Africa’s startup space is moving in right direction when it comes to gender diversity

The third edition of Diversity Dividend: Exploring Gender Equality in the African Tech Ecosystem finds measurable progress in female participation across African startups. Of the 3,331 startups analysed, 641 (19.2%) had at least one woman on their founding team and 402 (12.1%) were led by a female CEO — up from 14.6% and 9.6% respectively in 2023, and 17.3% and 11.1% in 2024. The study was produced in partnership with Madica, Thinkroom and Jumpstarter Crowdfunding and draws on quantitative data and interviews with founders and investors.

"Clearly African tech remains a male-dominated landscape, and there is much to be done to ensure that more women enter the space, and co-found or lead tech startups," the report states, while noting that "increases of almost five percentage points, in the case of female co-founders, and three percentage points, for female CEOs, over just three years are not to be sniffed at."

Trends by country and sector

Progress is uneven across markets. No single country exceeded 29% of startups with a female co-founder or CEO. Smaller markets such as Zambia, Uganda, Senegal and Rwanda typically perform better on gender metrics, but the four largest ecosystems have driven much of the recent improvement.

• Nigeria: female representation within founding teams rose to 22% in the latest edition, from 20.7% in 2024 and 16.5% in 2023. Startups with female CEOs grew to 13.1% from 12.1% in 2024 and 10.8% in 2023.
• South Africa: startups with a female co-founder increased to 19.1% (18.1% in 2024; 13.6% in 2023). Women CEOs rose to 12.3% (11.6% in 2024; 8.8% in 2023).
• Kenya: female founders now represent 23.6% of founding teams (20.6% in 2024; 16.6% in 2023), while ventures with female CEOs reached 16.7% (14.1% in 2024; 11.2% in 2023).
• Egypt: ventures with a female co-founder climbed to 15%, and female CEOs to 7.6%.

Elsewhere, trends are mixed. Tunisia and Cameroon saw declines in both female co-founder and CEO shares. Senegal, Rwanda and Tanzania improved co-founder diversity but fell back on female CEO representation. Ethiopia recorded a smaller share of female co-founders but a higher percentage of women CEOs. In markets such as Ivory Coast, female founders remain scarce, while Zambia approaches one-third female co-founders and nearly one-quarter female CEOs.

Sectors and implications

The report highlights sectoral variation. Legal-tech, e-health, ed-tech, recruitment/HR, e-commerce/retail-tech, agri-tech and entertainment are the best-performing verticals for gender diversity. Legal-tech is the only vertical to pass the 30% mark for female co-founders. By contrast, fintech — the dominant vertical by startup count and investment — remains relatively male-dominated: just 16.5% of fintech ventures have a female co-founder and only 8.9% are led by a woman, though the sector did record some growth.

The research combines data analysis with interviews and case studies and is available for download. For enquiries, the report lists contacts including Gabriella and Tom. The authors and partners characterize the rises as modest but meaningful, signalling that while substantial gaps remain, the ecosystem is moving in the right direction on gender diversity.