LAGOS, Nigeria — Nigerian startups raised $635 million in the first nine months of 2026, more than double the amount raised in the same period of 2025, and the highest total of any African country, according to data from a regional venture capital tracker.
The increase has not been spread evenly. Only 77 startups raised at least $100,000 during the period, and a single transaction, Moove’s $250 million raise, accounted for almost 40% of the total.
Against that backdrop, 26 Nigerian startups met 16 venture investors in Lagos on October 27, 2026, at an Investor Connection Drive organised by Magna Collective. The event arranged 61 pre-scheduled, one-to-one meetings between founders and investors.
The format was designed to avoid cold introductions. Investors reviewed proposed matches in advance, and meetings were arranged according to each investor’s preferred investment stage, cheque size and sector focus. Founders did not have to approach investors themselves.
Kelvin Umechukwu, co-founder and chief executive officer of the commerce platform Bumpa, met four growth-stage investors during the programme. He said investors who had already reviewed the company’s documents made the meetings more direct and useful than typical introductions.
Lexi Novitske, general partner at Norrsken22, one of the participating investors, said the arrangement helped investors find businesses that could fit their portfolios, and that it saved time on both sides.
The startups operate across fintech, healthcare, artificial intelligence, logistics, energy, agriculture and education. More than two-thirds have women in leadership positions. Eleven of the businesses are alumni of Google programmes, including Google for Startups Accelerator Africa, the Black Founders Fund and the Google AI Fund, run in collaboration with the National Centre for Artificial Intelligence and Robotics.
Folarin Aiyegbusi, head of startup ecosystem for Africa at Google, said access to the right capital at the right time helps founders grow faster.
The UK-Nigeria Tech Hub, an initiative of the United Kingdom’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, supported the programme. Its director, Oyinkan Akintola-Bello, encouraged Nigerian founders to consider the United Kingdom as an alternative market for raising investment. The Office for Nigerian Digital Innovation, part of the National Information Technology Development Agency, also backed the initiative.
Magna Collective said it will track follow-up discussions and capital commitments from the meetings over the next six months and publish its findings. Its chief executive officer, Femi Awoniyi, said the initiative was intended to close the gap between Nigerian founders and potential sources of capital.
The programme comes as startups face a gap in growth-stage funding, between early seed rounds and the larger sums needed to scale.
