Welcome to ABAN’s newsletter for the month of May. In line with our 2021 strategy roadmap, we have been hard at work developing and executing a range of initiatives to ensure that we keep up with our core mandate of creating high-performing Angel Networks.
In this edition we walk you through our latest projects, share updates from our partners and celebrate our member networks across Africa.
Promoting a strong culture of early stage investments is central to our strategy at ABAN and with this newsletter edition, our goal remains to keep the communication lines open with our most significant assets–our Angel Networks and the Angel Investing community.
Enjoy.
On May 25th and 28th we shall be holding our first Masterclasses for 2021. They will be facilitated by Hannah Subayi Kamuanga–ABAN Board Member and Member on the Membership Committee–and powered by the ABAN Secretariat.
Our Masterclasses provide us the opportunity to induct newly-affiliated Individual Angels and Angel Networks, expose them to the rudiments of angel investing and best practices, and facilitate a forum for new members to interact, learn and explore opportunities together.
We say a warm welcome to our latest cohort of members. We cannot wait to converge on May 25th for the French session and May 28th for the English session.
If you would like to join our upcoming Masterclasses, please reach us at Seretariat@abanangels.org and Temitope@abanangels.org for details.
We are proud to announce that we have begun the pilot phase of Catalytic Africa–our co-matching investment fund.
In this pilot phase, we shall be accepting applications from ABAN-Affiliated Angel Investors and Angel Networks. Selected applicants will have their startup investments de-risked with zero-equity grant funding at an applicable multiple (2:1, 3:1) to the Afrilabs-affiliated startup in which they will invest.
We are thrilled by the opportunity to further broaden our impact in the African startup ecosystem and also gather critical performance data and feedback as we finalize the main Catalytic Africa platform.
As a primary stakeholder, we are pleased to announce that the ENRICH In Africa (EiA Africa) project has officially kickstarted with the launch of the EiA Africa Website and Community Hub.
Funded by the EU under the aegis of the Horizon 2020 programme, the ENRICH in Africa project brings together key stakeholders from the European and African innovation ecosystem to upgrade the capacity of incubators and accelerators and benefit entrepreneurs in both regions.
EiA provides direct support services to Incubators, Accelerators and Entrepreneurs with Investors & Corporates, Innovation Facilitators, Entrepreneurs & Innovators and Accelerators & Incubators as target stakeholders.
EiA’s Soft-landing programmes for SMEs and startups in Africa and Europe to help them explore new markets and grow internationally are now open for applications.
On April 27, 2021, TD spoke at the TEI workshop organized by the European Commission and France around the theme of “Investing in young businesses in Africa” (IYBA). He discussed funding early-stage innovation in Africa, and the vital role angel investing networks can play with the right support system.
Ideas presented at the summit were used as a basis for a “platform” to produce a finalised concept for the French Financing for Africa Summit that took place on the 18th of May 2021 in Paris. Going further, a joint Team Europe Africa initiative would be developed and readied for the 2022 EU-AU Summit.
The objective of the IYBA initiative is to jointly set up and increase financial and technical support for small companies in Africa in various stages of their development.
We congratulate ABAN member network, Cairo Angels, for closing their recent investment round with Fintech startup, Kashat–the largest investment in Cairo Angels’ history.
Kashat is the first Nano lending mobile application in Egypt, offering short term (up to 61 days) micro-loans to unbanked Egyptians, who make up almost two-thirds of the population.
In additionally exciting news, Bosta, a Cairo Angels portfolio company, recently completed a $6.7million Series A funding round to expand its e-commerce delivery business across Africa and MENA. You can read more about the deal here.
Congratulations, Cairo Angels! ABAN is proud of the work that you are doing in Egypt and the MENA region.
We congratulate ABAN member network, Dazzle Angels, for closing their third investment in SV Capital, a crowd-investing fund management platform in South Africa.
Congratulations, Dazzle Angels!
Nothing excites us more than expanding Africa’s entrepreneurial ecosystem by providing smart capital to promising startups and we appreciate our member networks for living up to the mandate.
We look forward to more!
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