Merger and acquisition exercise in African startups surged in 2025, with 67 offers recorded, representing a 72% improve from the 39 offers seen in 2024, the very best annual whole ever.
That is in line with the State of Tech in Africa (SOTIA) report by TechCabal.
The report notes that African startups raised $3.4 billion in 2025, bringing whole funding over seven years to $20.16 billion.
What the report is saying
In response to the report, established gamers are aggressively shopping for different startups to develop, get licenses, and take extra of the market.
“This surge alerts a definitive shift from a fragmented ecosystem to at least one outlined by strategic consolidation and the emergence of deeper, extra built-in platform companies,” the report acknowledged
Lexi Novitske, Companion at Norrsken22, mentioned most mergers and acquisitions in 2025 had been strategic, pushed by firms buying startups to increase geographically or improve product and expertise capabilities.
“Whereas we’re nonetheless seeing some exits out of necessity the place firms can not elevate capital, scale, or are working into licensing points, I feel this 12 months nearly all of exits have truly been strategic.
“We’ve got seen extra conventional gamers, together with banks, buying expertise firms, plus broader consolidation within the house. A few of this has been for geographic growth, and in different instances technology-led acquisitions so as to add product capabilities,” mentioned Novitske
Sector tendencies
Fintech led the M&A wave, accounting for 31 offers or almost 46% of whole exercise. Firms like Moniepoint, Sew, and Rank executed a number of acquisitions to strengthen banking licenses and increase infrastructure.
- E-commerce, with 8 offers, and logistics and transport, with 6 offers, additionally recorded vital consolidation. Twiga Meals acquired three distributors, Raisons, Sojpar, and Jumra, to strengthen its provide chain. Chowdeck acquired Mira, whereas International Store Group bought Anka to reinforce supply networks. Cross-border strikes, comparable to Logidoo buying Kamtar, emphasize a push for regional dominance past native markets.
- Telecom, media and leisure noticed 6 offers, together with AXIAN Telecom buying Wananchi Group and a strategic stake in Jumia.
- Healthcare, with 6 offers, and deeptech, with 4 offers, additionally demonstrated rising maturity, with HearX buying Eargo and Adapt IT buying ResRequest.
- Local weather tech recorded 3 offers, whereas edtech, proptech, and providers every had 1 deal. This reveals that consolidation is increasing past fintech and e-commerce into rising and area of interest areas of African tech.
In response to the SOTIA report, the whole deal rely in 2025 was 67, reflecting the very best annual exercise within the continent’s tech ecosystem thus far.
Regional M&A exercise
Tier 1 markets dominated acquisitions, accounting for 75% of acquired startups in 2025. South Africa topped the leaderboard with 16 acquisitions, pushed by exits together with digital bank Bank Zero, TaxTim, and Namola.
Kenya adopted with 14 offers, together with transactions linked to Mobius Motors and different strategic firms. Egypt recorded 11 acquisitions, whereas Nigeria remained strong with 9 offers, together with Fatura and Pensions Alliance Restricted.
- African tech property additionally expanded globally, with offers recorded in the UK with 2 offers, the US with 2 offers, Uganda with 1 deal, the United Arab Emirates with 1 deal, Senegal with 1 deal, the Netherlands with 1 deal, Morocco with 1 deal, Mauritania with 1 deal, Eire with 1 deal, and Brazil with 1 deal.
- This geographic unfold demonstrates that African tech firms are more and more integrating with ecosystems throughout Europe, the Americas, and the Center East, reflecting rising cross-border exercise and international investor curiosity.
Outlook
The surge in M&A exercise reveals a maturing African tech ecosystem, the place strategic consolidation, cross-border growth, and vertical integration have gotten key development methods. The focus of offers in tier 1 markets highlights South Africa, Kenya, and Nigeria as the first engines of liquidity and worth creation.
In response to Novitske, waiting for 2026, M&A exercise is predicted to proceed in Africa’s main markets. She famous that AI instruments, which can not but be commercially viable on their very own, are more likely to change into enticing targets as add-ons that enhance inside effectivity and cut back prices for acquirers.
Consolidation can also be anticipated to persist in microfinance and different extremely aggressive fintech segments, the place buying consumer bases and datasets stays invaluable for geographic growth. Given ongoing international market volatility, Novitske added that worldwide acquirers are unlikely to be very lively in Africa subsequent 12 months, as most will deal with managing danger.
What you must know
Nigeria’s tech and monetary sectors have seen plenty of noteworthy mergers and acquisitions in 2026.
One of the vital offers this 12 months noticed Flutterwave, Africa’s largest fintech firm, purchase Nigerian open banking startup Mono in an all‑inventory transaction valued between $25 million and $40 million.
The acquisition brings collectively Flutterwave’s in depth funds community with Mono’s API‑primarily based bank information infrastructure, enabling safe entry to monetary info, id verification, and direct bank funds throughout a number of markets.
In one other excessive‑profile transfer, Nigerian funds firm Paystack acquired Ladder Microfinance Bank, marking a strategic growth past its core funds enterprise into regulated monetary providers. Paystack now holds deposits and points loans via the newly created Paystack Microfinance Bank.
Trove Finance, a Nigerian fintech platform, acquired UCML Securities Restricted to change into a SEC‑licensed dealer.
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