Nii Simmonds interview at Tech4Africa about financing for African Startups

In August, I was invited to Tech4Africa and I participated in a panel discussion on venture capital in Africa and what startups need to do to be fundable. I was also interviewed by some local media, one in particular, Zoopy, has a clip below.

Diaspora Camp DC 2010 - African diaspora Barcamp focused on Access to capital & SME finance

Diaspora Camp DC 2010

DiasporaCamp is a BarCamp with a focus on African Diaspora, primarily African affairs and issues. DiasporaCamp DC follows the successful organization of BarCamp Diaspora in Washington, DC on July 25, 2009. The event brought together Africans and people interested in Africa for a day of demos, dialogue and discussion about Africa. The theme was " Investing our talent where it counts."

DiasporaCamp DC 2010 will be held from 9am to 6pm on July the 24th, 2010 at the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies.

The Proposed Theme for our July 24th Event is: Financial innovations for African small & medium-scale enterprises.

African Capital Alliance - Private Equity fund manager West Africa

From Site:

African Capital Alliance (ACA) is a leading private equity firm focused on Nigeria and West Africa. ACA was founded in 1997 with a mission to build Africa’s premier private equity investment firm by mobilizing capital, technology and management resources from local and international sources to unlock Africa’s private sector potential. Through our funds, we strive to improve the economic landscape of Nigeria and Africa while earning superior returns for our investors based on management excellence through professionalism and unquestionable integrity.

Kuv Capital

Kuv Capital is a small-stage venture capital firm investing in small to early-stage startup companies. Most recently, they have been looking at early stage investments on the African continent.

Travant Capital

From Site:

Travant's investment region spans 22 countries in West and Central Africa with a key focus on seven countries - Angola, Cameroon, Cote d'Ivoire, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ghana, Nigeria and Senegal. With offices in Lagos, Nigeria and Douala, Cameroon, we are never more than a few hours from any location in our region. In addition, our multilingual professionals were born in or have lived in six African countries. We believe this presence in our investment region gives us better access to investment opportunity and better enables us to add value to our portfolio companies.

Africa Venture Capital Fellows

The Africa Venture Capital Fellows (AVCF) is an initiative of the World Economic Forum's Global Leaders of Tomorrow (GLT) program aimed at promoting venture capital in Africa by educating and training future venture capitalists and leaders of high-growth and early stage companies based in Africa. The initiative is being established based on the important role that venture capital can play in accelerating the entrepreneurial economy in Africa.

African Investment and Finance Conference - London, UK

Key topics include:

Private equity landscape: the past, the present, the future

Africa has established itself as one of the most profitable emerging investment markets. Some of the leading investors explain how they have achieved success, and their view of current trends:

• How the African market has grown - and why
  Which investment vehicles are available, and how to choose them
• Promising sectors for high growth in the future.

Doing Business in sub-Saharan Africa & the macroeconomic picture

Current economic trends in global markets and Africa

Sovereign Wealth Funds and their relevance to Africa

Africa's banking sector, Africa's capital markets and capital
gains on African stocks

African Infrastructure Financing

What are the key challenges in sourcing and transforming
companies in Africa?

Go to conference site to learn more

AVCA - Africa venture capital association

AVCA is a not-for-profit entity founded to promote, develop and stimulate private equity and venture capital in Africa. AVCA is committed to promoting high ethical standards of business conduct and professional competence in the private equity and venture capital industries.

Full Membership is open to private equity and venture capital firms and persons active in making equity investments and whose main business is carried out in Africa.