Kampala Angel Investors Network - KAIN - has announced that its deal day is slated for October 4, 2018.
The event will see 10 startups pitch to an audience of angel investors in a closed room. These were shortlisted from a pool of 50 applications that were submitted earlier in the year.
Kawanguzi Japheth, the founder of The Innovation Village and one of the leaders at KAIN, said that the investors in their portfolio can write ticket sizes ranging from at least $10,000. "We are looking at between 10,000 to 300,000," he said.
Though, he believes that the investors also bring extra benefits to the startups which could be equal to the funding itself.
"The most important thing we are looking at is not the ticket size," he said. Adding that they are rather looking at the mentorship and the social capital that the investor brings.
Currently, KAIN has 30 investors signed up so far. Though, 'only a few' have paid the subscription fee according to Japheth. He says that they haven't focused on the payment of the subscription because the current aim is "building the network".
"The plan is to make sure we are putting on the table high-quality entrepreneurs that are reflective of the sectors that the angels want to invest in," Japheth said.
Out of the 30 investors, only 15 are active. Also important to note is that only 10, out of the 15, are expected to attend the deal day in October.
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But, KAIN is planning to use the same event to lure other local investors who may have not signed up yet. "We have an open invitation to especially local potential investors," Japheth said. "So we are now trying to aggressively interest other potential local investors for the deal day."
Another interesting thing is that out of the 30 investors signed up with KAIN, about 40% of them are foreigners. What is even more interesting is that these approach the angel network themselves.
Although they are open to foreigners, Japheth says that their main focus is on cultivating a culture of local investors. Yet, he admits that this is not an easy task.
"Most of the 60% who are local have been [as a result of] conversations with people and trying to interest them in that opportunity," he said.
The event was earlier on supposed to take place in April this year but was shelved because of a couple of reasons. "We have to spend a lot of time and resources on awareness before we are ready to hit the ground running," Kawanguzi Japheth commented about the delay.