MENA’s Angel Investors Are Gathering In “MAIN’s” First Conference In November

Positioned as a prototype-friendly town for tech and entrepreneurship, El-Gouna is receiving a batch of investors from across the region to attend Egypt’s first big-scale investment-focused conference, on November 1^st and 2^nd. MAIN, short for Middle East Angel Investment Network, is an alliance of business angel groups, networks, funds and individual angels that aims to promote and raise awareness of angel investing across the MENA region. The alliance is set to provide a platform in Gouna’s TU Berlin Campus for syndication, training, mutual learning, exchange of expertise and best practices and to produce standardised investment documentation to facilitate investments.

“MAIN is a big dream that goes back to four years ago where the network was always keen to organise such an initiative,” Cairo Angel’s General Manager Zeina Mandour – who is responsible for organising the first MAIN conference – tells Startup Scene. “Through this conference, we aim to reach and lead a unified syndication protocol between all existing angel investment networks in the region aiming to boost the Egyptian and the regional startups ecosystem.” 

The first edition of the soon-to-become an annual conference on business angel investment conference has multiple discussion panels related to: fintech, cleantech, tranport tech and women and angel investment, with a selection of leading figures in every sector.

This two-day training and networking conference will bring together individual business angels, angel networks, groups and funds from across the Middle East and North Africa. It will feature workshops, masterclasses and high-level panel discussions with local, regional and international speakers and offer the unique opportunity to jointly discuss topics and issues relevant to angel investors in the region and beyond.

MAIN brings along a group of intensive educational sessions for angel investment covering three tracks; 101: an introductory track to angel investing and its process; with topics such as sourcing and screening deals, team versus trend, dual diligence, valuation, and deal structuring. While the 201 track would delve deeper with the Deep Dive and Deal Memo; with topics such as cap tables, valuation and return calculator, negotiating with startups, equity investment versus convertible notes, and investment thesis and portfolio strategy. Finally, 301 track will discuss the final deal terms and closing; with topics such as creating an effective board, reporting and setting KPIs, weathering the storm when things go wrong, dealing with Venture Capitals, and preparing for exits.

Main Image: Zeina Mandour, Cairo Angels' General Manager. Courtesy of Cairo Angels.