When Olumide Soyombo, Nigerian tech investor and co-founder of Bluechip Technologies, began angel investing in 2014, Africa’s tech landscape was still nascent. At the time, angel investing on the continent was sparse and unstructured. His early work with LeadPath, a Y Combinator-style investment vehicle, quickly exposed a harsh reality: the scarcity of substantial and successful startup investment track records, coupled with the challenge of persuading investors in a still-emerging market. “Three months after investing, we found there was no investor to put them [the startups] in front of. So you’d have to write another check yourself,” Soyombo recalled in a recent interview.
Despite these early challenges, Soyombo’s perseverance paid off. His portfolio includes successful exits, most notably lucrative returns from Paystack’s acquisition by Stripe in 2020, as well as numerous secondary sales. With over 30 startups under his belt — including unicorns Moniepoint and Flutterwave, and a $1 million investment in Nigerian wealth-tech PiggyVest — Soyombo cemented his reputation as a key player in the Nigerian startup ecosystem.
Having built a strong network and a keen investment acumen, Soyombo transitioned from solo angel investing to a structured fund model. In 2021, he co-founded Voltron Capital, a pan-African venture capital firm, with U.S.-based investor Abe Choi. The fund targets pre-seed and seed-stage startups across Nigeria, Kenya, South Africa, and North Africa, writing checks between $20,000 and $100,000. Through Voltron Capital, Soyombo now pools investments from limited partners (LPs), granting them access to his deal flow while accelerating funding for startups. Investors include high-net-worth individuals (HNWIs) and executives from banks and telecommunications firms, with minimum commitments of $10,000. While Voltron operates within a traditional venture capital structure, it remains founder-centric, reflecting Soyombo’s investment philosophy of backing strong teams regardless of industry.
Soyombo is not alone in leveraging angel investing experience to establish institutional funds. Across the African startup ecosystem, a wave of successful angels is transitioning into structured venture capital funds, applying hard-won lessons from early investments to scale their impact.
Idris Bello: Learning Through Losses to Managing Millions
Idris Bello, founder of LoftyInc Capital, took an unconventional path into venture capital. A first-class graduate in Computer Engineering, he left behind lucrative opportunities in oil & gas, supply chain, and healthcare in the U.S. to return to Nigeria in 2010. He began angel investing, backing startups such as fintech unicorn Flutterwave and edtech platform Andela.
“One of the biggest challenges I faced early on was the lack of structure in the market. I lost a lot of money in those early days, which is why I developed the ‘LBLM philosophy’ — Learning By Losing Money,” Bello shared. “Each failure was a lesson that taught me what to look for in a founder and a business model.”
Bello transitioned to fund management with LoftyInc Capital Management, an early-stage, Africa-focused venture capital firm. The firm’s LoftyInc Afropreneurs Fund 3 (LAF3) closed at $14.3 million, exceeding its $10 million target. Following its first unicorn exit with Flutterwave through LoftyInc Afropreneurs Fund 2 (LAF2), LAF3 now supports over 50 companies across fintech, e-commerce, media, logistics, and healthcare. With a pan-African focus, the fund also includes promising startups from the African diaspora.
Expanding further, LoftyInc recently launched LoftyInc Alpha, a $50 million funding vehicle backed by the International Finance Corporation (IFC), signaling growing institutional interest in African startups.
Vinny Lingham: From Angel Investor to Multi-Stage VC
Vinny Lingham, a South African-born entrepreneur and investor, initially focused on angel investments in South African startups. His firm, Newtown Partners, which he co-founded with Llew Claasen in 2014, has backed an array of startups, including Flutterwave, BitGo, IPFS, and Robinhood.
One of Newtown’s earliest African investments was SweepSouth, an on-demand home services business, which it exited in 2019 to Naspers at a 15x multiple on invested capital. Other successful investments include Ekaya, a Cape Town-based rental platform, and a series of blockchain and fintech startups globally. Newtown Partners’ track record illustrates how early African angel investors have evolved into seasoned venture capitalists operating on a global scale.
Chris Muscarella
Chris Muscarella, an angel investor and founder of the Field Company, transitioned from backing individual startups to structured venture investing through Timon Capital. Before this, he co-founded Kitchensurfing and Mobile Commons, which was later acquired by Upland Software. Timon Capital has since invested in African startups, including Sokowatch, Omnibiz, and Decagon, highlighting the continued influx of international capital into Africa’s startup ecosystem.
Gbenga Oyebode
Gbenga Oyebode, a seasoned Nigerian lawyer and corporate board veteran, embodies the evolution of institutional angel investing. His personal portfolio includes early-stage investments in Bamboo, Juicyway, and Mono. However, most of his venture capital activity flows through TCVP, an early-stage fund managed by African entrepreneurs and operators. TCVP’s portfolio spans diverse sectors, with investments in Decagon, Terragon Group, SWVL, Moniepoint, Lami, and Raenest.
Angel Investing as a Stepping Stone to Venture Capital
The progression from angel investor to fund manager is becoming a well-worn path in Africa’s venture landscape. A recent report, Unlocking Capital for Emerging Female Investment Vehicle Managers in Africa, sponsored by the German development agency GIZ, found that 50% of established African VCs had completed over ten angel investments before raising institutional funds. This trend suggests that personal track records by angels, built on early successes and failures, serve as a crucial foundation for establishing larger African venture capital funds.
With Africa’s startup ecosystem continuing to mature, these investors are not only recycling their gains but also institutionalizing their expertise. As more solo angels transition to structured funds, African startups stand to benefit from greater access to capital, a broader investor network, and an increasingly sophisticated funding landscape.