2020 Africa Early Investor Summit — Day 1 Recap

Tuesday, November 3 kicked off day 1 of the two-day 2020 Africa Early Investor Summit, co-hosted by the African Business Angels Network (ABAN) and VC4A, which brought together hundreds of investors from across the African continent and the rest of the world to discuss the investment landscape of Africa. The event was open only to self-identified investors who registered with VC4A in advance (though it may still be possible to register for Day 2 here). If you missed the event, here’s a quick recap of some of the highlights from the day:

Early-Stage Investments in Africa are STRONG and Growing Stronger

Serial angel entrepreneur and ABAN founder Tomi Davies kicked off the summit with opening remarks where he made clear that investments in early-stage startups in Africa are on the rise, from less than $300 million in investments in 2015 to more than $750 million so far in 2020 (with additional reports that funding raised so far this year is well over $800 million).

Following this, Rebecca Enonchong (serial entrepreneur and AfriLabs Board Chair) and McKinsey’s Africa Chairman, Acha Leke delved deeper to discuss the current startup/investment landscape in Africa. Among the key takeaways from the conversation is that with the fastest growing population and the largest youth population, the African market cannot be ignored.

To that end, the question then became what tools are needed to ensure the continent’s ability to take advantage of the growing investment opportunities. Enonchong and Leke emphasized the need to encourage more local early-stage investors to take the risk and invest in African startups. They also discussed the need for continued digitization across the continent in order to better facilitate cross-border collaboration among startups/investors.

You can read the full article on Medium.