The African startup scene is itself a hotly contested environment, with every founder racing to entice big capital from venture capital and private equity firms like Softbank Vision Fund, Sequioa Capital, Seedstars Africa Ventures among others. There is however, one startling observation in the trends of financing into African startups. The bulk of the capital is foreign. It is actually mostly western (The United States and Europe). There seems little to no appetite on the part of local Funders to finance early stage startups in Africa, with the result that they miss out significantly on the opportunities that abound. According to an article by Techpoint Africa, most of the the funding into African startups is foreign. Only recently has Africa seen an incremental trend in the amount of money raised locally, with players like Savannah Fund and Ventures Platform. However, the fact remains that local Funders are not participating as much as foreign venture capital firms in the African opportunity.

This fact could be symptomatic of a much bigger problem; that being the possible dissonance between the solutions brought to the table by new age startup entrepreneurs and the traditional perceptions and views of local Funders. In simple terms, local financiers and African startups may not be speaking the same language. Local financiers may prefer the more traditional projects of real estate, mining and Agriculture without a robust appreciation of the positive disruption that technology can bring to those industries. A lot about the cause of low appetite by local funders is the subject of speculation, future research and heated debate. However with the performance of new age startups like Andela, Paystack, Flutterwave and Wave, among others, there is no denying that local finance is missing out on a great wave of new age business that will revolutionize the continent.