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On November 2nd, 3rd and 4th, VC4A and ABAN brought Africa’s investor community together for the 9th Africa Early Stage Investor Summit, an industry leading event which successfully hosted 3000+ attendees from all over the world.
Two key research reports were presented by Briter Bridges and Africa: The Big Deal, which highlighted record breaking angel and venture capital investments into African early stage businesses. With only $1 out of every $15 of this investment going to women founded and led startups, this year’s double theme highlighted trends in Gender Smart Investing and Greentech investing on the continent.
As indicated by Jessica Espinoza in her Keynote Address on Gender Smart Investing, “Gender balanced leadership teams in private equity generate 20% higher net IRR, yet, we don’t find good gender balance in leadership in early stage investing”, adding that “This is a missed opportunity that can be resolved by adopting a gender smart lens.”
AESIS2022 saw the launch of the first edition of the Ecosystem Side Event, with the aim to speak to the intersection between entrepreneurship development and early-stage investing. Industry leaders dug into different views around investment readiness and ESO sustainability. Presenters included:
The segment was attended by more than 300 delegates, and was hosted thanks to the AESIS partnership with GIZ Make-IT in Africa who sponsored proceedings and FMO Ventures who powered the Hub Sustainability expert panel.
With record breaking early stage investments and a need to sustainably grow the investing ecosystem, the subject of governance was a common thread throughout the summit, with a Masterclass on Governance for Angel Investors in the AESIS Academy, and a Fireside Chat on governance between Aly El Shalakany of Cairo Angel Fund, Rebecca Enonchong of ABAN and Raj Kulasingam of SM River Ventures.
#AESIS2022 featured 14 women-led portfolio companies in the first VC4A Venture Showcase Africa: Women Founder Edition. These founders are all looking to raise their pre-seed to seed and Series A rounds of between USD 250K – 10M, as Venture Showcase alumni have raised USD 600M till date. For access to the dealbook, contact Jason Delorie on jason@vc4a.com.
In a major milestone this edition, 1000+ investors attended the exclusive Investor Meetups in 30 cities worldwide, more than doubling from 13 cities in 2021. We witnessed many new bonds formed and celebrated the past year with one another as the community continues to grow.
Cabo Verde held its first local investor meetup with #AESIS2022 and it was graced by the country’s Minister for Finance who spoke about Business Angels and Venture Capital, signalling that early stage investing is gaining the necessary recognition as a powerful economic development tool.