Funding update: December sees $20.8 million in investment flows

From the newsletter

Circular economy initiatives in Africa attracted $20.8 million in investments in December 2025, marking a 98% decline from the monthly average last year. Funding was dominated by West Africa, where four of the five deals are focused. The deals, spread across Egypt, Ghana and Nigeria, comprised a mix of grants and early-stage venture investments.

• Egypt recorded the single largest investment, securing $17 million in Series A funding for an electronics recycling startup. 

• Startups secured most of the investments, accounting for four of the five deals, with the remaining funding directed at a metropolitan government in West Africa.

More details

• The $17 million Series A deal in Egypt went to Revibe, a Dubai-based marketplace for refurbished electronics with major operations in the north African nation. The round was led by Partech Africa, a private equity fund focused on technology-enabled startups addressing large opportunities in emerging markets, with participation from e& capital, Burda Principal Investments, EQNX, and angel investors. Founded in 2022, Revibe will use the funding to strengthen quality control, expand across the Gulf Cooperation Council and enter additional emerging markets.

• West Africa accounted for the remaining four deals, totalling $3.8 million across Ghana and Nigeria. In Ghana, the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) secured a $3 million grant from the African Development Bank (AfDB) to support implementation of the Accra Waste Separation and Composting Project. The facility, obtained with technical support from the C40 Cities Finance Facility (CFF), will serve as co-financing to accelerate delivery of the project and deepen the city’s shift toward climate-smart waste management.

• The Accra Waste Separation and Composting Project aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, divert waste from landfills, expand recycling and advance circular economy practices in Accra, transforming the city’s waste management system into a more efficient, climate-friendly and sustainable model.

• The remaining $800,000 was raised by three circular economy startups in neighbouring Nigeria. Scrapays, which provides on-demand recyclable waste disposal services for independent businesses, secured $500,000 in seed capital from angel investors and Catalyst Fund, a venture capital fund and accelerator supporting climate adaptation and resilience solutions. The startup, founded in 2016, also received a $200,000 grant from the German development agency GIZ.

• Meanwhile, Trashcoin, a startup leveraging AI and blockchain to digitise waste collection, incentivise recycling at the grassroots level and connect informal waste systems to global circular economy and ESG markets, secured the remaining $100,000, also in the form of a GIZ grant.

• Compared with the rest of the year, December’s $20.8 million was marginal, accounting for just 0.2% of the $10.45 billion in circular economy and waste-related funding recorded between February and December 2025. The disparity reflects the outsized influence of large sovereign and municipal loans earlier in the year, while December activity was driven primarily by grants and early-stage venture investments.

• December also highlighted the structural divide in Africa’s circular economy financing, with capital concentrated in large public-sector infrastructure, while innovation-led startups continued to rely on smaller grants and seed rounds.

Our take

• December’s investment patterns highlight the growing role of startups as the primary entry point for private capital in Africa’s circular economy, even as overall funding volumes remained subdued.

• The dominance of infrastructure-heavy public investments highlights a “missing middle” in circular economy financing, where growth-stage businesses struggle to access the patient capital required to scale proven solutions.