This article by Martin Carstens originally appeared on Ventureburn, a VC4Africa publishing partner.

Is there a shortage of VC and angel funding in Africa? Pose the question to entrepreneurs and the answer is bound to be yes. Omidyar’s latest report on African entrepreneurship found that 71% of respondents surveyed in South Africa, Ghana, Kenya, Ethiopia, Nigeria and Tanzania believe that there is a shortage of equity capital to start new firms. African financiers disagree, simply saying that many projects are not fundable.

Whatever the case may be, the International Finance Corporation estimates that up to 84% of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Africa are either un-served or underserved, representing a value gap in credit financing of US$140-billion to US$170-billion. So, what’s a startup to do?

Instead [...]

Tags: africa, african, angel, international, investors, VC
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VC4Africa connects qualified investors from around the world with quality entrepreneurs all across Africa. Register as an investor on VC4Africa to get access to screened deal flow, direct access to private documents from hundreds of ventures in Africa, and to network and pool resources with fellow investors.

VC4Africa’s investor network is the largest network of dedicated SME investors interested in supporting African based ventures. Beside a large group of informal investors, the network also includes many institutional investors. We recently profiled 40 investors part of VC4Africa’s investor network.

The VC4Africa community of entrepreneurs and investors has more than 10,000 members in more than 159 countries. More than 1,000 African enterprises applied for registration on the platform. We invite new investors to join the community.

Access [...]

Tags: africa, angel, business, capital, community, equity, finance, funding, investors, VC4Africa, venture capital for africa
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Egyptian internet startup Knellen has closed an investment deal with both Egyptian and European angel investors through VC4Africa’s online venture capital community. Knellen is a new platform that allows emerging artists to exhibit, promote and sell their work virtually, and gives art lovers insider access to new talents.

After having worked in business and marketing, 24-year-old Egyptian Ahmed Koraiem decided to combine his passion for arts with his business expertise, and together with co-founder Makarious Farag established the company Knellen. Ahmed Koraiem: “We are offering a solution to artists by providing them an online gallery to display and sell their art. At the same time we’re allowing people who are interested in viewing and buying art the freedom to do so from home, offering [...]

Tags: africa, angel, business, capital, deal, egypt, entrepreneur, funding, international, internet, investment, investor, Knellen, lead, startup, VC4Africa, venture capital for africa
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The Diaspora Angel Investor Network (The DAIN Network) is focused on getting Africans in the Diaspora engaged with entrepreneurship in the agriculture sectors – to help alleviate the food crisis in Africa. On April 23rd - 24th DAIN Network is organizing a free “Entrepreneurship Bootcamp Traning” for agribusiness startups in Accra, Ghana. DAIN co-founder and VC4Africa member Nii Simmonds explains the concept. 

If you’re a first-time entrepreneur with an idea you want to scale into a business, you probably need mentorship and advise, and some startup capital — banks, angels, friends or family members — to give you funding. The Diaspora Angel Investor Network (The DAIN Network) offers a free entrepreneurship bootcamp training to entrepreneurs, farmers, startups, and SMEs who are in the agribusiness verticals. These [...]

Tags: agribusiness, angel, DAIN, diaspora, entrepreneurs, ghana, investor, network, training
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This article by Keet van Zyl originally appeared on Ventureburn, a VC4Africa publishing partner.

About the author: Keet van Zyl is a dynamic investment expert with extensive growth equity experience. He worked at industry-leading companies such as Procter & Gamble, Investec Bank and HBD Venture Capital; and co-founded growth equity fund manager KnifeCapital as well as AngelHub – SA’s first Business Angel Investment Group.

Here’s the thing: if you do a cold-call pitch to a Venture Capital (VC) investor using email, your proposal is already at the bottom of the pile before anyone has even read the subject line.

The reason: VCs mostly rely on warm referrals from within their trusted networks to generate dealflow, as this acts as an automatic filter and increases the quality of proposals. [...]

Tags: africa, angel, business, capital, Do's and don'ts, email, entrepreneurs, equity, finance, funding, intro emails, invest, investment, investor, lessons, startups, VC, venture capital for africa, venture capitalist
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At VC4Africa our mission is to support the continent’s most promising entrepreneurs and to connect them with the resources (network, knowledge and capital) they require to realize their potential. Specifically, we focus on the less than 1 million range currently underserved by the market. We do everything we can to help entrepreneurs tackle both their non-financial and financial needs. Launching the VC4Africa investor network in May of 2012, entrepreneurs with venture profiles listed on VC4Africa now have exclusive access to the continent’s largest and most dedicated network of Africa focused investors actually interested in early stage companies.

We selected 40 investors from the VC4A network and profile them here:

4Di Capital is an [...] Continue reading Connecting innovators with capital, meet 40 investors from the VC4Africa investor network » Tags: africa, angel, community, continent, debt, due diligence, entrepreneurs, equity, finance, funding, growth finance, investing, Investor Network, investors, matches, matchmaking, networking, platform, private equity, seed, SME, social, startup, VC, VC4Africa, venture capital Comments | Permalink African startup funding cycle, different stages of startup funding By Miguel Heilbron on January 3, 2013 Different phases of a startup ask for different types of financing. In this post we look at the startup funding cycle as it applies to ventures listed on VC4Africa, and ask the community to share from their own experiences! Most startups go through a similar funding cycle: you start off with finance from your own savings or from small and informal loans from friends and family. If things go well, you might be able to pick up some seed stage funding by participating in a startup event or by winning a business plan competition. With some early traction, it is possible to apply for an accelerator or get backing from an early stage seed fund. Once the concept for the venture starts to mature, and the [...] Continue reading African startup funding cycle, different stages of startup funding » Tags: africa, angel, business, capital, community, entrepreneur, finance, funding, History, investor, investors, money, startups, venture capital, venture capital for africa Comments | Permalink Building an ecosystem for Angel investing in Africa By Ben on December 20, 2012 From our extensive conversations with entrepreneurs and investors, and supported again by our own research polls with the VC4Africa community, we know that access to finance remains a key challenge for unlocking innovation sectors across the continent. Where institutional investors shy from early stage companies we can do more to engage Angels, Seed Funds and early stage VCs. Small, young and highly innovative firms require debt and equity finance. Institutional investors have a hard time reaching these entrepreneurs and prefer to focus on gains made by backing more traditional business, thereby avoiding the perceived riskiness of early stage companies that lack the required collateral. It can be argued that the ongoing financial crisis only serves to widen the gap as institutional investors consolidate and double down [...] Continue reading Building an ecosystem for Angel investing in Africa » Tags: africa, angel, business, company, early stage, investing, mobile, seed, stage, startup, startups, technology, venture capital, web Comments | Permalink Angel investing in Africa (case study part 3): Scouting new opportunities and finding companies to invest By Bertil van Vugt on December 7, 2012 Recently M-Kazi closed their seed round with angel investor Jerome Kisting. This interview is the third installment in a three part series (see part 1 and part 2) and abbreviates from an interview held with Jerome Kisting on Thursday the 22nd of November 2012.  How do you find new companies to invest in? “I’m very curious, I read a lot. If I find something in a sector that I’m interested in, I will dig a bit in that area. I look at crowdfunding platforms like Kickstarter, I read the VC4Africa newsletter and I’m a member of a couple of LinkedIn Groups. But if I were looking for an investment in a country where I already have a network, I would always consult them first. So in Kenya I would talk to [...] Continue reading Angel investing in Africa (case study part 3): Scouting new opportunities and finding companies to invest » Tags: africa, angel, angel investor network, capital, community, company, discovery, due diligence, early round, entrepreneur, entrepreneurs, entrepreneurship, History, investing, investment, investor, investors, kenya, mobile, nairobi, network, platform, private equity, seed stage, social networking, startup, VC, venture, venture capital Comments | Permalink Angel investing in Africa (case study part 2): Screening and structuring the angel investment By Bertil van Vugt on December 6, 2012 Recently M-Kazi closed their seed round with angel investor Jerome Kisting. This interview is the second installment in a three part series (see part 1) and abbreviates from an interview held with Jerome Kisting on Thursday the 22nd of November 2012.  What is your mindset as an investor going into this process? “For me it’s about people and about interactions and sometimes things don’t work out. Even when they don’t work out it is still about people and their ability to execute. Sometimes you work on a business model and it just doesn’t work. Luckily it looks like m-Kazi’s model is working and Lino and Nancy are the right people to execute this.” What triggered your interest in m-Kazi? “Lino, Nancy and I spoke a lot via Skype and we [...] Continue reading Angel investing in Africa (case study part 2): Screening and structuring the angel investment » Tags: africa, angel, angel investor network, capital, community, company, discovery, due diligence, early round, entrepreneur, entrepreneurs, entrepreneurship, History, investing, investment, investor, investors, kenya, mobile, nairobi, network, platform, private equity, seed stage, social networking, startup, VC, venture, venture capital Comments | Permalink Next Page Partners 1%CLUB ActivSpaces AVCA CTIC Dakar DEMO Africa District Egypt DOEN Foundation EMRC Enviu ExtendedBits GrowthHub Nairobi Hivos iceaddis icecairo iHub Nairobi Innoventures Lunatech Ventures Lions Africa Mara Launchpad MEST Ghana Mobile Web Africa NaiLab VentureBurn Wennovation Hub WEBclusive Zinger Systems Members All Members Officers Program Ventures Latest Business Ventures Popular Business Ideas Top In 24 hours Top In 7 days Top in 30 days Investors Featured Entrepreneurs Register as an Investor Events All Events Organize Your Own LOGIN About The Team Partners Blog Contact © VC4A 2013 Terms Disclaimer