Climate technology has displaced financial technology as Africa’s leading venture capital sector, capturing 40 percent of total funding—approximately $1.5 billion—in 2025 alone, according to a report released Tuesday by London-based research firm Briter Intelligence. The sector’s share has climbed sharply from 13 percent, or $206 million, in 2016.
The findings, detailed in “The State of ClimateTech in Africa 2.0: Moving Beyond the Headline Numbers,” show that climate-focused startups raised roughly $6.35 billion across 779 deals between 2016 and 2025. The research was conducted in partnership with Catalyst Fund, BFA Global, FSD Africa, and Africa: The Big Deal.
“This growth has been accompanied by a rapid expansion in the number of funded companies and deals,” the report states.
Nigeria has emerged as the continent’s second-largest destination for climate-tech investment, attracting 12.9 percent of the total between 2019 and 2025, trailing only Kenya. Kenya remains the dominant market, securing more than half of all climate-tech capital deployed across Africa, with South Africa rounding out the top three.
While Nigeria has long reigned as Africa’s fintech capital—generating over $14 billion in revenue at a 31.4 percent compound annual growth rate and producing unicorns such as Flutterwave, OPay, and Moniepoint—the report suggests climate tech could overtake fintech as the broader tech industry’s primary driver if current funding momentum persists.
The study highlights logistics, farmer-to-market linkages, and post-harvest loss reduction as high-potential areas for Nigerian climate innovation. Lagos-based Winich Farms exemplifies this trend, drawing inspiration from Kenya’s Twiga Foods but integrating market access, embedded finance, and logistics to avoid the infrastructure costs that challenged earlier models. This approach enables platforms to connect farmers directly with off-takers rather than assuming demand will follow supply.
