The other rising stars of startup investment were in health which garnered added interest in the wake of a global health crisis. But perhaps one surprise was that Edtech startups didn’t make the top 10 even as the pandemic forced schools to shut down for months and many school children and college students had to move online.

Meanwhile, as the continent’s funding sources continue to grow, so have investor exit options. And in 2020, the ecosystem witnessed an exciting uptick in mergers and acquisitions (M&A) with deals topping $1.12 billion.

Fintech dominated not just in startup funding rounds but also also in merger & acquisition activity as companies including  Notable deals include Stripe’s $200 million acquisition of Paystack, MFS Africa’s acquisition of Beyonic, WorldRemit’s $500 million takeover of Sendwave, the cross-border payment service. These deals suggest that unlike other markets where IPOs are a popular exit route, in Africa, future exits will most likely happen through M&A.

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