The post Africa’s blockchain funding dips, but adoption unfazed appeared on BitcoinEthereumNews.com.

Africa’s blockchain industry raised $135.4 million from 17 deals in 2023, with a median deal size of $2 million, a report by Swiss venture capital firm Crypto Valley VC (CV VC) reveals. While this was a massive drop from the year prior, Centbee co-founder Lorien Gamaroff believes that there’s still a vast addressable market for blockchain in Africa. The CV VC African Blockchain Report 2023 revealed that in 2023, African startups accounted for 1.3% of global sector deals, which rose to an all-time high of 1.8% in the first half of the year. However, venture funding share dropped from 1.6% to 1.3% last year and dipped even further in H1 this year to 0.6%. The $135.4 million raised last year was 72% lower than in 2022, when the region had attracted $474 million. Blockchain’s prominence in the tech sector also dipped last year, from accounting for 15.1% of all funding in African startups to 6.1%. The sector has yet to recover, the report shows. In the first half of the year, it only attracted $34.7 million, a 70% dip year-over-year. According to Gamaroff, whose startup has pioneered blockchain payments across the region, some macro factors at play extend beyond the region. “The 70% drop in VC funding for blockchain startups in Africa in the first half of 2024 reflects broader global economic trends. Globally, blockchain funding declined by 64%, indicating a cautious investment climate,” he tells CoinGeek. Indeed, venture funding has slowed down in recent years despite the rise of artificial intelligence (AI) and the billions of dollars that have gone into the shiny new technology. In 2023, startups attracted $285 billion globally, the lowest figure since 2018. Africa has been particularly affected; according to a report by industry body AVCA, VC funding to the continent decreased 38% year-over-year in…

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Filed under: News - @ August 28, 2024 9:19 am