Top 5 Publishing Angel Investors in Africa (October 2023)

Miles co-founded DPI in 2007 after having become non-executive Chairman of Blakeney Management (Blakeney) in July 2006 by which time the firm was considered to be one of the largest portfolio investors in many African stock markets. Blakeney was set up by Miles in 1990, first as a consultancy and, since 1994, as an asset management firm, investingin Africa and the Middle East. Blakeney was one of the first investors in many African markets and Miles played an active role in the development of markets in countries such as Ghana, Morocco, Egypt, Kenya and Tunisia.Before starting Blakeney, Miles spent 22 years in money management and investment banking in London and on Wall Street.Miles is also on the boards of SABMiller plc, the world’s second largest brewer and SouthWest Energy (BVI) Ltd, an Ethiopian oil exploration company. He was the founder and chairman for five years of the London Business School’s Africa Board. He read Law at the University of Oxford. Miles is a British citizen.

Investment focus

Industry: Internet, Education, Publishing
Stage:Pre-Seed
Geography: Mozambique

Investor stats

Total investments: 5
Round size: Pre-Seed $7k–$12k
Lead/follow: 20% lead, 80% follow

Portfolio highlights

Ethale Books App — The Ethale Books App by Ethale Publishing is the first-ever East African multilingual book app featuring local content. It is one of the first in the developing world to be specifically designed for android mobile phones and not e-readers. The trilingual app will make books available in Portuguese, Swahili and English for free, with revenuesustained via a mobile advertising strategy.

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Vinny Lingham is Co-Founder & CEO at Civic. He was the founder and CEO of Gyft, a mobile gift card app that allows customers to buy, store, send and redeem gift cards conveniently from their mobile device. He is also the founder of Yola.com, a web development and hosting company that enables users without prior programming knowledge to developwebsites. Vinny is the recipient of numerous awards, including Top Young ICT Entrepreneur in Africa (2006) and was also a finalist for Men’s Health Best Man (2009) and ICT Personality of the Year in South Africa (2008). He also previously founded Clicks2Customers, which also won the Top Technology Company award in South Africa in 2006. He has previously served on marketing advisory boards for Nasdaq listed Valueclick and Yahoo, was also selected as an Endeavor “High Impact Entrepreneur” in 2006. Vinny studied a B.Com (Information Systems) at the University of Cape Town.

Investment focus

Industry: Blockchain, Internet, Cryptocurrency
Stage:Seed, Angel
Geography: United States, South Africa, United Kingdom

Investor stats

Total investments: 34
Round size: Seed $600k–$3.3M; Angel $125k–$500k
Lead/follow: 3% lead, 97% follow

Portfolio highlights

TipLink — TipLink helps send crypto with a link. Someone with crypto can create a account and send that link to anyone over any platform. It’s like buying a gift card, connect the client's crypto wallet of choice and create a account by depositing how much they want to send.
Afterparty — Your favorite creators are here! Get 1 on 1 unfiltered experiences with creators through Afterparty livestreams or chat 24/7 through AI powered conversations
Collectibles.com — Collectibles.com is a Web3 community and marketplace for collectors and the worldwide collectibles sector.

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Tom is currently a commercial executive at Clicks2customers.com, a global Search Engine Marketing company. His background is in (bio-) engineering but he has been involved in online companies for the past 10 years. Besides working at Clicks2customers, Tom is a part time lecturer at TSIBA (http://www.tsiba.org.za/) a South AfricanNGO providing tertiary education to economically disadvantaged children. He is also an angel investor in a number is technology startups and is an active member of the Silicon Cape initiative (www.siliconcape.com)

Investment focus

Industry: Apps, Events, Printing
Stage:Angel
Geography: South Africa

Investor stats

Total investments: 1
Lead/follow: 0% lead, 100% follow

Portfolio highlights

Personera — Personera is a technology company focused on the development of Facebook applications and personalized products. Personera's unique platform allows brands to offer their communities a variety of branded print products or digital downloads, easily ordered directly from the brand's Facebook fan page and fully personalized with their socialnetwork content. Personera's platform is white-labeled and completely customizable for any unique brand identity. Products include calendars, photobooks, cards, and posters, and are available in professional print versions or digital downloads. All of their products include shared content between the brand and the individual consumer, creating a one of a kind keepsake or merchandise piece for every customer. Implementing Personera on websites or Facebook fan pages (or both) is easy. All it requires is installation of an app by adding a new tab to a fan page or embedding a line of code onto a website. Personera handles payments, printing and delivery via their global network.Personera's business model works on a per-sale revenue share basis, so there are zero setup fees for clients. They have a global network of commercial print partners that manage physical production and delivery of the products, ensuring high quality, fast and reliable service worldwide. Personera makes it easy for brands to monetize their Facebook page while engaging their fans with personalized product offerings. The Personera personalized products platform has been used by a variety of brands including leading magazines, musicians, celebrities and consumer focused companies.

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Michael is the San Diego based Senior VP Business Development for Cognician, a self coaching and behavior change platform based in San Francisco. He is also a shareholder and director. Michael also has array of investments in and advisory roles with a number of other start ups, including Gyft, Yola, ChessCube and Skyrove.

Investment focus

Industry: Apps, Publishing, Software
Stage:Angel, Seed
Geography: United States, South Africa

Investor stats

Total investments: 6
Lead/follow: 0% lead, 100% follow

Portfolio highlights

Personera — Personera is a technology company focused on the development of Facebook applications and personalized products. Personera's unique platform allows brands to offer their communities a variety of branded print products or digital downloads, easily ordered directly from the brand's Facebook fan page and fully personalized with their socialnetwork content. Personera's platform is white-labeled and completely customizable for any unique brand identity. Products include calendars, photobooks, cards, and posters, and are available in professional print versions or digital downloads. All of their products include shared content between the brand and the individual consumer, creating a one of a kind keepsake or merchandise piece for every customer. Implementing Personera on websites or Facebook fan pages (or both) is easy. All it requires is installation of an app by adding a new tab to a fan page or embedding a line of code onto a website. Personera handles payments, printing and delivery via their global network.Personera's business model works on a per-sale revenue share basis, so there are zero setup fees for clients. They have a global network of commercial print partners that manage physical production and delivery of the products, ensuring high quality, fast and reliable service worldwide. Personera makes it easy for brands to monetize their Facebook page while engaging their fans with personalized product offerings. The Personera personalized products platform has been used by a variety of brands including leading magazines, musicians, celebrities and consumer focused companies.
Swiftly — Harness your public transit data with Swiftly's urban mobility solutions to make your city's mass transportation move more efficiently.
Appstores.com — Appstores is making it easier for consumers to find apps by giving small and large niche publishers and API/platform companies the tools to showcase apps most relevant to their users.

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