African startups and growth companies raised $224m in July, taking total funding for the first seven months of 2026 to $1.66bn.
Debt accounted for $168.55m, or 75%, of July’s disclosed funding, far exceeding the $55.51m raised through equity. Grants contributed just $95,000.
A major deal was a $114m African Development Bank loan to Gotion Power Morocco to develop a lithium iron phosphate battery plant in the Rabat-Salé-Kénitra Free Trade Zone. The first phase is expected to produce 10GWh of battery cells and packs annually for electric vehicles, with plans to eventually reach 100GWh.
Electric mobility also attracted funding in Kenya, where M-KOPA Mobility secured $30m in debt from FMO to expand its electric motorcycle and battery business.
Other major deals included $20.3m for South African business lender Bridgement and $10.7m for clean-energy company BioLite, which will use the funding to distribute improved cookstoves in Zambia.
Equity funding remained more limited. South Africa’s Cue raised $5m, while Kenya’s Fuzu secured $3.86m in Series A funding.
The figures point to a shift in Africa’s funding market, with investors increasingly favouring businesses backed by physical assets, infrastructure and predictable revenues rather than technology alone.
However, funding totals vary between trackers because organisations use different methods to classify industrial loans and asset-backed financing.