AFRICA – The African Business Angels Network (ABAN), together with a number of partners, has launched the African Angel Academy (AAA) to help train angel investors.
The African Angel Academy (AAA) has been established to help accelerate angel investing on the continent through the creation of an angel investing curriculum, tools, and mentorship from established angels, all available through an online portal.
Founded by Fraser Consulting, the African Business Angel Network (ABAN), and Viktoria Business Angel Network (VBAN), AAA hopes to reach a wide audience of aspiring angel investors.
The academy aims to contribute to the need for a stronger angel investing community across the continent, which provides mentorship, knowledge and capital to early-stage businesses. It hopes to grow the number of investors and investor groups, and to drive economic growth across the continent.
Those participating in the programme will be provided with support, tools and knowledge to become active angel investors.
This will be done through workshops, online videos and tools as well as virtual mentorship for the groups. The programme is suited to new angels who have made one or two investments without a formal process or systems, or to aspiring angel investors.
The programme, which is open to both newly formed groups in southern Africa, as well as individuals, includes workshops, online videos and tools as well as virtual mentorship for the groups.
Currently, the project aims to work with groups of angels from South African, Zambia, Mauritius, Tanzania,
ABAN said the programme is suited to new angels who may have made one or two investments without a formal process or systems, or to aspiring angel investors.
Typically, an angel investor is someone who has been a successful entrepreneur or successful professional and would like to support new entrepreneurs.
The content that will be covered both online and through in-country workshops includes topic such as angel investing strategy, mandate, deal sourcing, due diligence, deal structuring, valuations, negotiations, teams, post investment, value addition, exits and angel group management structures.
The pilot programme is sponsored by the Southern Africa Innovation and Support (SAIS) programme, an initiative sponsored by the Finnish government in partnership with various governments from southern Africa.
