Samuel Ogbonyomi, CEO and co-founder of PipeOps, is upbeat about the prospect of striking up new funding conversations with potential investors when he speaks to African Business at the Nigerian startup's exhibition booth at Expand North Star in Dubai - a side event to Gulf Information Technology Exhibition GITEX Global designed to link startups to investors.
Founded in 2021, PipeOps is an AI-powered platform that "automates complex cloud workflows for businesses and software developers so they can quickly transition to the cloud without any core cloud expertise in-house," Ogbonyomi explains. He adds that it has validated its product and acquired customers with pre-seed backing from several angel investors, and is now preparing to seek further funding. "We will be looking to open a seed round towards the end of the year or early 2026. We want to partner with investors and institutions who actually understand what we are building," he tells African Business .
It's a well-timed move in view of the continued rebound in venture capital flows in Africa's startup ecosystem. After a sharp downturn in 2024 - when African startups raised 2.8bn across 750 deals, down from 3.9bn across 930 deals in 2023 - investment activity is showing signs of recovery.