African startups are making significant progress. In this context, the digital economy platform FollowICT highlights the top startup news across Africa over the past week.
– African tech startups raise $382m in Q1 2026, up 35% on same period last year
African tech startups raised a total of US$382 million in the first quarter of 2026, up 35 per cent on the US$284 million raised in the same period of 2025.
Total investment into the African tech startup ecosystem increased by almost 50 per cent to US$1.64 billion in 2025 as the sector began to slowly recover from the impacts of the global capital shortage, according to the 11th edition of the annual African Tech Startups Funding Report released by startup news and research portal Disrupt Africa.
Numbers from Q1 2026 suggest this year will at least match, and probably surpass, 2025, with 40 startups banking US$382,150,000 in funding. Though the number of funded startups declined compared to Q1 2025, 27 per cent from 55, total funding was up 35 per cent to US$382 million.
– SA med-tech company AI Diagnostics raises $5.2m to accelerate AI-powered TB screening
South African med-tech company AI Diagnostics has raised ZAR85 million (US$5.2 million) in funding to advance the use of its proprietary hardware and AI software in combatting the tuberculosis (TB) epidemic.
Founded in 2020, the Cape Town-based AI Diagnostics develops accessible, early screening tools that empower frontline healthcare workers. Its flagship platform, the AI-powered Ostium digital stethoscope and AI.TB AI model, is an affordable solution that makes TB screening easy and accessible for frontline health workers without the need for specialist equipment or infrastructure.
The company has now raised ZAR85 million (US$5.2 million) in funding to support clinical research and validation, continued development of the product and AI model, and the operational infrastructure required to scale a medical device business in South Africa, as well as emerging markets across Sub-Saharan Africa and Asia.
– SA’s Refiant AI raises $5m seed funding to help it expand
South African startup Refiant AI, which uses algorithms to compress artificial intelligence (AI) models, has closed a US$5 million seed round to build its platform, grow its team and support enterprise partnerships.
Founded in 2025 by Viroshan Naicker, Siddharth Gutta, and Mathew Haswell, Refiant AI is building tools that restructure and compress AI models by reducing computational weight and retraining them to maintain performance, so that they can run efficiently on smaller or local machines.
As global companies race to deploy more efficient AI models, they are investing heavily in building data centres equipped with graphics processing units (GPUs) and cooling systems.
That energy infrastructure is both expensive and resource-intensive, with Refiant AI working to make the AI models lighter so they require fewer resources to operate.
– Moroccan retail-tech startup Zsystems secures $1.65m seed funding round
Moroccan retail B2B2C marketplace ZSystems has raised US$1.65 million in a seed round of funding to help it further develop its product and move into new markets.
Founded in 2022 by Samer Choumar, Meriem Benabad, Youssef Haddouch, Reda Nebri, and Youssef Drafate, ZSystems is building a unified digital platform connecting brands, wholesalers, and retailers.
The platform aims to drive transparency, streamline operations, and unlock growth opportunities across the value chain, addressing inefficiencies in a US$40 billion market that remains largely undigitised.
Zsystems’ US$1.65 million seed round, which follows a US$1.5 million pre-seed secured in 2024, was led by Azur Innovation Management, with follow-on participation from MNF Ventures and Witamax, as well as new backing from Harambeans Prosperity Fund.
– NectarFi Closes $170K Pre-Seed to Build a Full-Stack On-Chain Financial Life for Crypto Users
A Nigerian startup born from a hackathon has closed a pre-seed round and launched publicly, aiming to replace the fragmented, unrewarding experience of crypto finance with something that works the way money should.
NectarFi gives users a complete financial toolkit in a single application: they can hold and manage digital assets in a self-custodial wallet, spend via Visa cards and global payment rails, trade crypto without gas fee constraints, and invest in tokenised stocks alongside traditional crypto assets. Users can also transact across bank transfer systems in Nigeria, PIX in Latin America, APACA scan in Southeast Asia, and Swift internationally, with blockchain operations running in the background on user-controlled infrastructure behind a familiar interface that requires no complex wallet knowledge.
