avatar-1-2420.png)TechloyKelechi Edeh![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/c1/a6/c1a6d111-d951-41ad-a392-c1e841210b93/content/images/thumbnail/photo-1655720357872-ce227e4164ba-2)](https://www.techloy.com/chart-funding-for-female-led-startups-in-africa-dropped-to-a-five-year-low-in-2024/)