The Future of Fintech in Africa

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<h3>Rising Late Stage VC deals in Africa indicate Growing Consolidation</h3>

<p>VC funding tripled on the Mother Continent between 2020 and 2022, but the global headwinds has caused the iceflows of the much anticipated VC winter to finally reach African shores. 2022 was a landmark year for African VC investment, ending the year with a total of $3.2 billion invested over 796 deals. Pitchbook data shows us that at the end H1 2023, there are less than 50% of last year&#39;s deals inked, and a 45% drop in funding. This means that the shrinking portion of capital getting deployed in Africa is being distributed to later stage startups to backup industry incumbents. Consolidation is likely to continue, as 2022 saw 5X increase in exits via buyouts versus exit via acquisition or IPO.</p>

Changes to Africa's VC Deal Mix and Exit Type

Infobytes

<h3>1/3rd of all startups in Egypt are eCommerce, retail-tech or fintech players</h3>

<p>One in five startups in Egypt are e-commerce players as of the end of 2021 (which was the last time a study of this kind was conducted; don&#39;t worry, Lucidity Insights is working on a deep-dive report on Egypt for you). Egypt&#39;s second largest startup sector is fintech, though it has just over half the number of startups as in the e-commerce &amp; retail-tech space. That said, Fintech was the category that birthed Egypt&#39;s first unicorn, <a href="https://lucidityinsights.com/spotlights/e-payment-platform-that-strives-for-financial-inclusion-of-banked-and-unbanked-egyptians">Fawry </a>- who exited via IPO in 2019. Digital health, or e-health, rounded out the top 3, with nearly 1 in 10 startups in Egypt being healthtech related.</p>

<p><strong>Related:&nbsp;<a href="https://lucidityinsights.com/spotlights/e-payment-platform-that-strives-for-financial-inclusion-of-banked-and-unbanked-egyptians">E-Payment Platform Fawry, Strives for Financial Inclusion of Banked and Unbanked Egyptians</a></strong></p>

Breakdown of the Egyptian Tech Ecosystem: 1/3rd of all startups in Egypt are eCommerce, retail-tech or fintech players

Breakdown of the Egyptian Tech Ecosystem

<h3>GITEX&#39;s 43 Year Journey from Startup to Top 3</h3>

<p><a href="https://www.gitex.com/">GITEX</a> is 43 years old this year. It was first launched in December 1981 as the &quot;Gulf Computer Exhibition&quot; at the Dubai International Trade and Exhibition Centre, welcoming 3,000 guests. Thinking back, at this time IBM had just introduced its first personal computer, which ran on Microsoft&#39;s nascent MS-DOS operating system. Two months prior to the Gulf Computer Exhibition, Apple had released their Profile 5MB hard disk for their Apple III computer, for $3,499. The local exhibition has also played host to its own special showcases too; it was at this event in1985 that IBM launched its first arabic language keyboard. In 1988, GCE changed it&#39;s name to Gulf Information Technology Exhibition, or GITEX For short. By 1989, GITEX had grown more than 3-fold to 10,000 participants. On GITEX&#39;s 25th birthday in 2006, it reached 125,000 attendees. By 2010, <a href="https://www.gitex.com/">GITEX</a> had become the 3rd largest ICT show in the world. Last year, in 2022, GITEX broke records, welcoming a staggering 170,000 people to the event. 40% were international, flying in from over 170 countries.</p>

Changes to Africa's Venture Deal Mix and Exit Type

Rising Late Stage VC deals in Africa indicate Growing Consolidation

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