The African Business Angel Network’s year in review

Since the launch of the African Business Angel Network (ABAN) in 2015, there has been a noticeable growth in the amount of Angel Investors.

“2016 saw the rise of cross-border collaboration of Angel groups across the continent and an increasing focus on Angel investor education as their investments in startups continued to grow. We also saw a marked increase in the number of Business Angel Syndicates and Networks emerging,” said ABAN president, Tomi Davies, in a press release to Ventureburn.

According to ABAN, Angel investor groups, networks, as well as initiatives have grown to over 40 across 25 African countries. They’ve also revealed that more than 500 established and new investors based within Africa have participated in ABAN Masterclasses and bootcamps during 2016.

Some of ABANs highlights from 2016 include:

• The launch of South African Business Angel Network (SABAN) saw 150 people participating in the Johannesburg and Cape Town launch.
• The 3rd African Angel Investor Summit held in Lagos last year covering topics around co-investing.
• The Lagos Angel Network (LAN) Startup Deal Day’s brought startups and investors together, generating much-needed investment activity. According to ABAN, US$475 000 was raised directly, with more than US$200 000 in transactions taking place.
•  ABAN expanded their Masterclass Series from Nairobi, Lagos and Cape Town in 2015 to six other destinations.

ABAN’s year in review includes some of the angel networks biggest achievements for 2016

According to ABAN, some of the lessons they’ve learned over the last year or so include:

• Angel investing in Africa is still in its infancy and that there is still much to be done in order to introduce up-and-coming investors to concepts and best-practices.
• Being able to con-invest is a key factor in Angel investing to reduce risk, especially for first-time investors.
• Using a for ‘investors by investors’ format you establish a crucial knowledge-sharing platform.
• Funding isn’t all there is to Angel investing. Providing knowledge and access to respective markets to startups is just as important.
• There is still a lot of work to be done especially before national policy makers introduce lucrative incentives for Angel investing in Africa.

Davies also commented on the state of the SA middle class saying, ” Yes, we have problems, especially in the space of education, power and security. But we have something else — a growing middle class with cars and university degrees and a youthful population with energy and drive. The rest of the world is excited about what we can achieve and ready to support us. But first, we must support ourselves.”

ABAN has led and contributed to many events last year spanning across 17 major cities around the world. Six African countries and other nations across Europe, Asia and North America played host to some of ABAN’s biggest events.