Global VC Ecosystems Monthly Recap is a newsletter covering relevant stories on venture capital, startups, and technology from select startup ecosystems around the world. If you dig learning about the people solving problems and creating the future in developing economies, this newsletter is for you.
Welcome to August! I’m in Arusha, Tanzania, where I’ve had the opportunity to stay in a Maasai village, see Serengeti, and I will be taking next week off to climb Kilimanjaro. I’m in the process of editing a few podcasts I recorded in Dar es Salaam about the Tanzanian startup ecosystem. Be on the lookout for those in the coming weeks.
But enough about me, let’s jump into the biggest VC and startup news from July. It’s mid-year, so there are plenty of Q2 funding updates.
Newsworthy: Let’s get right into it, the venture slowdown continues. Lots of negative news continues below for most regions as global VC funding fell -23% in Q2. Most of this activity is in late-stage funding. We’ve seen announcements from late-stage players, such as Tiger Global, that they will slow down investments.
Two things of note here. One, investors are sitting on a ton of dry powder can invest if they want to. They’re still raising new funds (including Tiger). Secondly, is that late-stage is typically the first to reflect trends in the public markets. My concern is if these trends trickle down to early-stage venture where new companies are being built. Time will tell.
Africa
The Nigerian startup bill is one step closer to being signed into law as it passed the senate last week. It moves into the House of Representatives for the next stage in the voting process.
Why it’s important: The goal of this bill is to provide a legal and institutional framework for Nigerian startups develop their businesses and talent and lead the African ecosystem. Bills specific to tech startups, and differentiating them from other SMEs, have been successful in developing startup ecosystems. This bill follows initiatives seen in Senegal and Tunisia.
Unrelated to the above, but still important, the African continent raised $2.3B in H1 of this year, topping the $2.1B raised in total in 2021. It certainly doesn’t look like the global slowdown in funding is affecting the continent. Whoa!
Asia-Pacific
Unlike Africa, the picture in Asia is not so rosy. Q2 numbers are in, and they’re -19% to Q1 and -20% to Q2 LY.
To add in some good news for future funding in the region, Lightspeed announced a new $500M fund for India and Southeast Asia.
Europe
Europe is also down -24% in Q2. The news isn’t all bad though, as European funding had remained high during Q1 of this year, breaking away from global trends
Here’s some good news for Europe: a look into the European Innovation Council’s €20M fund for Ukrainian startups.
Latin America
I know, I sound like a broken record. LATAM funding is down -26% from Q1 to $120B. Like all other declining regions, this is showing up in later-stage funding.
Why it’s important: The decline in this region is particularly surprising for several reasons. LATAM was one of the fastest-growing regions for VC, as global investors poured record-breaking money into startups there. This region has completely flipped. Additionally, funding started slowing down here earlier than other regions.
Middle East
I haven’t seen a report on Middle East funding, so I’m ending the newsletter on a positive note. Super interesting, UAE announced an $820M fund for domestic space initiatives.
Why it’s important: Usually, startups in regions outside of the U.S. and Europe are focusing on solving developing needs like access to finance or logistics. It’s unusual to hear about investments in space technology in other regions, so this is good news for global startups working on space initiatives as the fund will focus on local and global partnerships.
See you again next month!
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