Zambia, Uganda lead in female startup co-founders

In 2026, 19.2% of African tech startups had at least one female co-founder and only 12.1% had a female CEO

Zambia and Uganda lead when it comes to the percentage of local tech startups that have at least one female co-founder, and Zambia and Kenya have the most female startup CEOs.

That is according to the third edition of theDiversity Dividend: Exploring Gender Equality in the African Tech Ecosystemreport released byDisrupt Africain partnership withMadica,ThinkroomandJumpstarter Crowdfunding.

The report is a deep dive into the state of gender diversity in the African startup and venture capital (VC) ecosystems.

It showed that overall, 641 (19.2%) of the more than 3,000 startups sampled in 2026 had at least one female co-founder,an increase from 17.3% in 2024.

The percentage of African startups led by a female CEO also increased to 12.1% in 2026, from 11.1% in 2024 and 9.6% in 2023.

The report stated that while small steps have been taken toward greater gender diversity within the African tech startup ecosystem over the last two years, much more needs to be done if anything close to parity is to be achieved, with funding for female-founded ventures remaining a major issue.

Most gender diverse African nations and sectors

The most diverse nation was Zambia with 29% of startups having at least one female co-founder. This was followed by Uganda (25%), Kenya and Senegal (23.6%), Rwanda (22.4%) and Nigeria (22%).

Percentage of tech startups with at least one female co-founder by nation and sector. rican Tech Ecosystem Report)

Zambia was also on top when it came to startups with a female CEO (22.6%) followed by Kenya (16.7%) and Ghana (15.2%).

The most diverse sector was legal tech with 31.3% of companies having a female co-founder and 25% having a female CEO.

Other sectors that performed relatively well weree-health(28.6% female co-founder; 18.3% female CEO) andedtech(27.3% female co-founder; 20.8% female CEO).

Best performing African startup sectors by gender diversity. rican Tech Ecosystem Report)

Fintech, by far the leading vertical in terms of number of startups and investment, continues to perform relatively poorly, with just 16.5% of fintech ventures having a female co-founder and only 8.9% having a woman CEO.

Female funding falls

When it comes to funding, African tech has gone backwards from a gender perspective, the report said.

Up until 2023, funding for female-led or co-founded startups had been slowly rising, but since then it has declined.

In 2024, only 18.5% of funded startups had a woman on their founding team, down from 26.3% in 2023, and only 12.5% had a female CEO, down from 15.3% in 2023.

That trend continued in 2025, with only 16.9% of funded startups having a female co-founder and just 9.6% led by a female CEO.

For 2026, of the 60 startups funded in the first five months of the year, 11 (18.3%) had a female co-founder, which is up share-wise on 2025, and five (8.3%) had a female CEO, down share-wise on last year.

Percentage of African tech funding raised by ventures with at least one female co-founder and CEO, 2021-2026. rican Tech Ecosystem Report)

Gabriella Mulligan, co-founder of Disrupt Africa, said the 2026 report shows small but significant steps toward a more gender-diverse African tech startup ecosystem.

“But much more needs to be done to ensure the sector moves more quickly towards the gender parity it needs to really scale and succeed, and the funding figures are certainly a concern. Diversity is not going to increase if diverse startups can’t access the funding they need to grow,” Mulligan added.

The report was released in partnership with Madica, an Africa-focused pre-seed investment program that aims to empower underrepresented and underfunded mission-driven founders.

“We’ve heard it before, and we’ll continue to hear it. Getting past representation and specifically gender equality requires much more than ‘choosing diversity’. It necessitates creating a real environment for equitable opportunities to thrive,” said Akinyi W. Ooko Ombaka, head of portfolio success at Madica.

Other partners include African entrepreneurship and innovation firm Thinkroom, and reward-based crowdfunding platform Jumpstarter Crowdfunding.

Derek Whitehead, chief operations director at Jumpstarter Crowdfunding, said that data consistently proves diversity is a powerful catalyst for economic resilience, “yet female and underrepresented founders still face significant capital allocation gaps.”