ABAN’s co-investment fund, AfriLabs, will move forward following a successful pilot
Catalytic Africa, a co-investment fund founded by the African Business Angels Network (ABAN) and AfriLabs in 2019, has completed a successful trial and will now begin full operations.
The collaboration between AfriLabs, a pan-African network of technology and innovation centers, and ABAN aim to expand the pool of capital accessible to prospective African growth-stage entrepreneurs, promote the startup ecosystem, and raise the visibility of impact to institutional investors.
It established Catalytic, a co-investment fund that would connect angel investor contributions with institutional capital. The Agence Française de Développement (AFD) and the Digital Africa Fund, which were key partners in Catalytic Africa’s initial round of entrepreneurs, are supporting the effort.
“Since May 2021 our teams have been working tirelessly to create a Catalytic Africa platform that will allow stakeholders such as African startups, innovation hubs, and angel investors and angel networks to register, get a matching fund for their application, undergo due diligence, and finally have the funds disbursed,” the organizers said.
“This platform has undergone rigorous testing over months. Throughout the entire process – from registration to matching grant application to due diligence to disbursement – we had the opportunity to test-run our workflows, find new efficiencies, and recognise avoidable obstacles in the process.”
This process was created to ensure that African startups, innovation hubs, angel investors, and networks had a positive experience, and by ensuring that all startups receiving matching funds are part of the AfriLabs ecosystem, angel investors can be confident that their investments will be of high quality. With two firms financed, the pilot was declared a success, and a full launch is now possible.
The Cameroon Angel Network (CAN), an ABAN-registered network, was the Francophone Africa nominee for the pilot phase, and it chose logistics firm Bee Sarl for the matching grant. Bee Sarl is a Cameroonian company registered with ActivSpaces, an AfriLabs-affiliated innovation cluster. In addition to the EUR20,000 investment from CAN, Bee Sarl was able to acquire an additional EUR49,500 in equity-free capital.
South South-East Angel Network (SSEAN), an ABAN-registered network from Port Harcourt, Nigeria, was the Anglophone Africa candidate. For the matching money, SSEAN chose Kasookoo, a cloud-based business phone system provider. Kasookoo is registered with TechnoVision Communications (TVC) Labs, a Nigerian innovation center linked with AfriLabs.
During the AfriLabs Annual Gathering, the Catalytic Africa portal has gone online on October 28.
