In 2021, Partech reported of the $643 billion in global venture financing, only $5.2 billion went to African Entrepreneurs mostly in Nigeria, Kenya, Egypt, South Africa, Ghana, Tunisia, Morocco, Algeria, and Senegal. 

This is 0.8% of overall venture capital for a region of 17% of the world population while the Worldwide foreign aid to Africa was 18.6%.

The sectors funded included: fintech, e-commerce & retail tech, e-health, logistics, ed-tech, energy, agri-tech, transport,…

The Democratic Republic of Congo, home to a population of over 100 million (over 50% are 18 years old) received $1.05 billion in humanitarian aid in 2020 but only $4.6 million in venture capital. Kinshasa, the capital city has over 15 million estimated people.

The DRC attracts over $4 billion flow of money transfers from its diaspora estimated at over 6 million people based in South Africa, Belgium, France, the UK, the USA, and Canada. In 2021, the World Bank reported its GDP at $48.4 billion with over 90% of its wealth coming from extractive industry (raw materials).

The DRC is perceived as a complicated and high-risk frontier market for businesses. It is ranked 183 among 190 in the ease of doing business (World Bank (2020).

       Important facts for the record:

• The DRC is the 11th largest country in the world, the second-largest and the fourth most populous in Africa, and the most resource-rich country in the world with an abundance of copper, cobalt, coltan, diamonds, lithium, gold, minerals used in the production of electronics such as batteries, phones, laptops… 
• This country has known horrific colonial history followed by several wars, and mineral armed conflicts and has experienced challenges that delay the progress of startups such as internet access, power supply (electricity), poor road conditions, financing…
• The DRC has the lowest rates of electrification in the world even though it has the potential to install up to 100.000 MW of hydropower capacity. 
• The national electrification access rate is between 9%-19%.
• More than 48.15 million active telephone lines. Almost haft of the country has a phone.
• Internet penetration has risen from 17.7% to 22.9% (2019-2022).
• Financial inclusion is low- around 25% have accounts with financial institutions and the country’s bank penetration is at 6%.
• Less than 10% of local businesses have a website to promote their commodities.
• Digital penetration in business is very poor (many local businesses engage in manual record-keeping). Schools and teachers don’t afford computers.
• Even though the DRC has access to suitable land for agriculture, the productivity is low under 10% of GDP with high food importation (wheat, rice, poultry meat, palm oil, milk products…)
• Startups face inconsistent regulatory environments, high cost of operations, heavy and arbitrary taxation, lack of local talents, lack of capital…
• Grey Dynamics Africa Intelligence classifies the DRC as a monocultural economy, other sectors are neglected leading to high poverty and unemployment rate.                                               

To solve key challenges facing the country including infrastructure development, transportation (roads, ports, bridges, airports), supply chain management…The diversification of the economy will make a considerable impact where the private sector is key to achieving the SDGs. Startups could help increase the employment rate, productivity, financial inclusion, digital penetration, access to information, access to alternative power supply, and education…

On September 8, 2022, the DRC government introduced a startup act signed by President Felix Tshisekedi. It was designed to attract investment and support tech innovators and entrepreneurs. 

The bill offers tax benefits for startups, incubators, investors, investment groups, intellectual property protection…The Congolese government also established the Entrepreneurship Guarantee Fund in Congo (FOGEC) to facilitate and guarantee access to finance. 

According to Partech, in 2022 the total venture capital funding in DRC increased 8 times between 2020 and 2022 to reach $38 million from cryptocurrencies, energy, fintech, food delivery, supply chain, healthcare…