Lagos Angels Taking Investing in Africa to the Next Level
Dear ABAN Member,
I thought you might be interested in this exciting news from Lagos:
Lagos Startup DealDay
Early stage companies in the Lagos area now have a new platform to present their innovations to the investment community. Lagos Angels Network (LAN) members are looking to invest $500K this year into up-and-coming companies.
More importantly, LAN has also opened its doors to international and foreign investors to participate via syndicated investments. This is an important initiative that will see replication across the continent. The first Deal Day was held yesterday (31 March 2016), and several more are scheduled to follow later this year - the next being held on 30 June 2016.
Syndicating Investments
LAN is looking to attract a broad range of investors, regardless of their affiliation. LAN membership is not a prerequisite to joining syndicates. The syndication model that LAN is adopting here is taking angel investing in Africa to a next level. Investing as a group makes an investment easier and less risky than if one investor had to take on all of the cost and exposure from a single deal.
For more information on Quarterly Lagos Startup DealDays click here.
Lagos DealDay | 31 March 2016
Thursday's event saw the largest ever aggregation of Angel Investors (over 20) in a single (multi-venture) deal on the continent. 234 applications were received by the 15th March Deadline, and only 5 ventures were invited to pitch to the investing syndicates.
The syndicates decided to invest in 3 of the ventures - operating in the education, media & retail sectors. The average ask per venture was $125K, with one of the ventures already being oversubscribed. The pitch event itself was a great success, running as a very small closed forum for the investing syndicates only.
