The African Business Angels Network (ABAN), a pan-African initiative to promote angel investing and boost early stage startups, has announced it will hold Angel Investor bootcamps in Nairobi, Kenya, and Cape Town, South Africa, in addition to the already announced Lagos event.
Disrupt Africa reported last year on the launch of ABAN, which formed after a group of organisations, including the likes of Lagos Angels Network (LAN), VC4Africa, Cameroon Angels Network (CAN), Silicon Cape, Ghana Angel Investors Network (GAIN) and European Business Angels Network (EBAN), joined forces to promote a culture of angel investing across Africa.
Earlier this month it announced a partnership with LAN to hold the first of a series of Angel Investor Bootcamps on July 31 during Lagos Startup Week, under the theme “Unlocking capital for early stage innovation”. The lessons learned from the bootcamp will feed into the programme for the second annual Angel Investor Summit, which will take place in September as part of DEMO Africa.
ABAN has now confirmed additional dates in Nairobi and Cape Town, saying the bootcamps will consist of a master-class, expert sessions, the presentation of research material and in-depth case studies. They have been organised with the support of the US State Department, VC4Africa, Intercontinental Trust and the LIONS Africa Partnership.
The Nairobi event on August 13 is organised in partnership with Viktora Ventures and the iHub, and will see EBAN president Brigitte Baumann run the master-class. Intellecap will announce the launch of their “Impact Investing Network East Africa Chapter” and share insights on launching and managing angel networks while VC4Africa will present their ‘Venture Finance in Africa’ report. .
In Cape Town on August 27, the master-class will be conducted by Selma Prodanovic, co-founder of the Austrian Angel Investors Association, partner of accelerator Superfounders, and founder of Brainworks. The Cape Town Bootcamp will take place during the South Africa Innovation Summit and is organised in partnership with Silicon Cape.
“The intended audience is new aspiring investors who want to learn about early stage investing, as well as seasoned, experienced investors looking to engage with peers,” ABAN said.
ABAN president Tomi Davies told Disrupt Africa last month such networks played a huge role in supporting early-stage entrepreneurs, and not just with funding.
“In the interest to connect these African networks, support new investors and new networks, to maximise their impact and to connect African investors to their global counterparts, there is a need to establish a pan-African association of angel investor networks and other early stage investors,” he said.
“So ABAN is focused on supporting networks like LAN with angel capacity development, shared best practices and standards, access to international resources, engagement and lobbying of policymakers.”
