Relief is on the way for Lagos start-up entrepreneurs in the technology industry as seed funds are to be provided by high networth individual investors under the umbrella of the Lagos Angels Network called LAN.
LAN already boasts of some captains of the IT industry including the Angel Champion Tomi Davies, MD/CEO, TechnoVision Communications, Dotun Sulaiman, MD, Dortune Venture Capital Limited, Chinedu Okpareke, CFO, OandO Supply & Distribution, Andrew Nwani, MD, Dataflex, Fatumata Soukouna, MD/CEO SSL Consulting, Funke Opeke, CEO, Main One Cable, Demola Aladekomo, MD, Chams plc, Samuel Nwanze, CEO, HH Capital, Wole Lawani, Partner, Hyve Ltd, Damola Adegbite, Contracts Manager, Chevron Corp, Femi Adewunmi, Head, Procurement & Contracts, Notore Chemical Industries Ltd and Adekalu Balogun, MD, Kyautae Integrated Ventures Limited.
Each of them has committed to supporting Lagos start-ups to grow their businesses by providing cash funding and mentoring time to the entrepreneural teams leading the Nigerian technology start-ups. While there’s no upper limit to their investment, the 14 members of LAN and the six others on the awaiting list are expected to commit at least one million naira each year for five years to the investment pool.
The project, like the Lagos Innovation Hotspots Map, Silicon Lagoon, i-HQ and others is backed by Innovate Lagos, the Lagos Innovation Advisory Council which was launched by Babatunde Raji Fashola, the State Governor, in September 2011 and chaired by the State Commissioner for Science and Technology, Adebiyi Mabadeje.
Over100 start-ups applied to compete for the LAN seed funding with 16 being shortlisted and only seven finally being selected to pitch their start-ups to the Angels at an event held at the DBI Lagos campus . Over 80 per cent of the applications were automatically disqualified because they came from individuals which is against the LAN objective of fostering collaboration and teamwork in development.
With the next one due in September, the advent of LAN Pitch Days means more incubatees are in store for the growing number of incubators such as Wennovation Hub, ccHub and others that are starting to become a part of the Lagos tech ecosystem creating early stage companies for accelerators such as TVC Labs and others.
Speaking at the innagural Pitch Day event which was hosted by Raymond Akwule, President of Digital Bridge Institute, one of the brains behind the project, Tomi Davies of TechnoVision told IT Journalists that LAN is targeting to on-board 100 Angels within the next five years to support the businesses of start-up entrepreneurs in Lagos.
