Starting up a business is a wonderful idea when one generates the thought, with a smile on your face as you properly construct your mega-ideas but soon cold feet creep in when the thought of seeking the next level and expansion for the business which usually entails more funding.
So many businesses become “endangered” when funding poses a threat to their survival.
This, therefore, causes a reduction in appeasing customers and employment because the more viable businesses are available, the more, additional human power becomes sought-after to reach vast customers, making everybody have a win.
With funding as a setback of ingenious ideas, Lagos Angel Network (LAN) on this backdrop launched in 2012.
Spending their time, money, knowledge, and connections finding, funding, and following Nigerian startup founding teams, as they’ve built innovative, enterprising, and sustainable ventures while creating jobs, impact, and value for customers, founders, and their investors.
Lagos Angel Network (LAN) is an association of committed members (angels) that provides seed funding and mentoring for start-up entrepreneurs.
This Network provides an opportunity for serious and qualified entrepreneurs to harness this high reward investment vehicle to back their ventures.
LAN is on a mission of investing in Lagos-based entrepreneurs and their early-stage businesses, give them access to our business networks, mentor and nurture them with the aim of building a sustainable business ecosystem.
Lagos Angel Network Timeline
Long before household Nigerian tech startups began. A group of investors, bloggers, tech people, bankers, and government officials gathered at the Wheatbaker Hotel on a September evening in 2012 for the launch of the Lagos Angel Network.
The objective of LAN then was to replicate what was already going on in more mature startup ecosystems like Silicon Valley, Istanbul, and other cities across the globe – finding, funding, and following startup founders as they build strong and sustainable ventures that create value for customers, founders and investors alike.
Since that evening at Wheatbaker, LAN has delivered immense value to the Nigerian startup ecosystem. Hardly is there any notable startup in Nigeria today that has not (directly or indirectly) benefited from some member of the LAN community.
LAN has pioneered many startup investments like Café Neo, Big Cabal Media, and also bringing about opportunities like the 1st DealDay event in 2018, with a major win of 25-50 million funding opportunity to a startup venture.
LAN has also offered monthly pitch sessions, one of which was the recent Women 2.0. Other activities include LAN masterclass, LAN Quarterly DealDey, LAN Partnership/Ecosystem Events. These activities have proven successful through the years.
LAN does not choose to relent, even with how far they have come. So far the journey so far is a successful one that will keep progressing and will not retard.
Criteria for membership in LAN
- Estimation of business years is between two to five years.
- Early-stage only businesses that can provide evidence of pre-revenue and pre-grant income.
- A team of not less than 3 people (ideally commercial, technical, and operational but we will consider other compositions).
- Transparently demonstrate the model of the business plan or propose a working prototype of the business.
- Evidence of large market profitability, globally at least N100M annually.
LAN in the next decade
The business ecosystem is maturing quickly with startups moving from Angel rounds to series rounds in months not years.
We have seen Nigerian unicorns created and the first major ‘full exit’ story in Paystack’s sale to Stripe for $200m and all despite the significant macroeconomic challenges in Nigeria making for incredibly great news for the Nigerian startup ecosystem.
Technology has also evolved with increased accessibility making it so much easier for founders and investors to assess and drive value creation opportunities.
Today, more Angel Investors (some inexperienced) are investing in an asset class that has been traditionally seen as too risky for non-sophisticated investors.
While only some of these investors appreciate the associated risks, most of them do not fully understand, nor are they able to assess, the risks of investing in startups.
The question of how new and even existing angel investors assess market opportunities, value propositions, founding teams, startup growth plans, etc. in the context of the Nigerian economic and political environment becomes a near existential question for the angel community.
All this is in consideration as LAN hopes to stay bullish for the next years to come. In hope of success like the previous decade.
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