AfriOn for
Investors
Register now to use AfriOn from any web browser, or use the links below to download the mobile application.
As an investor, why should I use AfriOn?
Whether it’s for the impressive potential ROIs, social impact, or joy and excitement of doing business in a nascent market, investors worldwide are perusing commercial opportunities in African ventures. However, breaking into a new market is a herculean task when a digital infrastructure isn’t available yet. Africa isn’t Europe, Asia, or the Americas, where there are existing channels to network with entrepreneurs; stock markets in Africa are either limited or non-existent, agencies can only manage sourcing sub-par opportunities, and projects found online are in short supply. And say you do manage to break into the market through friends, family, and colleagues, there’s no assurance you’d come across the opportunities which interest you specifically. It seems like a digital investor-entrepreneur matching site with African projects at its core is the solution… Read further to see which challenges it helps you with.
Your 1st challenge – Finding quality leads
There is no channel where you can browse projects online from the comfort of your home or office. You’re left depending on personal connections and word of mouth, thus drastically limiting your lead pool. You can turn to consultancies or investment banks, but they only show you the projects they want you to see and in few markets; in addition to having exuberant fees, and that’s if they accept to take your business!
Your 2nd challenge – Qualifying those Leads
Should you successfully source leads, the next pain point is qualifying them, to seperate the good from the bad. The odds are that your found leads will involve either no or badly put together business plans, as the entrepreneur that dreamt the business didn’t necessarily know how to provide, or didn’t know they should follow, a precise format to present their project, from the executive summary to the 5-year forecast.
Your 3rd challenge – Doing it with ease and speed
Say that sourcing worthwhile opportunities in a given market weren’t an issue, how well do your current methods work when you are interested in a different industry or country, and how easily and quickly can you start uncovering those new opportunities? There’s unfortunately no one place where you can review all available African projects across all nations while you apply market filters per your fancy.
If any of the above challenges resonate with you, then AfriOn will be your favourite new tool. You’ll be able to easily specify the amount of investment, and choose the type of business and at which stage you want to invest; and much more to find tailored investment opportunities at the entire continent scale. And to top it off, you’ll be able to immediately discuss with the entrepreneurs behind these projects.
How is AfriOn different?
While we do have competitors, none of them is as serious about their vocation. Some make you go through a month-long account validation process; whereas others claim to help you meet the right people in all African countries, but only in one or two in reality; many are only in it to collect your email and personal data so they may market you stuff. With AfriOn, you can start making worthwhile contacts within minutes of creating your account.
A majority of competitors do have a digital database, but some limit your access behind numerous paywalls, and virtually all of these platforms have either a complicated or limited interface, making you want to log out as soon as you eventually log in. While there are some performant entrepreneurship-networking applications out there, they generally cater more to European and American projects, at the expense of African ones, so using them is like asking the mechanic for medicine.
Save yourself the hassle of using slow offline methods and mediocre-at-best online software to search for African investment opportunities. Cut through the noise and set up an AfriOn account today. If a viable project exists, we will bring it to your consideration!
How it works
1. Start your Account
The first step is to register to use the application. You can do so either by downloading the Android or Apple mobile application or by using the Web application on any device with a screen and an internet connection. After verifying your email address (please check both your inbox and spam folders for the validation link email), you’ll be able to log in to the application. Congratulations! you are now the closest you’ve ever been to the contacts that have long escaped you.
2. Add your details
Start by adding a personal summary, then provide your educational and career history (optional). You can also link all your professional social media accounts and website to show others how serious you are. Keep in mind that the more complete your personal information is, the more trustworthy you will appear to other users. We assign all AfriOn profiles a professionalism and completion score, which allows us to maintain a high-quality environment with fruitful interactions.
3. Create your Projects
On AfriOn, investors, or project collaborators, are requested to create a “collaboration” type project involving criteria for the investments opportunities you’d like to see. We’ll ask you to specify the business legal form, industry focus, trading country, and development stage for the business you are interested in funding. These parameters are used to match you with ”proposition” type projects (those projects created by entrepreneurs which include a business plan and require financing).
4. Attach your goals
As an investor, your goal is funding (as we also have goal options dedicated to helping mentors and cofounders make connections). Within the funding goal, you’ll stipulate the amount of capital, and its currency, delivery country, transaction date, ROI per year, and hold period. So, for example, if you’re looking to invest in country A, under industry B, with business type C, that’s in the development stage D, you’ll be matched with investment opportunities which provide A+B+C+D.
5. Complete the business plan
Business plans are completed by proposers only, you will not provide one as an investor. AfriOn requires entrepreneurs, or proposers, to fill a template that’s used to present their business idea in the way you expect to see it. This template offers an A-Z guide, starting with the executive summary, to the target market brief, to the SWOT analysis, with file attachments possible. Entrepreneurs may also keep certain sensitive details private before you connect with them.
6. Browse your Matches
After creating your project, you can start browsing the available matches for the goal(s) chosen. With our simple business card inspired display, reviewing the database for opportunities feels more like a breeze than a chore. Our smart algorithm will present you with the matches which correspond most to your needs, ranked from strong to weak in suitability. Matches is a two-way system, you’ll be able to see others’ proposition projects, and they will be to see your collaboration project(s).
7. Review the opportunities
You can either browse the results based on the match score generated for your criteria or by applying your own filters, allowing unique and dynamic combinations for project type, industry, country, stage, and goal. If you’d like to have multiple investment projects listed as you have different interests, you can create more so the community knows about all the opportunities you’re pursuing. And don’t forget, you can bookmark, hide, and report the matches you see for a better browsing experience.
8. State your interest in a project
Once you like a proposer’s project and would like to get in touch with them, it suffices to send a contact invitation with the option to add an introductory note. Once they accept the invitation, you’ll be able to contact them. As mentioned, some entrepreneurs may decide to keep some information on their business plans private, after you add them as a contact, they will receive a prompt to grant you access. You can follow up with the entrepreneur through the chat by sending a message.
9. Talk business with your Contacts
AfriOn provides you with a messaging centre to talk securely with your new contacts, and to save you the trouble of sharing your personal contact details. You can exchange texts, voice recordings, and files (with video and voice calls coming soon) to close the deal with your contacts. The messaging centre is a rolodex for all the people who’re interested in your investment; it is light, quick, and encrypted end-to-end to eliminate the risk of information being lost, leaked, or copied.
10. We are but a click away
We appreciate all feedback, and need as much as you can provide so we create an improved solution. So remember to let us know your thoughts on how to improve AfriOn. And if at any stage you’d like our assistance, you can easily reach out to the AfriOn customer service team. We’re available 24/7 to offer you a better experience. You can send us a message through the helpdesk by clicking on the agent icon inside the main menu. Don’t be shy, we are all ears!
