Africa’s startup ecosystem rebounded in 2021, bringing in a record $4 billion before the end of the year, reflecting a surge in investor interest in the continent’s rapidly growing tech marketplace.

Africa now has seven unicorns, according to Wee Tracker: Jumia, Interswitch, Flutterwave, Andela, Wave, OPay, and Chipper Cash.

Five of these have become unicorns this year, including two in September alone, indicating unprecedented interest in Africa’s startup market.

Startups in Nigeria, South Africa, Egypt, and Kenya – the continent’s big four – took the lion’s share of the more than $4 billion raised through 2021.

According to data-driven research firm Briter Bridges, African startups raised $605 million in November 2021 alone, which is nearly half the total amount of funds raised by African startups in all of 2020 – around $1.3 billion.

According to Briter Bridges, while financial technology companies continue to receive the lion’s share of total funding, cleantech is increasingly attracting capital from both domestic and international investors, including a growing number of corporates interested in hastening their transition to renewable energy.

“As more private companies mature, healthcare, data and IT infrastructure, and agriculture follow, but ticket sizes remain contained compared to those in fintech and cleantech,” the firm said.

According to Connecting Africa, Nigeria, South Africa, Egypt, and Kenya accounted for 80% of total capital raised on the continent through the end of November, with Nigeria accounting for 35% of total capital raised.

Nigerian startups raised $1.37 billion in 2021, while South African startups raised $838 million, Egyptian startups raised $588 million, and Kenyan startups raised $375 million. Startups in Africa’s most populous country received over 200 deals during the year, while the remaining three countries each received over 100 deals.

Other proactive markets outside of the big four included Senegal and Tanzania, where startups raised $222 million and $96 million, respectively, according to Connecting Africa.

Chipper Cash, which raised a total of $250 million this year, was one of the year’s biggest success stories. The authors, Max Cuvellier and Maxime Bayen, decided not to attribute the funding to Ghana, claiming that the startup’s Ghanaian and Ugandan co-founders, as well as its African headquarters split between Ghana and Kenya, “make it quite pan-African,” according to the Connecting Africa report, citing Big Deal Africa.

“Without Chipper Cash, Ghana raised $48 million in 2021; Algeria, $30 million; Morocco, $29 million; Tunisia, $23 million; Uganda, $18 million; Rwanda, $16 million; the Democratic Republic of the Congo, $12 million; and Cameroon, $11 million.”