Africa’s technology sector represents one of the highest-growth areas for venture capital investment — investment into the region increased 74% in 2019 and more than doubled in 2020 but still, there exist a funding gap.
To this we had experts in the industry such as Abasi Ene-Obong of 54gene, Damilola Teidi of CC Hub, Uwem UwemAkpan of Ingressive Capital, Sanaa Berthie of Bridge Builder, Jerome Curry of Platform Capital, Ed Zimmerman of Lowenstein and Rossie E. Turman of Lowenstein speak on Investing In African Tech, and how to close the funding gap so African tech startups and tech funds can have access to more funds as their counterparts in other continents.
On raising capital;
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Share success stories from African startups; Jerome says “one thing that can happen immediately in the next year to two is make opportunities attractive, show how attractive they are, show successes, and show again continued past performance and growth. Those numbers can not be denied.”
We hear stories of Facebook, Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, and all these other entrepreneurs. What we need to do in Africa is have those stories of entrepreneurs who have risen to the top, those whose companies are rising and begin to tell that story.”
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Be patient, the African tech eco-system is still growing; Damilola Teidi emphasised on the need for patience, “We are not here today because of what happened two years ago, we’re actually here because of what happened over 10 years ago for some people.” Everything good takes time.
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Build Emotional Connect with Investors; As a founder who has in the past raised funds and continues to raise funds for his company 54gene, Abasi spoke on the angle of building emotional connect. He said “when we talk about investments people don’t realize that people make investments based on emotions.
Yes, there are facts, but if you don’t connect with the problem emotionally in some way you are not going to want to invest. Hence, there is need for founders to reach out to investors who have some sort of connection to the problems they are trying to solve.
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Build traction; “VC dollars go towards where there is traction, and where there are stories to back up that traction”, said Uwem. Have a measurable set of customers or users that serves to prove to a potential investor that your startup is going places.
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More Local investors need to invest in Africa; on the part of African investors, Uwem encouraged local investors to step in and fund these startups doing amazing things. He said, “I am an advocate for local capital, we need more local investors in the game because they understand the terrain.”
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Promote what is happening in Africa; the key is to promote what’s happening in Africa in other to involve other investors and to create a domino effect” said Sanaa.
On funding gap for women in the tech industry;
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Call out gender biases; Ed encouraged the need to call out gender bias and race bias in venture capital.
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Encourage more women to take up STEM related courses, Damilola advised.
To keep building regardless of limited resources, founders were advised to;
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Keep Going; “what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger, keep going”, said Rossie Turman
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Keep building; “you don’t know what’s around the corner unless you keep walking. So you just have to keep walking.”
These are some valuable lessons we learnt about investing in African tech eco-system.
