- Kazana Fund launches an angel syndicate with over 190 investors in its network with the aim to back exceptional African founders starting in Ethiopia
Kazana Fund announces the launch of its Angel Syndicate. This milestone is a major move for Kazana Fund on its mission to democratize access to capital and network for exceptional African founders and accelerate the growth of Africa’s digital economy.
“We aim to build wealth through innovation and startups in the continent starting from Ethiopia. We launched the angel syndicate because we saw the immediate need in the ecosystem for a platform that connects the capital with entrepreneurs” says Hilina Zenebe, Managing Partner at Kazana Fund.
The angel syndicate aims to solve systemic challenges faced by founders in the region, such as lack of access to capital and network to be able to scale by creating an opportunity for founders not only to raise from angels but to also get mentored.
This year we witnessed yet another growth of investment into startups in the African continent, however, 92% of Africa’s investment in tech is dominated by four countries, Nigeria, Egypt, Kenya, and South Africa. And beyond the favorable regulatory environment, large economies, and sizeable population, these countries also have an active angel network and have been working on addressing information asymmetry between founders and investors being home to one-third of the incubators and accelerators in the continent. For other countries like Ethiopia, this can be great evidence for how fiscal and non-fiscal incentives can attract venture capitalists into the country.
There are enormous opportunities for countries like Ethiopia; with the highly anticipated startup act, large economy, and sizeable population we have no doubt that Ethiopia can attract increased startup funding if the information asymmetry between startups and VCs can be reduced. The angel syndicate is the first of the many initiatives that Kazana Fund is working on to support ambitious and smart founders to be internationally competitive and to help Ethiopia’s nascent tech scene flourish. Kazana Fund’s Executive Venture Partner, Robel Minassie stated that “Kazana fund is actively working to bridge the gap between capital, network, and brilliant minds”.
This is a long-awaited initiative in Ethiopia and will create a network of willing and highly experienced investors that startups can tap into. To be eligible, Kazana is looking to partner with mission-driven early-stage African founders that: looking for pre-seed/ seed funding, have relevant experience/ background, Have a minimum viable product (MVP), Have some traction/ validation, Have scalable solutions/ products
Addis Alemayehou, Founding Partner at Kazana Fund, Chairman at Kazana Group, and co-founder of Addis Ababa Angels says that “this was a natural next step for me, I have invested as an angel in several startups and now institutionalizing and helping entrepreneurs proved to be important.” He also mentioned that he is extremely positive about the opportunities that lie in Ethiopia and Africa at large and is excited to partner with some of the most brilliant minds of our country and continent.
