The 2015 edition of Africa’s biggest startup event DEMO Africa was ushered in on Wednesday with the ABAN Investor Summit presented by the African Business Angel Network (ABAN), Lagos Angels Network (LAN), DEMO Africa and VC4Africa – Paul Adepoju.
This was the second edition of the ABAN Investor Summit which debuted last year at DEMO Africa during which ABAN was officially inaugurated.
This year’s investor summit brought together members of the Cairo Angels, Lagos Angels Network, Ivoire Business Angels, Viktoria Angels, Ghana Angel Investors Network, Africa Angels Network, Cameroon Angels, Silicon Cape and others. The investors shared ideas on best practices; they shared lessons learned and set the road map for the future.
One of the speakers was Candace Johnson, President of the Brussels-headquartered European Trade Association for Business Angels, Seed Funds, and other Early Stage Market Players (EBAN). She shared lessons from the European ecosystem with participants with the goal of exposing members of the angel investment ecosystem in Africa to how it’s done in the more advanced ecosystems of various countries in Europe.
In his remark, the president ABAN Tomi Davies told participants that Africa is ready for investments. Other speakers noted that angel investing must be sustainable. According to them, angel investing happens when there are returns on investments while pointing out that leveraging co-investments are key for exits.
Speakers also stressed that international investors must work with local investors because the local market can only become global through partnership.
“As a growing number of investors from across the continent achieve success, so does our ability to support new generations of entrepreneurs coming up.” Said Ben White, CEO VC4Africa.
The summit achieved objectives set by Davies
He said, “The summit provided a unique opportunity for accessing the latest investment methods and best practices from sourcing deals through valuation to exits. It also provided investors with an opportunity to familiarise themselves with the best of an increasing number of cross-border enterprise initiatives being developed by a new generation of African entrepreneurs.”
A closed session of the Liberalizing Innovation Opportunity Nations (LIONS@FRICA) partner members was also held. The venture was presented by Secretary of State’s Office of Global Partnerships Constance Tzioumis who described the global partnership as one that seeks to mobilize the knowledge, expertise and resources of leading public and private institutions to encourage and enhance Africa’s innovation ecosystem and to spur entrepreneurship by investing in the 4C’s: Capacity-building, access to Capital, enhanced Connectivity to global markets, and credibility by raising awareness of Africa’s innovation potential.
