Our new e book, How we made it in Africa II: Actual tales of entrepreneurs turning alternative into revenue, is accessible right here. The e book was just lately shortlisted for the Enterprise Council for Africa (BCA) African Enterprise E-book of the 12 months Awards 2026.
In a current interview with How we made it in Africa, Ibrahim Sagna, government chairman of funding agency Silverbacks Holdings, revealed the 5 issues he appears to be like for when investing in an organization.
1. Second-time founders. The agency has had essentially the most success with people who find themselves not operating their first firm. “We haven’t been fortunate ever with first-time founders,” Sagna says.
2. Development. It appears to be like for corporations posting year-on-year development of at the very least 60% for 3 years.
3. Prospects turned traders. Silverbacks sees it as an vital sign when an organization’s purchasers take a stake in it. Moove is one instance. A car provide companion for Uber since its early days, it noticed Uber are available as a shareholder in 2024 as a part of a $100 million funding spherical. At OmniRetail, meals big Flour Mills of Nigeria made the identical shift from buyer to investor.
4. Laborious forex earnings. Silverbacks is cautious of taking over an excessive amount of publicity to African currencies. For overseas traders, who usually measure returns in US {dollars}, a fast depreciation of the sort seen in Egypt, Nigeria and Ghana can wipe out funding positive factors. The agency due to this fact appears to be like for corporations that acquire at the very least 30% of their revenue in onerous forex.
5. World ambitions. Lastly, it desires founders who’ve said an intention to take their corporations worldwide.
