Venture finance in Africa

VC4A Venture Finance in Africa research captures the performance of early-stage, high growth ventures from Africa and the activity of early stage investors.

Performance over time

Innovative ventures yield high social and environmental impact and are a key driver for Africa’s development. Opportunity driven entrepreneurs are generating much of Africa’s employment, income and hope for a better future. But how are these companies progressing over time? As the VC4A community continues to grow, it is expected the report will lend insights into what is happening across the larger startup space.

VC4A Index

Datasets on this emerging segment are limited and there are few comparative studies. The VC4A team collects data in the world’s largest single database of African startups and early stage investors to help explain trends and set the way forward. This feeds the creation of the VC4A Index – an intuitive, highly visual, free service that allows anyone to explore SME financing trends across the continent. All the figures provided by the Index are based on up-to-the-minute, live data sourced directly from the VC4A platform: index.vc4afri.ca.

Unlocking information

The VC4A portal is a living database, and we follow entrepreneurs as they realize their potential and emerge as Africa’s next great success stories. From our research we know there are a growing number of companies that have real potential. They have capable teams, well-refined products and services. Most importantly, they generate revenue and are well positioned for growth. The challenge VC4A seeks to tackle with this research is to unlock this information for the market, and to better enable our members and ecosystem players with the insights and tools they need to take action.

Have a look at the studies we’ve completed so far and start exploring!

• Access the Covid-19 venture task force edition of the Venture Finance in Africa research
• Access the 2018 edition of the Venture Finance in Africa research
• Access the 2017 edition of the Venture Finance in Africa research
• Access the 2016 edition of the Venture Finance in Africa research
• Access the 2015 edition of the Venture Finance in Africa research
• Access the 2014 edition of the Venture Finance in Africa research

Conduct your own research

VC4A’s open data is a public service for accessing venture data collected on our platform, searchable by tag, sector, country and fundraising status. To get up and running, follow these simple steps:

1. Read through our documentation.
2. Familiarize yourself with the API using this minimal JavaScript client.
3. Fork or download our sample code in GitHub.
4. Ask for advice and send us your feedback through our API discussion group.
5. Tweet us when your project is live so we can promote it— @vc4a_africa.