Egypt is turning into Africa’s top tech hub, report

CAIRO – 4 February 2020: Egypt has been named as Africa’s first technology hub during the year 2019, according to Disrupt Africa’s Tech Startups Funding Report 2019.

The report said that 88 Egyptian tech startups managed to secure investment during the past year, more than their counterparts in other African countries, the investments accounted for 28.3 percent of the overall total.

The current boosting represents 159 percent growth on the 34 startups that secured investment in 2018, according to the report.

In 2018, those 34 Egyptian startups received funds estimated at $90 million to top countries such as South Africa, and have 17.4 percent of Africa’s overall total funds.
The report hailed the Egyptian startups’ performance as “impressive”, pointing out that Egypt is on the way to be a powerful tech hub in North Africa.

331 African tech startups received $491.6 million worth of investment in the year 2019, a pace considered as “record-breaking”, according to Disrupt Africa’s report.

And whereas in many previous years the data would have shown the vast majority of the funding went to companies in just three markets, namely South Africa, Nigeria and Kenya, 2019 was a little different.

During the past years, markets of South Africa, Nigeria, and Kenya had the biggest share of funds, however, Egypt has rapidly jumped to the top, said the report.

Tarek Assaad, managing partner of Algebra Ventures, a Cairo-based VC firm that has backed 16 companies over the last couple of years said Egypt is generally becoming a more attractive investment destination because of the improving macroeconomic picture and attractive fundamentals like large population and underserved consumer base.