Building a Pan African Network of Angel Investors - Lessons learned from the Nairobi Angel Investor Bootcamp
 

On Thursday August 13th, the second edition in a series of Angel Investor Bootcamps was hosted in Nairobi, Kenya. The objective of the Investor Bootcamps is to mobilize the early stage investing community and to grow a pan-African network of Angel investors. Lessons learned will feed into the program for the 2nd Annual Angel Investor Summit September 23rd as part of DEMO Africa 2015. The events are organized by the African Business Angel Network (ABAN) in partnership with VC4Africa, the LIONS Africa Partnership and Intercontinental Trust. The Nairobi edition was hosted together with local patners Viktoria Ventures and the iHub.
 
The audience is new aspiring investors interested in learning about early stage investing as well as seasoned, experienced investors looking to share best practices and engage with their peers. 
 
Master-class by ‘European Angel Investor of the year’ Brigitte Baumann
 
Centre to the Nairobi event was a master-class by President Emeritus of the European Business Angel Network (EBAN), CEO & Founder of Go Beyond Early Stage Investing and recently elected ’European Angel Investor of the Year’ Brigitte Baumann. Brigitte shared insights from her lifelong journey as an investor and took the audience through the whole investment cycle from deal generation to exiting.
 
A number of takeaways:
 
For early stage companies ‘Benchmarking’ has proven to be a successful valuation tool and probably more relevant and usable than more traditional methods better suited for later stage companies. Angel Networks and angel syndicates tend to screen more deals and make more investments and will therefore also be in a better position to benchmark compared as to individual investors. Benchmarking should be three-dimensional; sector, country and stage of development with three key divers behind the value of an early stage company being ‘Quality of Offer’, ‘Market Heat’ and the ‘Cash Situation’ of the company. With cash –also here- being king. In an African context benchmarking is a challenge but will become easier as more deals get done and more reliable data becomes available.
 
This being said what has worked in one country, ecosystem or industry should not just be applied in a different environment without understanding how and why something works. Investor education is as important as educating entrepreneurs when it comes to deal structuring, term sheets and angel investing in general.
 
Besides the science and the analytics, early stage investing is still very much an art form ‘As an Angel investor when your gut feelings tells you walk from that deal, follow your gut as it will haunt you later’. Brigitte Baumann also shared findings from the recently published Go Beyond Investor Portfolio Strategies and Performance report accessible via www.go-beyond.biz
 
Local Investors Joining the Conversation
 
The relevance of teams was stressed versus ‘lone-wolf entrepreneurs’ and the role angel investors play in discovering talent, coaching & developing entrepreneurs and opening doors. ‘You get out of it what you put into it’. An angel investor who takes her or his investing serious becomes actively involved. Period. Otherwise it is just play and for entrepreneurs this is serious business. Entrepreneurs are emotionally fragile when you talk about their business; they have poured their life into it. Kenyan entrepreneur Hilda Moraa, co-founder of Weza Tele (recently acquired by AFB), confirmed some of the lessons from the master class during the panel later during the event when local investors joined the conversation. Commenting on a question from the audience about the level of involvement and control by investors, Hilda replied she was fortunate to find the right investor locally who gave autonomy to execute. During the same panel discussion local investor Sean Nowak quoted Y Combinator’s Paul Graham in answering the question what investors look for in entrepreneurs “Committed to the vision but flexible enough to adapt'. Other members on the panel were Robert Yawe who has been part of the Nairobi start-up scene from the early days and Mutuma Marangu investor and director in several agricultural, energy and real-estate companies in sub-Saharan Africa and advisor to the Nairobi Stock Exchange. The panel was moderated by Viktoria Ventures Co-founder Stephen Gugu, also co-organizer of the Bootcamp.
 
Emerging trends and New Initiatives
 
VC4Africa’s head of Investor Relations Thomas van Halen also spoke, presenting the findings from VC4Africa’s annual research ‘Venture Finance in Africa’.  This research provides valuable insights in trends in investment size, number of deals, jobs created and other aspects of early stage investing and entrepreneurship in Africa.
 
Meantime Atreya Rayaprolu Executive Director New Initiatives & Africa Intellecap presented the launch of the Intellecap Impact Investment Network East Africa Chapter. “Aim is to plug the pre-VC funding gap early stage enterprises face by mobilizing domestic capital and connecting international investors to domestic investors. Our investors come together to support brilliant and passionate entrepreneurs who are dedicated to solving difficult problems at the bottom of the pyramid”, Atreya explains.
 
Sebastian Levantard from law and advisory firm Intercontinental Trust also joined the event to speak about deal structuring, tax issues and some of the opportunities available to investors in Mauritius.
 
Next in the Series of events is the ABAN Angel Investor Bootcamp in Cape Town August 27 organised with local partner Silicon Cape. For more information, please see the ABAN website. This September the “Angel Investing in Africa” Annual Angel Investor Summit is presented in Lagos, by the African Business Angel Network in partnership with VC4Africa, DEMO Africa and the Lagos Angels Network. Lessons learned from the series of ABAN Bootcamps and Master classes will feed into the program for the summit. A special VIP event package has been made available to investors and can be accessed via the Investor Registration page.

ClimateCare Becomes One of the UK's First Certified B Corporations
 

ClimateCare, a leader in the delivery of corporate and government programmes to protect the environment and improve people's lives, today announced that it has received certification as one of the UK's Founding B Corporations. 

Referred to as "the highest standard for socially responsible business" Certified B Corporations go through a rigorous assessment of their business practices and are judged to achieve higher standards of social and environmental performance, transparency and accountability.

"I'm delighted to be joining this international community of forward thinking socially and environmentally conscious businesses", says CEO Edward Hanrahan

"Since it was founded, ClimateCare has balanced delivery of three things: Social Impact, Environmental Impact and Profit. Achieving B Corporation status is a great endorsement of the positive impacts we create and, perhaps more importantly, it stands as an independent benchmark and certification of the ethical way we run our business, something that the whole ClimateCare team, our clients and our partners are immensely proud of."

With an 18 year track record ClimateCare is living proof that commercial businesses can deliver positive impacts at scale. In the last 7 years alone the business has effectively deployed $100million to deliver measurable social and environmental outcomes for corporate and government clients.

B Corporation have awarded ClimateCare a score of 141.4 points (compared to an average of 97 points), but CEO Edward Hanrahan sees this as the starting point, saying: "A key benefit of the B Corporation system is that it identifies areas of strength and areas for improvement. We're already using the results to identify where we can push the boundaries further. I particularly look forward to tapping into the knowledge and expertise of fellow B Corp members who I hope will challenge us and help us continue to improve."

An influential organisation with hundreds of corporate clients, ClimateCare also plans to promote the B Corporation movement to its broader network. By encouraging its partners to adopt some of the core principles, it hopes to harness the power of its business community to deliver further positive change.

"We are delighted to welcome ClimateCare to our founding UK B Corp Community." said James Perry, Co-ordinator, UK Launch, B Lab UK

"The UK is well placed to help lead this global movement, and companies such as ClimateCare are a great example of a business taking leadership in their field."  

Andy Murray Makes Multiple Investments on Equity Crowdfunding Platform Seedrs

●     Tennis champion Andy Murray makes multiple investments in British businesses on leading equity crowdfunding platform, Seedrs

●     Andy Murray invests in healthier eating chain Tossed on Seedrs, who are running the world’s largest equity crowdfunding campaign for a quick service restaurant

●     World number two tennis champion backs established entrepreneurs by investing in ASOS-backed Trillenium and award winning entrepreneur Mark Pearson’s Fuel Ventures Fund

●     Seedrs Strategic Advisor Andy Murray invests in startups on Seedrs

London, 19 August 2015 – Tennis champion and world number two Andy Murray announced today that he has made multiple investments on Seedrs, the largest equity crowdfunding platform in Europe.

Murray, who joined the Seedrs advisory board in June, identified three British businesses he wanted to back on the crowdfunding platform, and has invested an undisclosed amount into all three. Murray plans to make further investments as part of his strategic relationship with Seedrs.

London-based, healthier eating chain Tossed has now exceeded its £750,000 target, as part of their Seedrs round, and is currently in overfunding. Tossed is on a mission to show that healthy eating isn't boring with a range of fresh made-to-order salads, wraps, smoothies and hot food.

Murray has also made investments in Trillenium, a leading builder of 3D virtual reality shops, which has been backed by UK success story ASOS and has raised over £225,000 on Seedrs so far; and the Fuel Ventures Fund, founded by award-winning entrepreneur Mark Pearson of myvouchercodes.co.uk which raised £549,900 on Seedrs as part of their overall £30million venture fund.

Murray said about these investments, “I’m excited to be investing in these driven entrepreneurs and their businesses on Seedrs. It’s important to me that I back people who I believe have the same dedication, hunger and professional standards as myself and always strive to be their best.”

“The three businesses I’ve chosen to kick off my crowdfunding investment portfolio are all in areas of industry I find interesting. Healthy eating is something I have to be passionate about as a sportsman, so Tossed was immediately one to consider, and the other two businesses are really pushing the boundaries of technology. I’m hoping that I can learn something from how they are edging ahead of the competition and take that vision onto the court with me. I’m looking forward to seeing what the future holds for these businesses and continuing to work closely with Seedrs.”

Murray was the first major public figure to team up with an equity crowdfunding platform in this way. The Seedrs strategic partnership adds to Murray’s off court interests, which also include his management company, 77, and luxury Scottish hotel, Cromlix.

Jeff Lynn, CEO and co-founder of Seedrs, said, “It’s great to see Andy already taking such an active interest in the businesses on Seedrs. The fact he has decided to make multiple investments in hungry entrepreneurs shows his commitment to building a dynamic portfolio of early-stage businesses. Andy has already brought a lot of value to the Seedrs Advisory Board over the past few months and we welcome his continued support.”

£75m in Equity Funding Available for Scottish Companies over the Next Three Years

Scottish Enterprise enhances and streamlines its four funds into two

The Scottish Investment Bank (SIB), Scottish Enterprise’s investment arm, has relaunched its co-investment funds, with the aim of investing up to £75 million into companies across Scotland over the next three years.

By streamlining its co-investment funds from four to two and widening the investment parameters, SIB is increasing flexibility and accessibility for businesses and investors who will now be able to easily identify and seek to access the appropriate investment fund where there is a funding gap and request for SIB investment.

The enhanced funds – the Scottish Co-Investment Fund (SCF) and the Scottish Venture Fund (SVF) – remain focused on providing opportunities for Scottish growth businesses, co-investing alongside private sector investors who bring deals to SIB.

Both funds are widening their deal parameters, with investment starting from £10,000 up to £1.5 million through the SCF and up to £2 million through the SVF in deal sizes up to £10 million.

The difference between the two funds is in the role of the private sector investor. Investment through the SCF is alongside Accredited Partners who are experienced investors, vetted by SIB, and subject to the terms of the SCF partner agreement. Following successful accreditation, the investment partner can lead multiple investment deals alongside SIB, with fast track access to matched funding across a wide investment range into eligible deals.

Whilst still led by private sector investors, investment through the SVF does not require an accredited partner. This approach makes it more accessible to a wider range of private sector investors, unlocking more risk capital funding for businesses.

New private equity market data collected for the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills found that reported equity investments in SMEs increased from £1bn in 2010 to £1.6bn in 2013 due to strong seed activity. This trend is also visible in Scotland, with reported equity investment increasing from £116 million in 2012 to £244 million in 2014 (more than doubling over the two year period). This shows strong evidence of the increasing demand for equity finance and SIB’s role in facilitating access to finance for Scotland’s ambitious companies.

Kerry Sharp, Head of the Scottish Investment Bank, said: “We’ve been monitoring the market and listening to our investors, and the message was clear that companies increasingly need funding to be more flexible than ever before. That’s why we’ve widened the investment parameters and simplified the criteria to benefit both the private sector investors we work with and the companies we invest in. This greater flexibility to invest across a broader range of businesses will enable us to support more companies to reach their full potential, which in turn helps the Scottish economy to grow.”

Isle of Harris Distillers is a company that has previously secured co-investment funding.  Ron MacEachran, Director, Isle of Harris Distillers, commented: “Our project has benefited from the interest Scottish Investment Bank showed from the start of the fundraising process. Individual investors had increased confidence as a result, enabling us to leverage £5.65m in private sector investment.  SIB also helped us align the economic and commercial impact objectives of the project's equity investors and grant funders.  It further helped us identify professionals with the relevant knowledge and expertise needed at critical points in the project. It’s been decades since this level of investment has come to the Isle of Harris and we are looking forward to the next chapter in this exciting opportunity.”

John Waddell, Chief Executive, Archangels, explained: “The relationship we have built with the Scottish Investment Bank since the co-investment model launched 12 years ago is one of trust and confidence. They have acted as the link between public and private sector funding to find solutions for Scottish SMEs in order to help them grow and move forward. This strong mutual understanding between SIB and private sector investors on what is needed to deliver a track record of success is the foundation of the co-investment model.”

Disruptive legal start-up, CaseHub, raises seed round led by Downing Ventures

CaseHub, a disruptive legal start-up that will help make legal battles accessible for everyday consumers, has raised a round of seed funding led by Downing Ventures.

Founded by 23 year-old Cambridge law graduate Michael Green, CaseHub was incubated by the pre-seed accelerator Entrepreneur First (EF). Other investors joining Downing Ventures in the round include Doug Scott’s angel syndicate Potential UK and other angel investors.

CaseHub has built a platform to facilitate class action legal battles which will launch late this summer. Individuals have historically been unable to challenge large organisations because of high barriers to entry in going to court: money, knowledge and psychological costs. Class actions are one way to get around this, in which a group of people sue together in one legal claim, but these have not truly developed yet in the UK. CaseHub aims to change this. By aggregating a crowd of eligible claimants together, CaseHub will be able to secure redress for millions of people across a spectrum of public interest cases.

Michael Green, founder of CaseHub says: "I am honoured to be working with Downing Ventures, who are breathing life into an ambitious project that has at its heart a real social good.”

CaseHub’s first case is aimed at rogue parking fine collectors. Called ChallengetheFine (www.challengethefine.com), when it launches it stands to be the largest consumer lawsuit in English legal history. The case is a group legal battle against the DVLA and certain parking firms. CaseHub has mobilised over 21,000 claimants who are waiting to join the case for compensation and redress when the platform launches.

Matt Penneycard, Head of Downing Ventures says: “We are very proud to be adding CaseHub to the Downing Ventures portfolio. It is transforming a large and well established industry and is led by a very talented founder.”

Matt Clifford, co-founder of EF says: “We are really excited to be investing in CaseHub alongside Downing Ventures. It has been great to follow CaseHub’s progress right from the beginning; from its creation at EF through to growing and raising this round. Michael and the team at CaseHub are really changing the way that we think about class action lawsuits by helping to make big legal battles affordable for everyday consumers.”