An investor is a person or institution that has enough capital to invest in different types of businesses to gain financial returns. An investor can appraise an investing opportunity from diverse perspectives to avoid losing money, reduce risk, and increase profit potentials. There are different kinds of investors with different risk appetites. You have those that invest in the short term and those that would invest in the long-term. However, you that need money to start a business must find the right type of investor you need to fulfill your dreams of launching that burning idea that is fast gathering dust.
This article is about how to find investors in Nigeria. In it, you will learn how to prove that there is a demand for your product and adopt a tested marketing plan, find out what investors want, and learn how to package your business idea to attract investors. Other areas covered include, discovering different categories of investors, knowing where to find investors in Nigeria, and if you find investors in Nigeria tell them how you will use their money. Let start this tutorial.
How to find investors in Nigeria
Follow these steps to find investors in Nigeria:
Step 1: Prove that there is a demand for your product and adopt a tested marketing plan
Before you go out to pitch your business idea, test it with a real marketing plan of your potential competitors.
Test your idea
Testing your concept will give you the confidence to go all out to look for investors. Testing the viability of your product or service on your own will also enable you to discover and correct any weak areas if there are any. You will be able to pitch your idea better. Prove there is a massive demand by carrying out research yourself and show the results. Provide complete statistics, economic data, and market demand, with popular articles on your industry, proving the market exists. Knowing there is a market for your idea will give confidence to potential investors you will meet. Also, if you have a significant social media presence and if an existing competitors’ business is working in the real market, these could be helpful to you to get investors.
Adopt a successful marketing plan in your industry
Search for and adopt the best methods to test your idea, and this will prove that your marketing plan is an already tested method that works. You can back up your claims of a working marketing plan with data from competitors in the market. Use this method because you are yet to launch the real product in the market. This technique could convince an investor to back your idea.
Step 2. Find out what investors want
Knowing what investors want is another way to enable you to find investors in Nigeria. Below are more explanations on this theme.
Show your experience in the Industry
Showing your level of experience and proficiency in the industry you are about to launch your small business is one of the best ways to give confidence to an investor. If you have substantial years of operating in that sector, it will be a strong point that displays your strength to investors, helping them make up their minds faster about you. Investors are cautious and would not want to waste their money on a novice startup business idea.
Specific Funding Area
Investors have unique areas they like to fund and do not invest in all types of business ideas. Some would want to invest in the Agric sector, and another may wish to invest in the IT sector, Technology or Merchandising, etc. Discovering this unique trait about investors will help you to find the type of investors you need.
What type Do you Need
Find out the sort of investors you need and pitch your business idea to only these sets of investors. Your passion and expert knowledge of the business, and a sound grasp of how to finance it, will help you to make the right impression on potential investors in that specific industry.
Teamwork and a Large Market
Ability to demonstrate to likely investors that you work in a team that is ready to solve a big problem for a large part of the country or the world could help you win a potential investor. The larger the market, the more sellable your idea will appear to the investor, who is also thinking of how to recover the investment with enough profit considering the risk of losing their money.
Step 3. Learn how to package your business idea to attract investors
You must have a faultless pitch deck to back your concise business proposal to attract investors to have a second look at your plan.
Having a budget is a strategy on how to find investors in Nigeria first.
Budget plan
The budget plan should give details of your budget and how the business will run in 1 to 3 years. Show how the costs of running the company continue to reduce yearly while the profit keeps growing. Have a detailed marketing plan and operations plan, showing cashflow management and breakeven year, and how that will translate to good returns on the investor’s stake on your business.
Accurate Financials
Have accurate financial information and market research to support your forecasts and show objective profit generation methods and state how this would fatten the investor’s account.
Unique Idea
Having a rare idea that you can easily explain its potential to create wealth for the investor could enable you to convince them.
Show Your Unique Selling Proposition
An engaging exceptional selling advantage in the market over your competitors, which shows how your idea promises an early return on investment for the investor, could convince them.
Long term View
Paint an attractive picture of the business prospects in the future in short to long term view of 3 to 10 years.
Winner
Have a winning personality capable of negotiating fearlessly for what you want and being willing to give as much as you will get, is necessary.
Selling and speaking Skills
You should have the vital skill to speak on your feet, persistency, and the charisma to sell ice blocks to an Eskimo- to be able to convince investors to invest in your business concept.
Step 4: Discover different categories of investors
You may not be aware of this as you think about how to find investors in Nigeria; there are many categories of investors. Learning about the types will enable you to position yourself to get an investor for your business idea. Let us list and analyze them now.
1. Angel Investors
Angel investors are high net worth persons who look for promising startup companies they will invest in to give them high returns. They work like venture capital investors but provide finance in small amounts for startup companies. They hope to collect stock or shares in an unknown company before it grows big. They are usually the first formal investors you get that gives you the seed money to start your business.
2. Equity Investor
From the name, this is self-explanatory, as equity investors will invest in your idea to get a part of your business equity. They become part-owner, and so you lose full control while their money is in the startup company.
Venture capitalist
Venture Capital investments only invest in startups that would give very high returns. They also help the company with their expert knowledge in business planning. For a VC to invest in your business, your company must have shown that it is producing good returns or capable of doing so continuously.
Step 5: Know where to find investors in Nigeria
They are everywhere and around you. Some are waiting for you to approach them even as I write. With the internet, you can reach the whole world. You can use the power of Social media and forums to reach out to investors, among other strategies. Let us see how below.
1. Angel investors Network
Using the internet to search for Angel Investors network in Nigeria, is one way on how to find investors in Nigeria. There is one called Abuja Angel Network, but they do not own a website. They hold masterclasses which you may attend. In Lagos, you have a pioneer Angel investor group in Africa, called Lagos, Angel Network.Visit their website and start collaborating and interacting with members to get the opportunity they offer. It is a business angel network that began in 2014 and focused on mentoring beginner startups in Lagos. Angel network has invested in many startup ventures in Lagos.
2. Websites and Crowdfunding
Search the internet for sites set up to link Investors to entrepreneurs with ideas who need funding. Quora, Twitter, and LinkedIn could be useful in reaching these prospective investors for your startup business idea. Build credibility first, so be careful not to be too aggressive else they will block your tweets and posts. See if Crowdfunding could work for you to fund technology startup businesses. But most Crowdfunding platforms are International and fund equity investing and loans and seed funds.
3. Seminars and Workshops
These are avenues where you meet all kinds of people. You may encounter an investor in this forum. Even when you do not see an Investor, you may meet interesting people who will motivate you to keep your focus on your goals.
4. Business schools or University
You could go to your former Alumni events and mingle with them. Also, your old school’s business department would have high net worth individuals that are Investors. Meet up with your former Head of Department. You can also go to Lagos business school to meet with Top business executives and entrepreneurs. Discuss with the school authorities and get good advice and introduction to Investors.
5. Religious/Social organizations
If you belong to the same social-religious organizations with high net worth individuals, you could pitch your business idea to them. For instance, if you know their business sector and you are keen on their type of business, your concept could be attractive to them and yield quicker results because both of you will understand yourselves.
6. Join Entrepreneurial Groups
You can join local tech and startup groups on Facebook and LinkedIn. Go to events, assist an organizing committee, and interact with many people as possible. Also, help as much as you can and build relationships. Do not just pitch all the time.
7. Mentors
Get mentors in your industry that will give you advice on what investors are looking for and help you leapfrog hidden traps to avoid making the mistakes they had made. They may introduce you to top financiers in your industry.
8. Top platforms to find investors in Nigeria to raise money
If you are learning how to find investors in Nigeria, here are top investors you can meet, study their backgrounds, and approach them with what you have read from this article. You can raise money by meeting these startup investors and Venture Capitalist operating in Nigeria who is ready to fund that your dream now.
They include:
- LeadPath Nigeria: focuses on investing in the high growth technology sector to provide short, medium, and long-term capital to small and standard-sized startup companies in mobile technologies, software development, and web. They back companies solving physical problems through technology and invest a minimum of seed capital of between $25,000 to $100,000.00 and future additional funding running into millions of dollars.
- GreenHouse Capital. Venture Garden Group launched GreenHouse Capital in 2016. They focus on building the most prominent Finance and Technology holding company in Africa. Green House capital invests directly in technology companies and the banking sector. As of date, it has invested in Rensource, Flutterwave, TalentBase, Max.NG and Riby.
- Growth Capital Fund. Created by CChub, consists of investors like Bank of Industry, Venture Garden Group, CCHub, and Omidyar Network. Focuses on social funding that supports talented startup companies in the Technology space.
- Ventures Platform backs early-stage growth-oriented startups in Africa to bring your ideas to light. Founded by a keen angel investor, Mr. Kola Aina has helped startups like Jalo, MobileForms, Accounteer, Wesabi.com, GeroCare PiggyBank, and many more.
- SPARK Capital invests in promising startups having scalable revenue models. Founded by IrokoTV‘s Jason Njoku, it has invested in OgaVenue, Medsaf, Hotels NG, Drinks NG, Paystack, among others.
Step 6: If you find investors in Nigeria tell them how you will use their money
Selling your idea and getting an investor depends on what you will do with the money taking into consideration steps 1-5 above.
Business plan
Having a carefully crafted business plan to explain how your business works could win investors. Your business plan is a fact sheet your investors can use to appraise whether to invest or not.
Give Investors a snapshot of daily Business operations
Give detailed information about what you intend to do to keep the business in the top position. For example, you can show how you get supplies directly from manufacturers and the distribution network to retailers. Simulate your daily operations on a typical day, to display how your marketing ideas preserves your business in the mind of your customers, so they keep buying from you.
Decide what to give investors
For instance, a properly written plan shows how you will use the money if you get it. But, do not forget to make a provision in the business plan for the investor. You may either propose to give them some equity or have definite ideas of how you would repay the investment monthly or yearly. Also, show how profitable and safe their money is if they trust you to multiply it for them.
Conclusion
This post taught you how to find investors in Nigeria by proving that there is a demand for your product and adopting a tested marketing plan, finding out what investors want, and learning how to package your business idea to attract investors. I also explained different categories of investors and where to find investors in Nigeria, and if you find investors in Nigeria, tell them how you will use their money. I hope this information helps you to find an investor today to launch that startup business.
