Yemi Keri. Source: Supplied
Share this article:
Historically, women have been underrepresented in the workplace, and this also plays out in the venture capital space. According to Crunchbase, global VC funding to female founders dropped in 2020. Their figures show that 800 female-founded startups received $4.9bn from investors — a 27% decrease from the same period in 2019. One reason for this is low representation in VC firms. Axios reports that 12.4% of decision-makers in US venture capital firms are women. And only 10% of West African startups that cumulatively raised $1m between 2010 and 2020 had at least one female co-founder. This is a problem Yemi Keri, one of a handful of women investing in African startups, is passionate about solving. After getting a taste of angel investing with the Lagos Angel Network and seeing how hard it was for women to get funded, she co-founded Rising Tide Africa to get more women involved in angel investing. Techpoint Africa caught up with her for a chat, and she held nothing back as she shared her experience. Advertisement
How did you get started with angel investing? I got into angel investing by referral with the Lagos Angel Network. Now I’m on the board, but I got started there. I think this was 2014/2015, and Tomi Davies had started off Lagos Angel Network and wanted a group of us to come in and understand what it was all about. If I recall correctly, he brought about 50 of us together, and every so often, we would meet and listen to pitches. I used to watch and listen to the kind of questions that were asked. My background is in information technology, so this was new to me at the time. I made two investments — in Cafe Neo and Big Cabal — with Lagos Angel Network, and that’s how I came into angel investment. What was the attraction to these companies? For Cafe Neo, it was the revenue and expansion model and the target audience (youthful demography). In the case of Big Cabal, the passionate team, the possibility of catering for multiple audiences, and the various products that were in the pipeline when we invested won me over. What influenced the founding of Rising Tide? Around 2016, I began to toy with the idea of having a female-focused angel network because many of the people who came to pitch were men who got more attention and interest than the few women who showed up. And this made me wonder. It wasn’t by design, but I began to notice that, first of all, the questions they asked women were kind of different. Secondly, the women were not communicating effectively to the investor team, and the kinds of businesses they pitched were slightly different. Women often do their businesses with a sense of passion. As we approached 2017, a lady came to pitch one of the best products in the healthcare sector — it still is today — but she couldn’t convey it very well. I think it was her first few months of fundraising, so Ndidi Nnoli-Edozien and I took her aside and began to mentor her. We took her to pitches; we would put a group of women together and tell her to pitch. We would then question her thoroughly. Yemi Keri. Source: Supplied. After a while, we brought her back to the team, and everybody was impressed and wanted to invest. They got to the point of negotiations, and the rest is history. Though we did not invest then, she’s doing well. I knew that there was a gap and that we had hit on something we could develop. So Ndidi and I got together and started Rising Tide Africa, which has been my major focus. We founded Rising Tide to increase women’s participation in angel investing so that they can see it as an asset class; the end goal is to invest in more female founders. We believe that with more female angel investors, we can reduce the gender funding gap for female entrepreneurs. Advertisement
That was the genesis of Rising Tide, and it is a vehicle in which we are now investing. Lagos Angel Network has metamorphosed into a network of networks. Now we have different networks within Lagos Angel Network. How many startups has Rising Tide invested in? By 2019, we had done six. By the end of 2020, we had 15 investments. In 2021 we have made six investments. That would mean 21 investments in all, and we have completed the due diligence for two others, for which we are about to call for funds. How many investments have you made? Right now, I’m on my 19th investment. What is Rising Tide’s average ticket size? We initially said we would start with $25,000, but so far, our largest ticket size is $289,000. We intend to do between $50,000 and $200,000. You mentioned wanting to increase female participation in both startups and angel investing. What else drives your investment mission? Rising Tide is set up on four major pillars, one of which is investments. The other thing that we do is education. We now have about 64 members at Rising Tide, and some of them are new to angel investing, so we have to do a lot of educating. We try to teach them about things going on in the ecosystem so they can be better investors. We also educate the entrepreneurs. Over the years, we’ve organised training and masterclasses for our founders and others in the ecosystem. We are now developing Entrepreneurship 101, which contains several courses to help entrepreneurs become investment-ready. We plan to develop other curricula that will be required for the ecosystem. The other arm is networking. Just like what you’re doing, having us talk about investments and enabling entrepreneurs to have access to investors, we also do our bit in terms of networking. We attend events where we meet many entrepreneurs. We organise events where entrepreneurs can meet many investors not only within Rising Tide but also outside. We do a lot of coaching and panel roles for other networks or groups of networks. So we try to develop not only Rising Tide but also the ecosystem. The fourth arm is mentoring, which is very crucial. We act as individual mentors for our portfolio. We don’t believe that investments alone are what we need to provide for our businesses. We believe in growing with them and holding their hands. You get a pool of people who can mentor you for a period. So we have one-offs like that. We also have mentoring sessions where we spend three to six months mentoring a business. Our goal is to mentor them until they are investment-ready, either for Rising Tide or any other network willing to invest in them. What we’re doing is giving back to the ecosystem and ensuring that it develops so that our businesses do not die within the first three years. Those are the four pillars that Rising Tide operates by. Are there specific markets or industries that you focus on? We are sector-agnostic; however, we try to invest in certain sectors. We look at sectors that have volume and the most impact on our economy — like education, for instance. Apart from education, we’re looking at something related to healthcare. So education, health, agriculture, financial inclusion, essential goods, and services are our areas of interest. How do you determine what startups to invest in? We have an investment process that guides us. First of all, tech and tech-enabled startups get our attention. We prioritise female-owned, female-led, and gender diverse companies. We look at their business model critically. We look at the market. Of course, we look at their financials and their corporate documents. So we filter based on our investment philosophy. After we do that, if they qualify, we look at factors like their team. We look at their qualification and prior experience, their commitment to the business itself; we don’t want people doing part-time coming to us for investment. We look at diversity. We go as far as looking at who sits on your board of directors and talking to some of your references. We also look at your business model. Don’t forget that these are early-stage startups, and there’s only so far we can go in terms of due diligence, but we look at these basic things. What are their revenue sources? Who are their potential customers and suppliers? What kind of pipeline do they have? What’s their value proposition? We look at the size of the market and the key drivers within that landscape. These are external things that we look at in terms of whether there’s a unique selling point, the barriers to entry, and the competitive landscape. Some don’t have historical financials, but we look at how objective their revenue projections are? What will their gross margins be? Their burn rate of cash — how long our investment can carry them. Also, because we are angel investors, we want to exit between a three to five year holding period, so we look at the exit potential. This is how we filter and look at the kind of businesses that we invest in. If we are not investing in Nigeria, we would require a local investment network in that country to co-invest with us because those are the people who understand the business environment. Yemi Keri. Source: Supplied. What shouldn’t a startup be doing? I will talk about the team first. If a founder says, “I am still keeping my day job until we get funding,” that’s a red flag because it means that the founder is not confident about their business. You will quickly lose the interest of an investor. So, when you are pitching, make sure you are fully committed to your startup. The other thing is that while you are putting your team together, try and understand the kind of skill sets that you require based on what you are doing and ensure that you have those requisite skills. Ensure that you are not relying on one person to the point that if your technology person or CTO leaves, your startup shuts down. Some founders tend to make the CTO a co-founder, but you have to be sure about the interest of your CTO. Even though you make them your co-founder, that might not be enough to hold them down. Don’t rely solely on raising capital from investors, solely being the keyword. Fundraising is a different ball game in itself, and sometimes, it makes you shift focus from your business. A founder needs to determine how much they need over a fixed period so that they’re not continuously raising. When you’re raising funds, remember that an investor does not want to fund your overhead. Do not raise $100,000 and then use it to rent a place or pay salaries. That is not what we’re interested in investing in. Even if you use some of it for your overheads, let most of it be for improving or scaling your product or whatever it is that will make the business grow. We also advise founders not to give out majority equity of their business. As angel investors, we also say, “try not to take more than 15% of the business, so you do not kill it.”
They will always need to have that kind of authority because if other investors are coming in down the line and you have given away 30% already without even getting to Series A, then it starts to become a major challenge. Another issue that investors are beginning to see is the level of valuation. It’s incredible how a company that started business 5 or 12 months ago and is still in product development is valuing itself at $1 million. That is ticking off a lot of investors. Be realistic in your valuation. We are not in the mature European and American markets, so stop equating your business to startups in those regions; it is bad for the ecosystem. You have to be able to justify your valuation to angel investors. If we see that something is overvalued, we walk away. What is your biggest success story? Amayi Foods and Migo in terms of expansion into other environments. Amayi is on Amazon Prime and sells globally, and Migo — formally Mine.io — has expanded its services to Brazil. Have you had bad investments, and how did you deal with them? In your portfolio as an investor, you should be ready to lose some funds. Before we onboard our investors, we always tell them only to invest what will not affect their lifestyles because statistically, only one or two of your investments will become a unicorn. However, they will make up for your other investments. We started off investing really critically in 2019. We have two that are not looking promising so far. As for the others, it’s still too early for us to say they have failed. What we do when we are investing is to position the team lead of that investment as a board observer or a board member in that startup, so they act as a liaison between Rising Tide and the startup. We’ve tried everything from mentoring to handholding to board observing, and we’ve made recommendations, but we’re still watching. It’s still early to say that they are really bad. We hope that the recommendations we’ve made can take them out of the hole that they’re in. What startups are in your portfolio? So we have Migo, Amayi foods, Big Cabal, Cafe Neo, Aruwa Capital, OZÉ, Kwik, Nature’s Bounty, Eden, Blackbet — which we co-invested in with Lagos Angel Network. Inkblot is an interesting one because we decided to try entertainment. We have Seso Global, Emergency Response Africa — very early stage but gaining a lot of traction. We have Bankly, Chekkit, and Gradely. Are there any deals that you passed on that you regret? (Laughs) There will always be deals that you pass on. I think in the early stages of Lagos Angel Network, we let Flutterwave go. We also let Paystack go. That’s for Lagos Angel Network. Now, I don’t know if any we let go has done well, but you will always have those companies. There’s a company called Termii. We didn’t want to pass up on them, but before we could conclude, they had gotten other investors. At that time, our investment process took so long because we were at the teething stages ourselves. This was 2018/2019. As an investor, you win some and lose some. How do you deal with the fear of missing out as an angel investor? There will always be deals. If you miss one bus, there will always be others. If you miss out in the early stages, you might get another opportunity later. There will always be a chance for you to get on board, and if there is none, it wasn’t yours. How can founders reach you? For Rising Tide Africa, you can send an email to info@risingtideafrica.com . You can also visit the website at www.risingtideafrica.com if you want to join us as an angel investor. Finally, you can send your pitches to pitches@risingtideafrica.com

I want more women to become angel investors – Yemi Keri on women and angel investing

Hundreds turned out to pay their respects at the funeral of much-loved Worksop cafe owner Leano Kaponas this week, with mourners lining the streets to applaud the procession as it passed through the town centre. Updated
Thursday, 8th July 2021, 11:25 am
Pillar of the community Leano, owner of Cafe Neo, was just 46 when he passed away on June 8, leaving family, friends and colleagues alike shocked and heartbroken. His funeral took place on Tuesday and saw the procession pass by Cafe Neo on its way to St Anne’s Church. The streets were lined with people clapping and paying tribute to the much-missed husband and dad. Leano Kaponas passed away in June aged just 46. Hundreds turned out to his funeral to pay their respects. Due to coronavirus restrictions, capacity in St Anne’s was limited, but more than 250 mourners gathered outside. The family were said to be ‘overwhelmed’ by the support and love shown throughout. In tribute to her husband, Diana Kaponas said: “To everyone I know, just tell the ones you love them every day like it’s the last time because you never think this will happen to you, it happens to someone else. “But it does, it’s cruel and brutal and it rips your perfect life apart forever. “Leano, the legend, my king, my hero, the love of my life, my childhood sweetheart. "We met so young, never apart from each other, moulding each other into who we are today. You and I are one and will always be one.”
In these confusing and worrying times, local journalism is more vital than ever. Thanks to everyone who helps us ask the questions that matter by taking out a subscription or buying a paper. We stand together. Sam Jackson, editor.

Worksop residents line streets in emotional goodbye to cafe owner and 'true gentleman' Leano Kaponas

Tributes have poured in for a hugely loved Worksop café owner who has passed away aged just 46. Leano Kaponas is pictured third from right with wife Diana (front) and Cafe Neo staff. ‘True gentleman’ and pillar of the community Leano Kaponas, owner of Cafe Neo, died on Tuesday, June 8. His passing has sent shockwaves through the Worksop community with hundreds paying tribute to the ‘respectful, humble and generally great bloke’. Cafe Neo announced on Facebook: “With the greatest sorrow, we are announcing that on June 8 2021, we lost the heart of Cafe Neo. “Leano Kaponas, the founder, the manager, the boss, and most importantly the friend to all. “He has played an integral role in the Worksop community for over 25 years and he will undoubtedly be missed.”
The post has attracted hundreds of comments with customers and residents rallying round to pay their respects. Stavros Alambritis said: “My deepest love and condolences go out to Diana Kaponas and her family during this very tough loss. "The shock is no doubt ringing throughout the Cypriot community as I write, and this reminds us all that life is sometimes cut short and we must cherish all the moments that we are blessed with here on this Earth.”
Daniel Wankiewicz said: “The true example of a top Greek bloke. "Always a good laugh, strong husband to such a lovely wife and first class dad. I’m proud to of got to know you so well.”
Andrew Jewell said: “He will be sadly missed by all those who were lucky enough to have had the chance to make his acquaintance.”
Helena Taylor said: “He built a community. It [Cafe Neo] isn’t just somewhere to eat, it’s somewhere to see friendly and familiar faces, a place where people with no family found friends who not only provided great food but support.”
Leano was born and raised in Worksop and described the people of the town as ‘full of good and honest people – if you look after them, they will look after you’. A passionate entrepreneur, he studied Business and Finance at North Nottighamshire College before completing a degree in catering management at the University of Manchester. Leano knew it was his ‘destiny’ to take over the family business and aged just 19, he came a partner at Cypriana Fish Bar as well as Cypriana Coffee House on Bridge Street, which his parents had been running in the town since 1972. Leano also ran a number of other businesses including The Phone Bar and Unique Furnishings with his wife Diana. In 2006, Cafe Neo was born on Bridge Place and, now based at the Priory Centre, has served as a bustling hub and ‘heart’ of the town ever since. The business had to come up with innovative ways to survive the Covid-19 pandemic, but ploughed through. Cafe Neo announced that it would reopen in Leano’s honour today, Wednesday, June 16, after closing its doors for seven days. "Despite the heavy loss, our team will continue to deliver to the exceptional standard that Leano ensured you all experienced,” the post added. In these confusing and worrying times, local journalism is more vital than ever. Thanks to everyone who helps us ask the questions that matter by taking out a subscription or buying a paper. We stand together. Sam Jackson, editor.

Tributes to much-loved Worksop café owner and 'friend to all' who passed away aged 46

Worksop cafe owners claim council has forced them out of the high street
Cafe Neo, which has been forced to close. Jack McKinnell
Share this article
The owners of a popular Worksop cafe say they have been forced to close because Bassetlaw District Council is in negotiations to buy their building. Café Neo, in Bridge Court, closed at the weekend after landlords decided not to renew its lease. Owner Leano Kaponus told your Guardian that when she questioned it with the landlord, he said he was planning on selling the building, and the potential new owners wanted vacant possession. He said: “We were on holiday at the time. We rang up and asked why, and the owners of the building said ‘we’ve sold the building and the new owners want a vacant position’
“When I asked who the new buyers of the building are, they said ‘the council’. “So we’re being evicted by the council, whether they admit it or not.”
Mr Kaponus said he now intends to relaunch Café Neo elsewhere in the town. The 45-year-old said: “We’re looking to move elsewhere. “We’ve got such a loyal customer base, you just need to see the facebook post we put up. “We’re looking for another unit. “Cypriana, our sister café is still running, so we’re trying to keep as many of the staff as we can up there so they don’t lose their jobs. It’s a nightmare for everybody involved. Everyone’s in shock. Everybody is saying ‘it shouldn’t be happening, you should have been given more time’.”
A Bassetlaw District Council spokesperson, said: “The council is in negotiations with Kilworth Capital, who are acting on behalf of the owners of Bridge Court, with a view to purchasing the building. “We would like to categorically state that any arrangements regarding Café Neo’s lease are strictly between themselves and the current owners of the building. “Until a potential sale of Bridge Court is agreed, we are unable to comment any further. We understand that Café Neo have expressed a wish to continue trade in the town and the council is able to provide business support and advice through our economic development team.”
Posting on its facebook page on its last day of trading, the café wrote: “Can’t thank you enough for all your amazing support, we’ve had some of you in tears which in turn has left us in tears.”
Trending
Northern train ticket sale includes 10p tickets to major cities
Will Dan from Worksop be able to impress Paul Hollywood and Prue Leith in the Great British Bake Off tent? Retford man has been fined for fishing without a licence
Derby County’s hopes of signing Scott Sinclair are dashed as Sheffield Wednesday scouts eye targets in Portugal
Worksop students are celebrating after another year of great GCSE results
The Essentials

Worksop cafe owners claim council has forced them out of the high street

She Leads Africa  has announced twenty early stage businesses accepted into the 2017 SLA Accelerator. The program will in threen  three locations namely: Lagos, Abuja and Kaduna, Nigeria. She Leads Africa has partnered with the  Work in Progress! Alliance  (including VC4Africa and Oxfam), OCP, Guaranty Trust Bank, Cointreau and Intel Corp to create a 3-month accelerator program designed to identify, support and fund the next generation of Nigeria’s brightest entrepreneurs. This year we received applications from over 200 startups from across Nigeria. The selected entrepreneurs were evaluated based on their traction in the market, management team and vision to grow and scale across Africa. In the Intel Technology Cohort (to be hosted at  Cafe Neo Lagos ) the selected businesses are:
In the Cointreau Creatives Cohort (to be hosted at  SeedSpace Lagos ) the selected businesses are:
Netima Happy Feet
MMG Creations World
Red Button
Nigerian Fashion Label set to redefine corporate wear fashion for the African Woman, with the use of African prints and materials to make stylish, unique corporate wear
In the GTB Retail & E-Commerce Cohort (to be hosted at  AIIVON Hub Abuja ) the selected businesses are:
Mahauty Health Solutions
Perception Consult Ltd
Produces furniture for individual clients and organizations using durable yet affordable materials and offers interior design and accessorizing services
Smile-On
CEA Consultancy And Translation Services
Partners with international organizations and businesses to build business communities across borders and ensure mutual understanding, increased productivity and growth
 
Dahrah Global Limited
Meenam Blends
Organic spices production business focused on the production, processing and packaging of healthy spices, garlic, ginger and onion. Farm For Gold Venture
Apples & Berries Fruits Paradise
Fresh juice & salad bar that prepares and sells naturally healthy and fresh smoothies, fruit/vegetable salads and juices
Showplace Nigeria Limited 
Locally produced and packaged quality instant ginger root drink
Accelerator participants will spend the next three months working on their business strategy and growth, while networking with investors and potential partners. The entrepreneurs will have the opportunity to pitch their businesses at an investor Demo Day in November and compete for N2 million investment from She Leads Africa along with other business support services. The 2017 SLA Accelerator Programme is sponsored by the Work in Progress! Alliance, OCP, Guaranty Trust Bank, Cointreau and Intel.

Meet The 20 Nigerian Startups Selected For The 2017 She Leads Africa Accelerator

Merriman Capital

Inditex

Abercrombie & Fitch Co.

Northwestern Mutual

Fairfield University

Angel

Cafe Neo is one of the major coffee chains in Nigeria. They currently have eleven outlets spread across Lagos.

Date	5/28/2016
Round	Angel
Amount	$0.15M
Investors	Lagos Angel Investors
Valuation
Revenue	0 FY undefined
Sources	1

First funding	5/28/2016
Last Funding	5/28/2016
Investor	Lagos Angel Investors
Rounds	1 Angel
Board Seats
Type	Angel Investor (Group)
Location	Nigeria

Wells Fargo Success Story

3M Success Story

Platform Overview

Cafe Neo

Total Raised

Investors Count

Cafe Neo Funding, Cafe Neo Valuation & Cafe Neo Revenue

Cafe Neo Investors

Discover the right solution for your team