The third annual African Angel Investor Summit has taken place in Lagos, with over 40 speakers focusing on the topic of “Co-operation and Co-investing”.
Disrupt Africa reported in August the African Business Angels Network (ABAN) announced it would host the third edition of its African Angel Investor Summit, once again returning in Lagos.
The event took place last week, with over 40 industry experts presenting on how best to encourage collaboration to unlock capital across Africa.
All conversations, keynotes and panel discussions centered on how different players in the ecosystem – from business angels, VC’s, governments, accelerators, to the diaspora- can work together to help maximize Africa’s entrepreneurial potential.
“We see an enormous interest in early stage investing in Africa but people do not necessarily know how to start. There is a sincere need to collect and develop best practices and to make this knowledge available,” said David van Dijk, ABAN director general.
“We launched ABAN to do just that, to create a resource and contact point for promoting new networks, and supporting stakeholders looking to get involved in building the ecosystem. And that also what this Summit is all about.”
The Summit also aimed to explore the latest investment methods and best practices, from sourcing deals to through to exits.
It also provided investors with an opportunity to familiarise themselves with the best of an increasing number of cross-border and syndication initiatives being developed by a new generation of investors.
The event in particular considered the potential of investment syndicates, which the Lagos Angels Network (LAN) has been trialing recently.
“The rest of the world is excited about what we can achieve and is ready to support us. But first we must support ourselves,” said ABAN founding member, Tomi Davies.
“Angels bridge the critical funding gap between personal, friends and family seed funding and traditional venture capital funding. Opportunities in the African angel space are considerable and establish a pipeline for later stage investments”.
The next Summit is set for Q4 2017.
