Dakar, Abidjan, Kinshasa…: 38 African cities in the world’s top 1000 best start-up ecosystems in 2025
July 21st 2025
Digital innovation, the driving force behind the fourth industrial revolution, is redefining our lifestyles, production, and consumption patterns . This means that to secure a prominent place in the fiercely competitive global digital economy, many countries, particularly in Africa, must now place great importance on their innovation ecosystems.
In Africa, the startup ecosystem is maturing over the years. So much so that in 2025, 38 cities on the continent will be among the 1,000 most dynamic cities in the world in terms of digital innovation, according to StartupBlink’s 2025 ranking. This figure was 36 in 2024. Ilorin, the capital of Nigeria’s Kwara State, made its debut in 2025. It thus becomes the sixth Nigerian city to appear in the top 1,000 after Lagos, Abuja, Ibadan, Enugu, and Port Harcourt. Nigeria is also the African country with the largest number of urban digital innovation ecosystems in the ranking. Lagos is also the only African city to appear in the top 100, ranking 76th. It is followed by Nairobi, the Kenyan capital, in 107th place.
Despite persistent challenges such as brain drain, complex bureaucracy, and low levels of funding, African cities are holding their own thanks to certain assets such as a young, innovative, and resilient population, and governments and a private sector increasingly invested in digital issues. Some are even gaining in prestige, such as Mombasa (Kenya), Abidjan (Côte d’Ivoire), Douala (Cameroon), and Praia (Cape Verde), which have recorded significant gains in the ranking since 2024.
Conversely, some cities are experiencing worrying declines. Bamako (Mali) fell 288 places, followed by Harare in Zimbabwe (-253 places). Yaoundé (Cameroon) also saw a decline of 134 places. Dakar (Senegal) and Algiers (Algeria) are also losing ground, reflecting structural or political challenges that still persist in several African countries and that are hampering their technological emergence.
This contrast, however, reflects growing competition among African countries in terms of infrastructure, public policies, digital technologies, etc. to make their cities destinations of choice for local and international innovators, attract investors and take advantage of the digital economy, whose contribution to Africa’s gross domestic product could reach $712 billion by 2050, according to Google and the International Finance Corporation.
The emergence of unicorns in Africa since 2022 (Moniepoint, Interswitch, Flutterwave, OPay, Andela, Wave, MNT-Halan, Chipper) demonstrates that the African startup ecosystem has strong latent potential and remarkable resilience in the face of obstacles. There is an urgent need to consolidate its infrastructure, simplify its regulations, and encourage a culture of bold entrepreneurship so that these innovative startups can flourish and compete on the global stage.
Africa’s most dynamic urban startup ecosystems in 2025.
| Cities | Country | World Ranking | African rank | Progress since 2024 |
| Lagos | Nigeria | 76 | 1 | -6 |
| Nairobi | Kenya | 107 | 2 | +6 |
| Johannesburg | South Africa | 122 | 3 | +17 |
| Cape Town | South Africa | 138 | 4 | -10 |
| Accra | Ghana | 243 | 5 | +25 |
| Victoria | Seychelles | 288 | 6 | -35 |
| Kampala | Uganda | 301 | 7 | +67 |
| Casablanca | Morocco | 317 | 8 | +42 |
| Tunis | Tunisia | 327 | 9 | +15 |
| Dakar | Senegal | 337 | 10 | -76 |
| Addis Ababa | Ethiopia | 390 | 11 | -62 |
| Abuja | Nigeria | 399 | 12 | +48 |
| Pretoria | South Africa | 429 | 13 | -3 |
| Kigali | Rwanda | 461 | 14 | +12 |
| Ibadan | Nigeria | 482 | 15 | -26 |
| Windhoek | Namibia | 512 | 16 | +104 |
| Dar es Salaam | Tanzania | 524 | 17 | -34 |
| Beach | Cape Verde | 526 | 18 | +114 |
| Algiers | Algeria | 543 | 19 | -41 |
| Luanda | Angola | 558 | 20 | -73 |
| Abidjan | Ivory Coast | 567 | 21 | +129 |
| Lusaka | Zambia | 620 | 22 | +13 |
| Mogadishu | Somalia | 648 | 23 | +15 |
| Alexandria | Egypt | 669 | 24 | +1 |
| Enugu | Nigeria | 730 | 25 | -33 |
| Hargeisa | Somaliland | 742 | 26 | +20 |
| Port Harcourt | Nigeria | 803 | 27 | -35 |
| Rabat | Morocco | 811 | 28 | +7 |
| Kinshasa | DR Congo | 817 | 29 | +61 |
| Douala | Cameroon | 827 | 30 | +116 |
| Ilorin | Nigeria | 885 | 31 | new |
| Port Louis | MAURITIUS | 886 | 32 | -598 |
| Harare | Zimbabwe | 895 | 33 | -253 |
| Bamako | Mali | 902 | 34 | -288 |
| Yaounde | Cameroon | 912 | 35 | -134 |
| Mombasa | Kenya | 916 | 36 | +206 |
| Cotonou | Benign | 945 | 37 | -3 |
| Agadir | Morocco | 968 | 38 | -82 |
Source: StartupBlink
To rank the different cities in Africa, the global startup research platform StartupBlink relied on three indicators: The number of stakeholders and other key players in the activity of an ecosystem (number of startups, number of investors, number of coworking spaces, number of accelerators, number of startup-related meetings); the quality of the ecosystem (total cumulative private sector investment in startups, total cumulative number of startup employees, number and size of unicorns and exits above $1 billion, R&D centers of multinational technology companies, branches of multinational companies and brands, number and size of global startup conferences and events, number of startups accepted by top global accelerators per ecosystem) and the startup business environment (internet speed, internet cost, internet freedom, R&D investment, availability of various technology services (payment portals, ride-sharing apps, cryptocurrency), level of English proficiency, passport strength, availability of startup or nomad visas, corporate tax rates, startup-friendly labor laws).
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