NewGenAngels group seeking to invest over $150k in African startups

NewGenAngels is a members-only investment club that wants to highlight the cream of Africa’s early-stage business crop. The Angel investment group has a keen focus on the diaspora and, with rather deep pockets, is looking to deploy between US$150 000 and US$500 000 per company and aims to activate 1000 angels by 2020. Very bold indeed.

According to the group, it prefers service and technology based businesses in Africa with strong growth dynamics, fragmented competition, a sizeable industry, low exogenous risk and straightforward operations. It’s already got the likes of African music discovery service Orin under its belt who’s co-founder is based in the UK.

The Group has offices in London and has partnered with local players like Ghana Angel Network and Africa Angels Network but syndicates its skills and funding from members of the African diaspora.

“The Angel investment landscape in Africa is very fragmented and very focused on local activities but we believe that hinders the Angel community from truly benefiting from the economy of scale that a larger network can bring to bear”, notes Sean Ndiho Obedih the founder of NewGenAngels.

“In the past, money sent back home to countries was often small scale and geared to families to support basic living and education but there is also an increased demand from a growing and well-resourced African Diaspora to channel funds into ‘Viable projects’ contributing to economic development in their home countries and to which they would otherwise have limited access,” explains Obedih.

The company also features a nominee structure whereby NewGenAngels holds and manages the shares of companies on behalf of the underlying investors after an investment is completed. According to the firm, this essentially mitigates the risks and gives investors a unique protection layer.