It has been an eventful year for Nigeria, starting off in January 2019 with a multi-million round investment in one of its notable Edtech companies, Andela.
It is, therefore, no shocker that as the year came to a close, Nigeria stood out as the top destination for VC investment, recording USD 663.24 Mn in total funding garnered.
Though a reduction in the number of deals from 136 to 97 was observed, the amount of venture capital channelled into the country was well over USD 500 Mn more compared to that in 2018.
This could be owed partly to the fact that its top three deals were all valued over 100 Mn. Apart from the USD 100Mn round secured by Andela, Nigeria saw USD 120 Mn going into Opay as well as a 20% acquisition deal worth USD 200 Mn of Interswitch.
Needless to say, the top two deals were from the fintech sector, one of the sectors that put Nigeria on the African entrepreneurship map. Fintech recorded 32 deals, but to bring this point closer to home, 50% of the total companies that raised USD 1 Mn and more in Nigeria were fintech companies.
