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In 2015 ABAN – the African Business Angel Network– launched the Series of Angel Investing Bootcamps to help mobilize the African Angel investing community. These bootcamps culminated at the ABAN Annual Angel Investment Summit held in conjunction with DEMO Africa in September 2015. This is part of a shared effort to connect the network, knowledge and capital needed to support the continued growth of Africa’s innovation sectors and to help maximise the continents entrepreneurial potential.
The theme for the 2015 series was ‘Unlocking capital for early stage innovation’ and focused on facilitating interactions between aspiring angel investors, experienced angel investors, promising high-potential entrepreneurs and other relevant stakeholders in the ecosystem from NGO’s government institutions and the academic world.
These events are critical for raising the profile of angel investing in Africa and play an important role in unlocking local capital for early stage innovation. The series of bootcamps works to:
- Catalyze Investments
- Mobilize Local Capital
- Spur Innovation & Entrepreneurship
In 2015 Investor Bootcamps have been hosted in Nairobi, Cape Town and Lagos. All events are organized in partnership with local angel investor networks: the Lagos Angels Network, Viktoria Angels and Silicon Cape. The venues are local innovation centers. The bootcamps aimed at bringing together between 120 and 150 participants and the lessons learned from the sessions helped build the program for the ABAN Annual Investment Summit which took place September 23rd in Lagos. Here we welcomed 100 investors, from Africa, the US and Europe to the Summit and 300 / 400 participants at the DEMO Africa event.