Founders pivot from fintech to cleantech

African startup money is still flowing to fintech, but 2025 data shows investors widened the funnel to cleantech, healthtech, enterprise software and applied artificial intelligence. (partechpartners.com) (briter.co) Partech said African tech startups raised $4.1 billion in 2025, up 25% year over year, with equity at $2.4 billion and debt at a record $1.6 billion. (partechpartners.com) Fintech remained the biggest equity category at $769 million, or 25% of equity funding, but Partech said its share fell as cleantech, healthtech and enterprise solutions gained ground. (partechpartners.com) Briter’s annual report pointed in the same direction. It said fintech and digital financial services still led by value and deal count, while climate-focused startups posted the fastest growth and raised more than three times their 2024 total. (briter.co) Within that climate bucket, Briter said solar energy was the top-funded category in 2025, a sign that investors favored businesses tied to power, hardware and long-term infrastructure demand. (briter.co) That is a different picture from the boom years, when payments and consumer finance absorbed an outsized share of attention across African venture capital. In 2025, the market rewarded business models with clearer cash flow, asset backing or direct exposure to energy, health and business operations. (partechpartners.com) (briter.co) Debt helps explain part of the change. Partech said debt represented 41% of all capital deployed in 2025, up from 31% in 2024 and 17% in 2019, which favored sectors such as energy and other infrastructure-like businesses. (partechpartners.com) The geography shifted too. Kenya led total capital raised at $1.04 billion, while South Africa reclaimed the lead in equity funding and deal count for the first time since 2017. (partechpartners.com) (briter.co) The reports do not show founders “leaving” fintech so much as a market broadening after the 2023-2024 correction. Fintech is still the largest lane, but cleantech and other infrastructure-heavy sectors are taking a bigger share of the next checks. (partechpartners.com) (briter.co)