The 4th annual African Angel Investor Summit – #AAIS2017 – is set to be the next meeting point for Africa’s early-stage investor community. The place to be on November 15-16 will be Cape Town’s vibrant startup scene. Key debates will be held around the critical role investors play in supporting startup teams to launch, scale and exit.
In previous editions of the summit we discussed the importance of seed capital and strong collaboration within the ecosystem. This time we are moving things up and focus on the next steps of the investment cycle with the special theme: ‘Start-Scale-Exit, Funding great startup teams poised for global success’. 250 of the most relevant early-stage investors and key stakeholders will facilitate the exchange of best practices and plot the roadmap for the future of investing on the continent.
Program highlights
At #AAIS2017 there will be numerous key notes, panel discussions, roundtables and interactive workshops given by industry leaders. To set the scene we invited the most experienced experts to unwrap the current investment climate on the African continent. All the ins and outs of the $40M investment secured by Andela will be released by the main players in the latest Series C round. Participants are invited to join roundtables on Angel Investing and Startup Research to share latest insights. Furthermore, this is your chance to learn from and get inspired by 10 distinguished panels on the following topics:
- State of Play: Current Investment Climate
- Seed stage: First investor in…..
- Addressing the gaps in the market to enable innovators across Africa to find the investment
they need - Unlocking Diaspora & International capital to drive local entrepreneurship
- Expanding from Africa to the world
- Accelerating Startups to Scale-ups: How accelerators drive growth
- Scaling for growth
- Catalyzing smart capital for scale-ups
- Investing with exits in mind
- Are Impact Investors even in it for the Exit?
Throughout the 2-day event the top 20 entrepreneurs from the XL Africa accelerator program will showcase their remarkable innovations and significant business traction. Also we are proud to be working with the World Bank on their policy workshop where recommendations for future programs for scale and impact in Africa will be discussed. Visit AAIS2017.com now for the most up to date information on the program details.
Join leading African investors
Headlining the Summit are renowned international and local investors – with leading African Angels representing over 20 local Angel networks and investors expected to attend from Nigeria, South Africa, Cameroon, Egypt, Ghana, Morocco, Kenya, Liberia, Senegal, Cote d’Ivoire and Somalia amongst many others. At the same time, corporate partners like Orange Telecom, Google, Microsoft, Thomson Reuters, Ringier and Github will join the event together with senior representatives from the World Bank, the IFC, the AfDB and the EU.
Overview of speakers at #AAIS2017
Why attend? Learn, share and network
Ben White, Founder of VC4A says: “AAIS2017 is an ideal platform for the global investment community to plug into the African tech startup ecosystem. The event and program provides a unique opportunity for accessing quality deal-flow and for exploring innovative and actionable co-investment mechanisms in the continent’s top companies.”
Joining AAIS2017 provides a unique opportunity for Africa-focused investors to network with the most influential thought leaders in the early-stage investment space and to plug into the African tech startup ecosystem. The event will take place at Workshop17 – an innovation and co-working space right in the middle of Cape Town’s vibrant V&A Waterfront. Limited seating is available so make sure to register your ticket now on AAIS2017.com.
Additionally the ‘Cape Town Innovation Tour’ on November 17th aims to give participants an introduction to the ecosystem, access to the entrepreneurs and leaders building the sector. The once-in-a-life-time tour can be booked here.
Proudly partnering with the World Bank’s XLAfrica
This year’s event partners with XL Africa, the first post-seed stage pan-African acceleration program made possible by InfoDev at the World Bank. Sourcing the best digital innovators from across the continent, the XL Africa team has carefully selected 20 companies ready for Series A funding and poised for global success.
About the organizers
The summit is organized by Venture Capital for Africa (VC4A), African Business Angels Network (ABAN) and South African Business Angels Network (SABAN). #AAIS2017 is powered by the Work in Progress! Alliance.
