Africa's Tech Future, Today.
Signed commentary from founders, investors, researchers and practitioners. We publish disagreement. We publish criticism. This section has a point of view.
African tech startups raised $614 million in debt financing during H1 2026, as founders increasingly leverage non-dilutive credit over equity to fund physical infrastructure, smartphone loans, and clean energy assets.
Boosterism has been the default register of African tech coverage for a decade. It has not served founders, and it has not served readers.
Funding totals fell again, and the headline figure hides more than it explains. A closer read of where the money went, and what the drop does not mean.
The comparison flatters nobody and misdescribes what is actually being built. It also imports a set of expectations that do not fit.
Donor-funded pilots are announced constantly and scaled rarely. The incentive structure explains why, and it is not about the technology.
Investors, founders and policymakers all make decisions on thin information. That is a market failure, and it is one a publication can address.
