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Viktoria Ventures builds next generation of angel investors
Viktoria Ventures has been named Angel Network of the Year 2025 at the Africa Early-Stage Investor Summit (AESIS) in Cape Town, securing the recognition through its flagship investment community, the Viktoria Business Angel Network (VBAN).
The summit, hosted by the African Business Angel Network (ABAN) and VC4A, honoured the organization for its role in structuring, activating, and expanding angel investment across the continent.
The award reflects years of sustained work by Viktoria Ventures to convert interest in early-stage investing into real deal flow, develop syndication models, and promote repeatable angel investment practices.
Chief Executive Officer Stephen Gugu said the win reinforces the organization’s mission to build a strong investor base that supports African founders with both capital and guidance.
Stephen Gugu, CEO, Viktoria Ventures: “If Africa’s startup ecosystem is to thrive, angel investors must be empowered with the right tools, community support, and access to real deal flow. This award validates our long-term work of building not just investors, but a functioning angel investment system.”
VBAN is widely regarded as one of Kenya’s earliest champions of structured angel investing and is credited with shaping how investors co-invest, assess risk, and support startup teams beyond financing. The Viktoria ecosystem has so far facilitated more than 23 startup transactions, with over 15 of those involving direct angel-backed investments through VBAN-linked investors and syndicates.
Lessons from these early deals informed the development of the African Angel Academy (AAA), where close to 40 percent of the training curriculum is derived from VBAN’s real investment activity. Viktoria Ventures has also supported startup development and investor readiness in Zambia and across additional regional markets, broadening the network’s influence beyond Kenya.
As part of its next phase of growth, VBAN is being integrated into the African Angel Academy as its syndication and deal execution arm, creating a direct pathway between angel training and capital deployment. A growing pool of investors continues to join the ecosystem through the Angel Leads Program, delivered by AAA with support from the UK Kenya Tech Hub.
The programme offers a structured six-week learning experience that includes expert-led sessions, mentorship, and technical support, alongside the formation of regional syndicates in cities including Nairobi, Mombasa, Kisumu and Eldoret. So far, 22 angel investors have completed the programme, six have formed the Moneva Syndicate, and the group has executed its first investment in Afyalishe Wellness Ltd, a Kenyan functional foods startup.
Across the continent, Viktoria Ventures has trained 797 angel investors drawn from 38 countries and has grown one of Africa’s strongest early-stage investment communities.
AAA alumni and VBAN members continue to shape the ecosystem’s future, most notably through Yemi Keri’s recent election as President of ABAN. Viktoria Ventures has also partnered with Africa: The Big Deal to improve investor access to screened early-stage opportunities.
The organization now looks ahead to the launch of AAA Cohort 13 in 2026, which will open its next intake to both new and experienced investors. For Viktoria Ventures, the recognition as Angel Network of the Year marks not an end point but what it describes as the beginning of a new scale-up chapter for angel investing in Africa.
Viktoria Ventures is a pan-African angel investment and ecosystem development platform committed to training high-capability investors and accelerating early-stage capital deployment.
Through the African Angel Academy, the Angel Leads Program, and VBAN, it aims to equip investors with the knowledge, networks and deal flow needed to back promising African founders with confidence.
