Founder, @propel_africa: where African founders and investors find each other. Father, husband, traveller, builder.
United Kingdom
Joined October 2010
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Eight years of African venture, on one record: $21.4 billion disclosed across 4,100+ funding rounds since 2019.
Acquisitions and IPOs stay out. Buying a company is not investing in one.
Every startup and fund has a page. Go and find your competitors. Or your next investor.
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Some of the best-known funds in African venture appear on Propel's record once or twice in two years. Funds have cycles. The hard part is that founders rarely get to see where a fund is in its cycle. Thread.
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1. Some of the best-known funds in African venture appear on Propel's record once or twice in two years. Funds have cycles. The hard part is that founders rarely get to see where a fund is in its cycle. Thread.
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Fintech: 81 African startup deals from January to August 2026, the most of any sector.
Its money fell to about $525M from about $690M, and more of it is borrowed: ValU $63.6M from National Bank of Egypt, @NALAmoney up to $50M.
Is fintech equity getting harder to raise?
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Weekend question:
Which African startup is the most underrated right now?
Best answers might just get a Propel feature 👀
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Since 2023, @Techstars has backed 41 Nigerian startups on Propel's records. Next: @vplatformhub 14, 54 Collective 13, @ycombinator 12.
But Techstars went from 54 African first cheques in 2023 to two in 2025.
Who writes Nigeria's pre-seed cheques in 2027?
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Propel Africa went quiet last December.
Here's why: the old site was a directory, and the data aged the moment we published it.
So I rebuilt it. Every startup, every investor and every round between them, kept fresh.
Raised recently? DM me. I'd love to feature you.
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Four first cheques this year, three of them pre-seed and all under $2M, from Nigeria to Morocco.
Founders who closed one in 2026: how long from first meeting to money in the bank?
Every company starts with a first cheque. Four that landed theirs this year:
ChipMango 🇳🇬 $1.9M seed, led by @AtlanticaVC
Verascient 🇿🇦 $1.2M pre-seed, led by @fcollective
Knot 🇪🇬 $1M pre-seed, led by A15
ReparTrust 🇲🇦 $800K pre-seed
Good luck with the next one.
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@SPIROEVs on Propel's records: eight rounds since 2023. Five are debt ($188M), three are venture rounds ($370M).
Bikes and batteries are assets a lender can see.
Equity to build, debt to scale. Which other African hardware companies could borrow like this?
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37 pre-seed deals by September, against 19 in all of 2025. More first cheques are being written, just smaller ones. I'd rather see that than a few big ones. xitter.cf/thecondia/status/21128…
African pre-seed deals are picking up, but cheques are shrinking.
37 deals in Jan–Sep 2026 vs 19 in all of 2025. Yet the median disclosed deal fell 35%, from $1m to $650k
Disclosed funding hit $34m in nine months, above 2025's $28.6m
Is this a healthy funding market or a sign that capital is becoming harder to secure in meaningful amounts for pre seed companies?
#InsightsByCondia
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African AI startups on Propel's AI Focus list: 112 companies, 144 rounds recorded, $302.6M in disclosed funding.
The same list has five recorded acquisitions, with $516.0M in disclosed consideration, kept out of the funding total.
M&A is already part of the AI story here.
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Bought by an acquirer, bought back by its founders, now raising again. Not many African startups get a second start like @Tactfulai. xitter.cf/DisruptAfrica/status/2…
Egypt’s Tactful AI gets backing from former e& CEO Hatem Dowidar disruptafrica.com/2026/10/20…
@ycombinator first cheques for African startups: 30 in 2021, 31 in 2022, six or fewer a year since.
Founders who raised a first round since 2023: where did that money come from? xitter.cf/propel_africa/status/2…
30 African startups got their first Y Combinator cheque in 2021, and 31 in 2022. Since then, six or fewer a year.
Techstars: 54 first cheques in 2023, two in 2025.
So where do first cheques come from now?
propel.africa/guide/safes-no…
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🇳🇬 Nigeria took 46% of the money announced across Africa in Q3, on Propel's records: $326M.
Take out Moove's $250M Series C and it is about $76M across 30 deals.
One round can make a quarter. The 30 others are the ecosystem.
propel.africa/ecosystems/nig…
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DFIs often write the first cheques in new markets. @Proparco's Digital Africa just made its first investment in Ethiopia: ChipChip, which links farmers with buyers in Addis Ababa. On Propel's records: $300K raised in September 2024.
Which market do you think VCs underprice most?
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A year since @moniepoint closed its $200M round, with @Visa in as a strategic investor.
Strategic money from a global network is a different signal from a VC cheque: it says the rails matter. xitter.cf/propel_africa/status/2…
A year ago this week, @moniepoint added $90M to complete a $200M round.
@Visa came in as a strategic investor, alongside @LeapFrogInvest.
At the time: 1B+ transactions a month, and a valuation above $1B.
Happy anniversary to the team 🇳🇬
Two kinds of African exit in the news this week, and neither needed a Silicon Valley buyer:
1. MNT-Halan listed on the EGX in Cairo today.
2. @Five35V sold its @CompleteFarmer stake for 3.5x, a 38% IRR.
Home listings and secondaries. Which one comes next?
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Unpopular opinion: early-stage funds in Africa should sell more, not less.
@Five35V took 3.5x on @CompleteFarmer by selling to another investor while the company kept growing. A first-time fund with real cash back raises its next fund. A paper 10x may never get the chance.
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Founders: what's the one thing you wish you'd known about an investor before your first meeting?
I'm building for exactly this. Tell me 👇
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