Capital Without Comprehension: Why So Many African Startups Collapse Before They Scale
What happens when capital outruns business logic — and how to design ventures that actually work in the markets they serve.
The Illusion of Progress
A few days ago, I posted a short thread on LinkedIn questioning whether most African startup models are truly built for the markets they claim to serve. The response was overwhelming — not because the ideas were new, but because so many founders, investors, and operators had seen the same patterns play out up close.
This post expands on that idea:
Why are so many African ventures structurally doomed from the start?
And how do we design business models — and funding structures — that actually match market reality?
Between 2019 and 2022, African tech looked unstoppable.
Funding hit record highs. Startups celebrated growth metrics. Pitch decks spoke of “unlocking the next billion,” with Silicon Valley templates applied to Lagos, Nairobi, Accra.
But many of these ventures were set up to fail. Not because the founders lacked vision, but because the business models weren’t designed for the realities on the ground. They were built for investor narratives — not for local mar…