Lagos Angel Network is a non profit organization which aims to enable the Nigerian and wider African ecosystem by educating angel investors, helping to facilitate angel investments into promising, early stage startups and advocating for sustainable policy with the public sector, to enable the technology ecosystem.

LAN was set up in 2011 by its Founding Fathers Tomi Davies and Dotun Sulaiman, who helped set up the first ever structures at LAN and by doing so, laid down the foundations of how angel investments should work in Nigeria. They did this through many channels, events  and literature; one of the more popular ones was the POEM framework developed by Tomi Davies to help Angels evaluate startups for investments.

In 2021, after an exciting and progressive decade of developing the ecosystem, and having seen significant  milestones in the Nigerian ecosystem such as the first listing of a Nigerian startup on the NYSE (Jumia.ng), the emergence of Nigerian-owned global unicorns and the acquisition of a payments startup which paved the way for the first major exit for angels in the ecosystem, the baton was handed over to a new generation of board members. The new board is ably chaired by Kola Aina and Deputy Chaired by Biola Alabi. Other members of the board include Yemi Keri (Rising Tide Africa), Iyinoluwa Aboyeji (Future Africa)  and Olumide Soyombo (Voltron Capital).

They have since appointed an Executive Director - Victor Kareem, who with their help and support, is tasked with implementing the strategy to achieve the pillars (Learning & Membership; Funding & Finance; Advocacy & Regulations and Community) of the organization and launch LAN into an era of new relevance and leadership.

This is what Victor had to say:

“I am grateful to the Founding Fathers and Board of Governors for their demonstrated faith in appointing me the Executive Director at LAN. I have been tasked with the mandate to continue to educate Angel investors on the most profitable ways to invest in the ecosystem, helping and supporting startups to get some of their first angel checks and of course, leading along with the public sector to help shape and influence policy affecting startups in our young tech ecosystem. 

I look forward to bringing a new and innovative face to all these fronts and building LAN into a world class institution and an example across the continent, with the help and support of this amazing board. My first priority is to achieve financial sustainability within LAN while also recruiting more Angel investors and enabling a more healthy, robust ecosystem.”

LAN’s operations currently reside in helping to raise funding for startups that meet our criteria for raising from our angels, while continuing to develop our framework for developing the pillars of our Nigerian ecosystem along with various partners.