001: Finding Good Companies

Hi! I’m so glad you’re here.

I’m Jemimah Orevaoghene, an early-stage investor in the venture arm of one of Wall Street’s top investment banks. I started angel investing in African startups as a Yale sophomore, working a $17/hr job and saving $1,000 each semester to invest. During holiday breaks back home in Accra and Lagos, I hustled to find more founders for my next bets—no nepo baby funds, no old money or new money support system, just grit, hard work, networking, and Grace. My mission is to weekly equip you with all the information and tools I needed when I started my journey many moons ago. I’m very active on socials so feel free to connect there and lets grow this community. Hope you like it here!

I've always lived by  the mantra that to be a great Angel investor in the African ecosystem whilst living in the Diaspora, you have to be able to do the following 

1. Find good companies

2. Get into good companies

3. Add value to these companies

Today's letter will focus on finding good African tech investments when you live outside the continent. I hate to break it to you, but unless you're looking to invest at the later stages, by the time the folks at TechCrunch (shoutout Tage Kene- Okafor) are writing about an African company raising a Seed/ Series A round, you're likely too late to the game.

It's a lot easier to begin by investing alongside others in an Angel syndicate/ an Angel network or a local accelerator. Because folks get in early, you are able to watch these companies grow and have up-to date information on the performance of your companies. Below, I'll list 4 of such networks that I am a huge fan of.

1. Cairo Angels

• Top Sector: Consumer (49%)

• Founded: 2012

• Stage: Seed (63%)

• Portfolio Acquisitions: (5 companies)

• Website: http://cairoangels.com/

• Top Investment Location: Egypt

2. HOAQ

• Top Sector: Fintech (41%)

• Founded: 2020

• Stage: Pre-seed, seed, or Series A

• Website: https://www.hoaq.co/

• Top investment location: Nigeria

3. FirstCheck Africa

• Top Sector: Financial Services (42%)

  • Backs African female- led startups

• Founded: 2021

• Stage: Pre-seed (73%) and Seed (27%)

• Website: https://www.firstcheck.africa/

• Top investment location: Nigeria, Kenya, South Africa

4. Baobab Network

• Top Sector: Financial Services and Enterprise Applications

• Co-investment opportunities with this accelerator

• Founded: 2015

• Stage: Early

• Website: https://thebaobabnetwork.com/

• Top investment location: Nigeria. Kenya

Transparency Section: What I used  

A couple of years into my Angel investing journey, I realized it would probably be easier to do this alongside a group of like-minded folks so I joined the Future Africa Collective which invested alongside the Future Africa Fund. Whilst the Collective has since transitioned into an accelerator focused on African founders, I really do miss the opportunity to angel invest alongside a traditional Fund and be a part of the due diligence process. Maybe one day, we will bring back this model ….

The Mission: Africa is one of our last frontiers of real economic growth, and the diaspora will play a significant role in funding this growth

Until next time,

Jemimah