Dear valued ABAN members,
As we usher in the third month of the year, we would like to announce some great new developments in our neck of the woods. It’s been a busy start to 2022 so far, and here are some of the highlights from February:
We got a new board member this quarter, with Jozi Angels Founder Abu Cassim joining ABAN for a 3-year tenure.
Abu will be joining ABAN for a period of 3 years to work with other board members, including Tomi Davies (President, ABAN), Rebecca Enonchong (Treasurer, ABAN), Ben White (Independent, ABAN), Fadilah Tchoumba (Secretary-General, ABAN), Khaled Ismail (HIMangel, Egypt), Hannah Subayi Kamuanga (DRC Impact Angels, DRC), Stephen Gugu (VBAN, Kenya), Yemi Keri (Rising Tide Africa, Nigeria), Alexandria Fraser (Dazzle Angels, South Africa), Tarek El Kady (Alex Angels, Egypt), Maneme Diop (Dakar Network Angels, Senegal); and ABAN’s advisors Laila Macharia, Cadence Johnson, David Van Dijk and Jacopo Losso.
He brings invaluable experience to the board, with guiding early-stage investing and helping startups grow their networks and capital.
Read more here and join us in welcoming him on board.
The ABAN framework is three networks stronger
After a strenuous vetting process, we finally signed up three new networks to our ABAN family; these are Simple Capital from South Africa, DRC Impact Angels from the Democratic Republic of Congo, and NaiBAN from Kenya.
Between them, these networks have tens of angel investors, ready to create opportunities on the continent.
Simple Capital seeks to invest in early stage hyper-growth companies and to make these investments accessible to everyone from anywhere in the world. Read more about them here.
NaiBAN is a group of 50+ business angels that actively support start-ups with advice, connections and capital. This fairly new network supports phenomenal founders and teams in pre-seed and seed rounds.
DRC Impact Angels meanwhile have a goal and mandate to spur and support the development of SMEs, start-ups, and entrepreneurs in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Extremely privileged to be able to support and connect even more angel investors in different corners of the continent. Here are the countries represented so far
ABAN hosts session at AfriLabs Capacity Building Programme in Douala, Cameroon
In February, we completed our 6th training camp in Douala Cameroon led by Serge Ntamack (from Cameroon Angels Network) on “Building Investable Startups” with hub founders/owners from Cameroon, Chad, Gabon, DRC, Congo and Equatorial Guinea.
Similar camps were carried out:
In Dakar, Senegal led by Aziz Sy (Network Manager at Darkar Angels Network) with hub founders/owners from Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger, Guinea, Cote d’Ivoire and Senegal.
In Nairobi, Kenya, led by Jason Musyako and Stephen Gugu (Angels Network Manager at Viktoria Angels Network) with hub founders/owners from Tanzania, Somalia, Somaliland, Ethiopia, Uganda, and Kenya.
In Accra, Ghana, led by Nelson Amo (Accra Angels Network) with hub founders/owners from Nigeria, The Gambia, Liberia, and Ghana.
In Cairo, Egypt, Led by Tarek El Kady (Alex Angels) with hubs founders /owners from Morocco, Tunisia, Sudan, South Sudan, Algeria, Libya, and Egypt.
In Johannesburg, South Africa, led by Alexander Fraser (Dazzle Angels) with hubs founders/owners from Botswana, Zimbabwe, Malawi, Lesotho, and South Africa.
Powered by AfriLabs, these workshops on “Building Investable Startups” are essential components of AfriLabs Capacity Building Programme (ACBP), a 36-month intensive capacity building program for technology hubs to improve their capacity to support the growing number of startups and MSMEs in their communities across Africa
The Afrilabs sessions were organised by the Cameroon Angel Network to help build capacity among startups in the growing investor space in Francophone Africa.
ABAN feted at Tony Blair event
ABAN’s work in connecting investors to start-ups was recognised and lauded on a global stage in recent weeks.
According to a paper titled Supercharging Africa’s Startups: The Continent’s Path to Tech Excellence, posted on Tony Blair Institute For Global Change, ABAN is lauded for its work in driving capital to the African tech-start-up ecosystem.
The paper reads: “ABAN, a pan-African network organisation with 1,000 early-stage investors across 40 African countries, and VC4A, an organisation that connects entrepreneurs to support including investors, has a network of over 190,000 community members. The requisite knowledge and extensive networks puts both in a good position to lead in the coordination and represent investors as part of any network.”
Tony Blair in his foreword noted that African governments should work towards strengthening such support networks. Be sure to read the entire paper here
African Angel Academy gets a boost
Access to early-stage funding is still a barrier to growth for many entrepreneurs, despite the increase in angel activity over the past few years.
The Dutch Good Growth Fund’s Seed Capital and Business Development facility has announced new funding for the African Angel Academy (AAA), the first online angel investor training programme. Download the presentation here.
The Academy works by harnessing findings from training cohorts and leveraging ABAN’s capacity, network and industry knowledge – in a one-of-a-kind resource.
By providing a comprehensive programme for angels and connecting them to the broader angel community, individual angels can broaden their knowledge, create a network of co-investors, develop their deal pipeline, and find angel groups to join.
As we kick off Women’s Month, we look forward to even greater collaborations and growth in this sector. Till next month,
Fadilah Tchoumba
Secretary-General, ABAN
