Gender and sectoral venture capital disparities

Venture capital disparities in Nigeria and South Africa reflect concentration by country, sector and founder network, with women receiving a relatively small share of funding, according to an opinion piece by Dr Akinbinu, an entrepreneur, researcher and consultant writing from Johannesburg. The article draws on Partech data for 2025. Nigeria remained highly active but its equity funding fell to US$412 million from US$520 million in 2024, across 83 deals. South Africa raised US$643 million across 85 deals, making it Africa's leading equity market in 2025. Nigeria's market is heavily reliant on fintech, which accounted for 56 per cent of equity funding, followed by electronic commerce at 20 per cent and cleantech at seven per cent. South Africa's market is more diversified, with cleantech at 21 per cent, health technology at 17 per cent and fintech at about 14 per cent.

Gender data show a sharper imbalance. Female-founded startups accounted for 19 per cent of African equity deals and 10 per cent of total equity funding in 2025. Ninety startups with female founders raised equity, and male founders raised on average 8.5 times as much venture capital. The gap narrowed from 2024 but remains substantial. No female-led startup secured growth-stage funding in 2025, and two-thirds of female-led deals were at seed stage. Nigeria and South Africa each ranked among the ten African countries with the most deals involving female founders, with 16 and 17 respectively.

The article attributes part of the financing gap in Nigeria to collateral requirements and limited financial records. World Bank research cited in the piece found women own about 40 per cent of Nigerian micro, small and medium enterprises, yet 52 per cent of women-led firms identified finance as a major constraint versus 30 per cent of male-led firms, and loan rejection rates were 56 per cent for women compared with 17 per cent for men. The author proposes cash flow-based lending and sex-disaggregated investment data as remedies, and cites the Women Entrepreneurs Finance Initiative, in which the World Bank worked with the Development Bank of Nigeria and commercial banks, as evidence that reduced reliance on physical collateral can increase the number and size of loans to women.

The article notes that Agritech and Insurtech were the only sectors to reach gender parity in 2025 equity funding, with female-founded Agritech businesses accounting for 39 per cent of deals and 58 per cent of sector funding. Connectivity and logistics technology recorded no female-founded equity deals. The author argues that sector preferences, referral-based deal flow and network access act as an informal filter, and recommends that investors widen sourcing channels, track decisions by gender, sector and stage, and set measurable targets, while governments use guarantees, matching funds and first-loss structures to support underserved founders.