1st Angel Fair West Africa Event To Be Hosted In Lagos
On the 30th – 31st of March 2014, Lagos will be hosting the first ever event of the Angel Fair West Africa which will feature over 100 investors and entrepreneurs. These guests come from both Africa and other parts of the world, all coming together in Lagos to “do deals” on this Angel Fair West Africa (AFWA) inaugural event. The event has been organized by Angel Africa List (AAL) in conjunction with African Venture Capital Association (AVCA) and Lagos Angel Network (LAN).
At the AFWA event, selected entrepreneurs will be given the opportunity to pitch their business ideas, giving the investors the platform for meeting various entrepreneurs showcasing their business idea in a sequence of events organized by the investors’ wishes. The investors will circulate around meeting the various entrepreneurs, in the afternoon while exploring their business developments, investments among other kinds of deals. In addition to this, the event will also have a session for the investors and the entrepreneurs.
The Angel Fair was officially launched last year in Joburg, and so far it has bagged recognition among the Top 5 Players in the African startup Eco-system. The inauguration of the Angel Fair West Africa selected hosting this event in Lagos, since the city is an already established hub for various startup businesses and various representatives in attendance will come from Lagos Angel Network, Angel Africa List, Africa Venture Capital Association, Africa Angels Network, Ghana Angel Investment Network, existing Angel groups based in Senegal and other networks from the rest of Africa and other continents.
The Angel Fair with a focus on pan-Africa is the brain child of the South Africa based ArtLogic together with two renowned technology entrepreneur and Angel investor, Ghanaian Eric Osiakwan and Jamie Clyde who is a corporate entrepreneur and the CEO of THE IN COMPANY. Eric Osiakwan is recognized for his great achievement of finding and building various highly successful companies like AfrISPA, GISPA, Kuzima, GNVC, Internet Research, African Elections Portal and PenPlusBytes among others. Eric had this to say “Half of the 20 fastest-growing economies in the world are in Africa. Never before has the continent been so open for business. But according to Omidyar Network’s recent research, inventors, partners and entrepreneurs struggle to find each other to do deals”.
An overview of the organizations that are making the 30-31st March 2014, Inaugural Angel Fair West Africa is given below:
- Angel Fair: This is an event which purpose to bring together the accelerators, emerging businesses and incubators from all over Africa and investors in order for them to do deals together.
- Angel Africa List: Angel Africa can best be described as a network of angels and investors who are focused on Africa’s economic prosperity through fostering and building “mentor financing” investments to realize African innovative startups.
- Lagos Angel Network: This is an exclusive network of Angel investors supporting start-up entrepreneurs in Lagos and its surrounding through funds and mentorship support.
- Africa Venture Capital Association: Comprising of the African Private Equity and the Venture Capital Association, it is a member-supported trade association that endeavors in promoting and stimulating venture capital and private equity throughout Africa.
The inaugural event will provide opportunities for various start-up entrepreneurs to meet prospective investors that could possibly lead to the next level of development.