AfriLabs Connect Deal Room (ACDR)
Creating Pipelines of Investible Startups and Matching them with Investment Funds
Who We Are
AfriLabs is a pan-African innovation-focused organization that works with innovation hubs and other stakeholders to raise successful startups and entrepreneurs that are developing and deploying innovative solutions to African problems through the adoption of technologies. It was founded in 2011 to build a community around the rapidly emerging technology hubs in Africa. Hubs are centres that provide support to African entrepreneurs, innovators, developers and youth, by providing physical co-working and dedicated office space, training, business, legal and financial support, helping to raise successful entrepreneurs that will create jobs and develop innovative solutions to African problems.
“The tech hubs role of providing access to training and networking to startups could be more important than raising money”
Rebecca Enonchong Board Chair, AfriLabs (2017-2021)
Mission
To support innovation hubs and their communities to raise high potential entrepreneurs that will stimulate economic growth and social development in Africa. We achieve this through capacity building, financing, networking, access to market, talent, learning & development, fellowships & internships, policy advocacy, providing insightful and reliable data.
Vision
A thriving innovation economy in Africa, driven by the power of our community.
Problem Statement
Tech businesses are well known for their ability to deliver significant upside when successful leading to multiple returns on investment. For example, in 2021, Flutterwave raised a US$170 million Series C funding round. At the time, this was the largest amount secured by an African tech startup giving it a valuation of over US$1 billion, making Flutterwave a Unicorn. However, accessing investment funds is still regarded as one of the most significant challenges facing entrepreneurs across Africa. The challenge is more intense for tech startups, who are typically light on physical assets and cannot access capital from traditional sources like capital markets and banks. On the other hand, tech investors have become more sceptical about investment in African startups due to challenges such as access to decision-making data, poor infrastructure, no familiarity with local dynamics, and government policy. AfriLabs, the largest Pan-African network of innovation centers, has initiated the AfriLabs Connect Deal Room (ACDR) model to solve the problems of accessing investment in businesses and the issues of identifying de-risked startups on the continent for follow-on funding and scaling. Providing an authenticated pipeline of the most innovative scalable startups in Africa and and Matching them with Investment Funds.
About the AfriLabs Connect Deal Room (ACDR)
The AfriLabs Connect Deal Room (ACDR) is a platform based initiative of AfriLabs designed to tackle the inherent issues of identifying, funding and accessing investible startups of the African innovation ecosystem valued at $6.6 billion as at 2021 according to the 2021 Global Startup Ecosystem Report by Startup Genome. The mission of the initiative is to facilitate financing for innovative startups across various sectors in Africa and providing investment funds access to a Pan African pipeline of investible and de-risked startups. The ACDR will enable investors and funds register their portfolio of startups into an exclusive pool, to be selected to match/link with investors and funds based on both parties requirements i.e ticket sizes, sector of interest and other criteria, in addition to follow-on support by the AfriLabs ecosystem of over 400 physical innovation and technology hubs in 52 countries.
This initiative will be managed on the AfriLabs Connect ; a purpose-built ecosystem engagement platform that brings together the largest community of innovation enablers in Africa.
Objectives
1. Attract Startup Capital 2. Build a Pipeline of Investible Start-Ups
Initiative Structure
AfriLabs Connect Deal Room (ACDR)
Investment funds across various sectors will have access to startups at various stages based on their ask/requirement. i.e. A Seed Stage investor will be matched with seed stage investable startup/startups by the initiative for funding. NB: Startups registered will only be startups that have been invested in and ready for follow on funding.
Fund 1 (Pre-seed/Seed <$100K)
Capacity Building Programme by incubators & accelerators in the AfriLabs network.
Hubs with Investment fund Seed/Early Stage Investors
Registration of portfolio StartUps into the platform for follow-on support
Fund 2 (Series A Investors - $100K to $500K)
Registration of portfolio StartUps into the platform for follow-on support
Fund 3 (Series B Investors - $500K to $5M)
Registration of portfolio StartUps into the platform for follow-on support
Fund 4 (Series C Investors - $5M to $15M)
Why Signup to AfriLabs Connect Deal Room?
Sustainable Access to Pipeline of Investible and De-Risked Startups in Africa
Follow-on Support for Investment Funds Portfolio Startups which includes; ● Funding and positioning ● Advisory and Capacity building ● Access to Market ● Access to Data and Policies. etc.
Interested? Contact our Head of Partnerships, Felista Aku felista@afrilabs.com
Learn more about AfriLabs on www.afrilabs.com
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