Lagos Angel Network: February Newsletter
From the Desk of the Executive Director
February was a productive month for LAN, and a clarifying one.
The biggest news was our partnership with Microsoft for Startups. Being selected as a strategic partner in their Investor Network was a direct unlock for our portfolio companies and for the network as a whole. It's the kind of infrastructure that compounds over time.
But the Fellowship and the Lunch & Learn told us just as much. The professionals coming into Cohort 2 are asking better questions earlier, they want frameworks, not just access. Collins and Ashley didn't show up with polished answers at the Lunch & Learn; they showed up with honest ones. The room felt it.
That's what LAN is building toward. Not just capital and access, but the frameworks, standards, and community that make good outcomes repeatable. February was a strong reminder that we're on the right track.
— Dr. Solomon King
Executive Director,Lagos Angel Network
What Happened in February
Here are some highlights from the network during the past month
LAN Partners with Microsoft for Startups Investor Network
Lagos Angel Network has been selected as a strategic partner in the Microsoft for Startups Investor Network, and what that means in practice is that our portfolio companies, both current and alumni, now have access to a set of resources that can meaningfully accelerate what they're building.
That includes up to $150,000 in Azure credits with room to grow, access to Microsoft's latest AI tools, GitHub Enterprise, and M365, plus hands-on engineering and go-to-market support from Microsoft's team. These aren't cosmetic perks. For an early-stage startup trying to build and scale a product, this is the kind of infrastructure support that typically only comes with a much larger cheque or a much more established network behind you.
Lagos Angel Fellowship, Cohort 2 Registration Opens
We announced registrations for the second cohort of the Lagos Angel Fellowship in collaboration with African Angel Academy and the Netherlands Enterprise Agency, and the response has been exactly what we hoped for.
Cohort 1 set a high bar. The professionals who went through it came out with a different relationship to risk, to founder assessment, to portfolio construction. Cohort 2 will build on that foundation, and given the quality of interest we've seen, we're expecting the conversations to go even deeper.(Change this flier) add application learn more button
Fellowship Information Session with Fiona Kruja
Before Cohort 2 officially begins, we made sure prospective fellows knew exactly what they were signing up for.
In partnership with the African Angel Academy, we hosted a live information session featuring Fiona Kruja, a conversation that did more than walk through programme logistics. Fiona brought perspective on what the program entails, its benefits, requirements and structure. The session drew genuine engagement from prospective fellows, the questions were sharp, the appetite was real. If you're still on the fence about applying, the replay is worth watching.
🔗 Watch the full session here: https://bit.ly/InfosessionReplay(Take this out)
February Lunch & Learn: Evaluating Founders in Early-Stage Deals
Collins Onuegbu and Ashley Barret joined us for a conversation on founder evaluation, moderated by Agnes Adebiyi, and they didn't come to validate the conventional wisdom. They came to interrogate it.
What do experienced investors actually look for in a founder, versus what they say they look for? What signals get overweighted because they're visible and legible, even when they don't predict outcomes? How do you assess someone's capacity to learn, to adapt, to hold a team together when things get hard, when none of that shows up cleanly in a pitch deck?
The conversation went places we didn't fully anticipate, which is usually the sign of a good session.The speakers were honest about their own mistakes as much as their frameworks. Agnes kept it rigorous. If you work in early-stage investing and haven't thought carefully about your founder evaluation process recently, the replay is a good place to start.
This edition of Lunch and Learn was possible with the generous support of our partners, ProDevs (MTN '25) and FirstFounders.
🔗 Watch the full Lunch & Learn session: https://bit.ly/FLandLlive
Looking Ahead
Investing in Africa: Women Advancing Angel Funding and Impact
March 12 | 5 - 7pm | Aruwa Capital Management, Southpoint Towers, 40B Adetokunbo Ademola Street, Victoria Island, Lagos
In collaboration with 100 Women in Finance, we're hosting a special event for International Women's Day focused on the role of women in early-stage investing — and what their growing presence means for the future of capital deployment across Africa. This isn't a ceremonial conversation. We're expecting it to be substantive, and we want the room to reflect that.
LAN Members Meetup & Cohort 2 Induction Ceremony April 2 | 6:00 PM WAT | Delta40, 40b Bourdillon Road, Ikoyi, Lagos
Our quarterly Members Meetup doubles this time as the formal induction of Cohort 2 fellows into the network. If you've been part of LAN for a while, this is a good moment to show up — welcoming new members in person is one of the things that makes this community feel like one. We'll have time to connect, reflect on the quarter, and head into Q2 with some momentum.