Building a new generation of angel investors in Africa

Today, Africa’s crop of angel investors keeps growing, from seasoned angel investors across the world to local founders choosing to back brilliant ideas or entrepreneurs in their early stages.

There’s a lot of curiosity about how to get started as an angel investor, especially with limited resources and information.

On this episode of TC Live, Tomiwa Aladekomo, CEO of Big Cabal Media will be speaking with Tomi and Biola on the process in detail to feed the growing interest, address the common pitfalls, and also explore trends in the angel investment landscape that we can expect to see in the coming years.

Attendees will also be able to ask speakers burning questions in an interactive session. The event is open to experienced and aspiring entrepreneurs as well as everyone else who is playing in the African technology industry.

Investment into Africa’s startup ecosystem is growing rapidly; there’s no doubt about that. In 2016, startups raised about $367m. In 2021, however, fintechs alone raised nearly ten times that. With all this money coming in, it’s easy to forget that not a great deal of it is going to early-stage startups.

In 2020, early-stage deals amounted to only $29.5m, 2.1% of total funding raised in that year. In 2021, it was even lower at $23.6m, 0.45% of total funding raised. This trend is a key pointer as to why startups need angel investors – people or networks that will cut those important first checks at the early stage.

Moreso, with the level of innovation the continent is producing every year, there’s no better time to be an angel investor.

“There is a huge opportunity for investors including angel investors that want to specialize in the early-stage in Africa, and this is where we see the most exciting pipeline of companies coming through,” said Arthur Chupeau, Head of Ventures at The Baobab Network.

It’s an important conversation that will catalyze how Africa’s angel investing landscape evolves from here on out.