Disruptive Technologies and Finance : An Analysis of Digital Startups in Africa

This paper investigates the relationship between disruptive technologies and access to finance for digital tech firms in Africa. Through textual analysis of data from Crunchbase and Pitchbook, the study explores how firms across different age cohorts incorporate disruptive technologies into their offerings in e-commerce, fintech, and information technology services. The findings reveal three key insights for African digital tech startups. First, African startups are less likely to incorporate disruptive technologies into their offerings compared to other regions, except for mobile payments. Second, incorporating these technologies is associated with more funding, but this link is weaker in Africa than in other regions. These results hold when excluding mobile payments and addressing potential endogeneity using instrumental variables. Third, firms that do incorporate disruptive technologies tend to secure funding earlier, with lower initial amounts, but are more likely to succeed in terms of exit or valuation growth than their peers.