NextBillion - An Initiative of the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan

The African Business Angel Network (ABAN) is a pan African non-profit association founded to support the development of early stage investor networks across the continent and to get many more (early stage) investors excited about the opportunities in Africa.

ABAN seeks to promote a culture of Angel investing across Africa. There are networks emerging across the continent, but there is yet a conversation in place that connects them. There is a sincere need to collect/develop best practices and to make this knowledge available. To create a resource and contact point for promoting new networks and/or supporting other stakeholders looking to get involved in building the ecosystem. Also to engage private sector investors and to offer some guidance on investing into African borne innovations. In turn, ABAN seeks to further build the industry and improve the climate for startup entrepreneurs.

ABAN began as a consortium of independent investor networks including the Lagos Angels Network (LAN), Cameroon Angel Network (CAN), Ghana Angel Network (GAIN), Venture Capital for Africa (VC4Africa), Silicon Cape and supported by the European Business Angel Network (EBAN), the LIONS Africa Partnership and DEMO Africa. In the interest to connect these African networks, support new investors and new networks, to maximize their impact and to connect African investors to their global counterparts, the need was established to form a pan-African association of angel investor networks and other early stage investors: ABAN.