Over the past few years various angel networks have emerged across Africa. The African Business Angel Network is a new initiative to connect and strengthen all these networks. On Wednesday September 23, the African Business Angel Network, Lagos Angels Network, DEMO Africa and VC4Africa, will jointly present “The African Opportunity: Angel Investing in Africa” Investor Summit at DEMO Africa 2015 in Lagos, Nigeria.
H. Tomi Davies (or TD as he is popularly known) is a co-founder of the Lagos Angels Network (LAN), a prominent figure in Africa’s early stage investor scene, and the President of the newly founded African Business Angels Network (ABAN).
Please introduce the African Business Angel Network?
TD: At last year’s Angel Investor Summit at DEMO Africa 2014 in Lagos, Nigeria, we had an aggregation of investors from all across the continent, Europe and the United States who discussed how to take advantage of the opportunities and overcome the challenges presented by the frantic pace of entrepreneurship in Africa. As a result of this and other previous discussions highlighting the need for a Pan-African early stage Investment Network the African Business Angel Network (ABAN) came to life in November last year.
ABAN aims to provide a platform for Angel investors, Angel syndicates, Angel networks, Entrepreneurs, Startups and other relevant players in the ecosystem to promote a culture of Angel investing across Africa. There are networks emerging across the continent and we need to connect them.
There is a sincere need to collect and develop best practices and to make this knowledge available. To create a resource and contact point for promoting new networks, and supporting stakeholders looking to get involved in building the ecosystem. In addition, we need to engage private sector investors and offer some guidance on investing into African borne innovations. In turn, ABAN seeks to further build the industry and improve the climate for startup entrepreneurs.
What is the vision behind the ABAN Annual Summit?
The vision of the ABAN Annual Summit is to provide a platform for African early stage investors to share investment best practices while becoming exposed to entrepreneurs from across the continent showcasing the latest opportunities for investment. We’re currently also working to organize angel investor bootcamps in a few other cities leading up to the ABAN Summit in Lagos in September. It’s critical to connect with local angel investor communities across Africa.
The ABAN Summit in September will provide a unique opportunity for accessing the latest investment methods and best practices from sourcing deals through valuation to exits. It will also provide investors with an opportunity to familiarize themselves with the best of an increasing number of cross-border enterprise initiatives being developed by a new generation of African entrepreneurs. Finally, it will also provide an unprecedented opportunity to network with the leading opinion leaders in the early stage investment space
What can we expect from the program?
The program for the Investor Summit will focus on knowledge exchange between the continent’s various angel investors, syndicates and angel investor networks and focus on the roadmap of the future of angel investing in Africa. The program will comprise of speakers, case studies and fireside chats. Investors will be both local and international made up of angel investors, impact investors, venture capital funds and corporates focused on early stage SME investing.
DEMO Africa has shown that Africa has serious entrepreneurs who can contribute value globally. As angel investors we now have an opportunity to engage with our colleagues across Africa and the world. This is an open invitation to those interested to get involved.
Starting with a guest’s tour of Lagos the day before, the Investor Summit on the afternoon of Wednesday, September 23 will conclude with an exclusive investor-only cocktail on that evening. Most attendees are expected to join DEMO Africa 2015, the annual event where innovative African entrepreneurs come to launch their products, which will be happening September 24th and 25th. All these events are scheduled to take place at the Eko Hotel and Suites in Lagos, Nigeria.
We expect the investor summit will bring together investors from the Cairo Angels, Lagos Angels Network, Ivoire Business Angels, Viktoria Angels, Ghana Angel Investors Network, Africa Angels Network, Cameroon Angels, Silicon Cape, the VC4Africa Investor Network and others to exchange best practices, share lessons learned and set the road map for the future. Experts from InfoDev, the WorldBank, African Development Bank are also expected to join us with event partner Ingressive leading a delegation of US investors to the summit. From Europe a delegation is expected from EBAN, the European trade association for business angels, Seed Funds and other early stage market players.
Editor’s note: This post appeared first on vc4africa. David Van Dijk is part of the team launching African Business Angels Network and he is the Managing Director of Stichting IGNITE. You can connect with him via david@vc4africa.biz.
Find out more about the Investor Summit and the DEMO Africa Investor Package for Investors who want to attend the Investor Summit and the 2-day DEMO Africa 2015 event in Lagos, Nigeria – September 23 to 25.
Until June 30th, African tech entrepreneurs can still apply to be a part of DEMO Africa 2015 via vc4afri.ca/demo2015.
