Fintech remains the biggest investment sector in Africa’s technology ecosystem, but capital is increasingly moving into businesses tackling the continent’s infrastructure, energy and productivity gaps.
African technology companies raised $4.1bn in combined equity and debt funding in 2025, up 25 per cent from a year earlier, according to Partech. Fintech accounted for $1.49bn, or 37 per cent of total funding, while cleantech attracted $1.18bn, almost double its 2024 level.
The shift is creating opportunities beyond the financial applications that have dominated Africa’s startup market, according to the Principal at Africa Climate Ventures, Kemi Olajide said in an email.
“The next generation of category-defining companies will apply the same discipline to other essential systems, solving constraints in energy, agriculture, food systems, mobility, logistics, and industrial production,” Olajide stated.
She is due to speak at GITEX Nigeria in Lagos on 2 September, where she will join a session on emerging technology investment.
Olajide said artificial intelligence will be important to the next investment cycle, but warned investors against treating AI itself as the investment thesis.
“The investment case cannot rest with AI alone,” she said. “It must translate into better economics: lower costs, higher yields, reduced downtime, improved credit decisions, and stronger customer retention.”
The International Monetary Fund estimates that AI could add 0.4 per cent cumulatively to sub-Saharan Africa’s GDP over ten years under current conditions. If adoption expands into agriculture and other sectors and infrastructure and human capital gaps are addressed, the potential GDP effect could rise to about four per cent.
That opportunity is constrained by Africa’s limited digital infrastructure. The continent accounts for about 18 per cent of the world’s population but has less than 1 per cent of global data-centre capacity, according to the GSMA.
Olajide sees reliable electricity, fibre networks, last-mile connectivity, data centres and computing capacity as critical areas for investment. She also expects demand for skills in engineering, data, cybersecurity, product management and hardware maintenance to grow.
Governments, she said, should focus on public foundations such as reliable power, predictable regulation, digital identity, education and data governance, while private capital can target commercially viable infrastructure.
The growth of cleantech funding shows how technology investment is already moving closer to the physical economy. Partech said cleantech equity funding reached $550m in 2025, up 186 per cent, while the sector recorded 74 equity deals, double the previous year.
For Africa, however, attracting capital is only part of the equation. Olajide said the continent must also retain more of the intellectual property, technical expertise and economic value generated by its technology sector.
“Ownership matters, but it should not be reduced to nationality,” she said. “What matters is whether African teams are building intellectual property, controlling strategically important data, developing technical capability, and participating meaningfully in the economics.”
That could determine whether Africa remains primarily a consumer of imported technology or develops companies and infrastructure capable of competing beyond the continent.
“The strongest companies will not sell a climate premium,” Olajide noted. “They will offer a better, cheaper, or more reliable product and deliver measurable climate value.”
