diff --git a/doc/source/whatsnew/v1.4.0.rst b/doc/source/whatsnew/v1.4.0.rst
index dcd31abaa8857..a9d9ed5dab8de 100644
--- a/doc/source/whatsnew/v1.4.0.rst
+++ b/doc/source/whatsnew/v1.4.0.rst
@@ -127,7 +127,8 @@ Other enhancements
 - :meth:`IntegerArray.all` , :meth:`IntegerArray.any`, :meth:`FloatingArray.any`, and :meth:`FloatingArray.all` use Kleene logic (:issue:`41967`)
 - Added support for nullable boolean and integer types in :meth:`DataFrame.to_stata`, :class:`~pandas.io.stata.StataWriter`, :class:`~pandas.io.stata.StataWriter117`, and :class:`~pandas.io.stata.StataWriterUTF8` (:issue:`40855`)
 - :meth:`DataFrame.__pos__`, :meth:`DataFrame.__neg__` now retain ``ExtensionDtype`` dtypes (:issue:`43883`)
-
+- The error raised when an optional dependency can't be imported now includes the original exception, for easier investigation (:issue:`43882`)
+-
 
 .. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
diff --git a/pandas/compat/_optional.py b/pandas/compat/_optional.py
index 651729cd0ad44..adf20f3322a79 100644
--- a/pandas/compat/_optional.py
+++ b/pandas/compat/_optional.py
@@ -115,7 +115,7 @@ def import_optional_dependency(
         module = importlib.import_module(name)
     except ImportError:
         if errors == "raise":
-            raise ImportError(msg) from None
+            raise ImportError(msg)
         else:
             return None
 
diff --git a/pandas/tests/test_optional_dependency.py b/pandas/tests/test_optional_dependency.py
index f75ee0d0ddd95..c1d1948d6c31a 100644
--- a/pandas/tests/test_optional_dependency.py
+++ b/pandas/tests/test_optional_dependency.py
@@ -13,8 +13,10 @@
 
 def test_import_optional():
     match = "Missing .*notapackage.* pip .* conda .* notapackage"
-    with pytest.raises(ImportError, match=match):
+    with pytest.raises(ImportError, match=match) as exc_info:
         import_optional_dependency("notapackage")
+    # The original exception should be there as context:
+    assert isinstance(exc_info.value.__context__, ImportError)
 
     result = import_optional_dependency("notapackage", errors="ignore")
     assert result is None