I started angel investing in 2020. Back then, I knew almost nothing about the asset class. I learned the only way that really counts: by doing.
Today, I’ve personally invested in 40 startups and deployed tens of thousands of dollars of my own money. Everything I know about angel investing came from writing cheques, making mistakes, watching companies die, and seeing a few grow far beyond what I expected.
Along the way, I’ve tried hard to mobilise more people, especially Black people, to get into angel investing.
And honestly, I’m getting tired. Maybe I haven’t found the right crowd. Maybe our people genuinely don’t have disposable capital to invest. But I don’t believe investing is a “nice to have” for our community. It’s a must-have. We can’t keep avoiding this conversation. Yes, angel investing is risky. But it’s also a numbers game. And like any numbers game, it only works if you actually play.
Before you ask, I’ve had some successes in mobilising people. HoaQ is the perfect example. But HoaQ has just under 1,000 members. We need at least 1,000 HoaQs out there mobilising at least 1,000 people a year. A thousand per head per annum is one billion!
The Same Questions. Every Single Time.
The reason I stopped talking to my people about angel investing is simple: the questions never change. “What will the return be?” “Is this the deal that will make me a millionaire?” Returns matter, but not in the way these questions are usually asked. Too many people are searching for the deal. The perfect deal. The once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. If I knew a deal would make me millions, I would not be telling anyone about it. I would put everything I have into it.
Too many of our people treat angel investing like a get-rich-quick scheme. They want fast outcomes. They want certainty. They want guarantees. That’s not angel investing. Angel investing is a long-term game. A very long-term game. If you’re not prepared to wait years, sometimes a decade, this asset class is not for you.
The Reality of My Portfolio
When I look at my angel investing dashboard today, it’s doing well. It’s in the green. And about half of my portfolio is dead. That’s normal. I have a few outliers carrying the entire portfolio with both hands. Many of those investments were made at the pre-seed stage. Some of those companies are now at Series B. This is exactly how angel investing works. One out of ten investments might return your entire investment in the asset class. More than half may never be active again. And yet, the portfolio can still perform. That’s the part many people refuse to accept.
I use angel investing both as a diversification strategy and as a way to support builders creating real businesses that employ thousands of people. We’ve invested in companies that have already created thousands of jobs. Take Chowdeck, for example, which employs thousands of riders across Nigeria. This is a real economic impact. This is what capital does when it flows.
Why I Keep Investing
I keep angel investing because I know I will make my money back. I don’t doubt it. This asset class is more science than art. The math is simple: the more you invest, the higher your chances of winning (it’s counterintuitive, I know). Truth is, you actually get better the more you angel invest, even if that means you say no more often.
And even in the worst-case scenario, if you are extremely unlucky and never make your money back, you still gain something valuable. You learn about industries you never knew existed. You learn about regions you never paid attention to. You learn how businesses are actually built. And if you get really lucky, your next employer might be a company you discovered through angel investing. I’ve seen many investors join the companies they invested in. Just ask Peter Oriofo, who now leads M&A at Moniepoint after returning his fund multiple times from investing in the same company.
Africa Needs More Capital
Africa does not have enough people building. We need more capital flowing into the continent so we can build businesses and enterprises and create the next generation of industries that will power Africa’s future. Capital is not charity. Capital is fuel. Without it, nothing scales.
The UK Side of the Conversation
I also advocate heavily for angel investing in the UK, because I live here. Many angel groups in the UK have investors, but not as many as there should be. The good news is that anyone can do it. The tax benefits are excellent. I wrote about the incentives here. And yet, people still hesitate. People pay thousands of pounds to take courses on investing. They believe a course will turn them into an investor. It won’t. A course teaches theory. Angel investing is not about knowing, it’s about doing. You only learn by writing the cheque. That’s how I learned.
So, why did I stop talking to Black People About Angel Investing?
Because too many people want to get rich quick. That’s not how this works. Yes, you might get extremely lucky once. But that’s not a system. That’s not a strategy. That’s not the game. Angel investing rewards patience, repetition, and long-term thinking. And until more people are willing to accept that reality, these conversations go nowhere.
In 2026, my goal is to mobilise more Black people to invest across the UK, the US, and Africa, and, contrary to the subject of this article, you will only hear more about the importance of angel investing.
If you are a professional in the UK and keen to invest just £1,000 a year in SEIS companies in 2026, please fill out the simple form below. I plan to build a list of investors we can support (for free) to start investing in Black and Brown companies across the UK. In the future, we will also work with early-stage companies to navigate SEIS, enabling them to raise capital from Black and Brown Professionals across the UK.
This is one of many posts I will write on this topic, and I hope we can help fund lots of companies in 2026.