Economy
How to Avoid Rookie Mistakes When Looking for Investment
By Philani Mzila
In the startup universe, one of the most valuable (if not the most valuable) finite resources you have at your disposal as a founder is equity. This is because startups generally don’t have the capital to scale in the market or products developed significantly enough to leverage to fund ongoing enterprise growth.
This makes your startup’s capitalisation table (cap table) an integral representation of how your venture is funded from an equity perspective (including convertible notes, warrants, and equity ownership grants). The cap table represents how much of a claim each party has on the value created by the business and what they paid for their ownership stake. Managing the cap table well is, therefore, a strategic imperative for any startup founder. As a startup scales, the evolution of its cap table has serious implications on how easily the venture can attract and raise new investments.
Cap tables and investor risk tolerance
At the beginning of a startup’s journey, the founding team owns 100% of the company. Depending on the resources they have available, founders tend to self-fund the venture as much as possible (called bootstrapping) up to and including the pre-seed stage in order to protect their equity value. At some point, however, the resources they have can only take them so far, and they need to raise external capital.
At the pre-seed stage, a startup hasn’t necessarily found product-market fit, and its revenue is often not the best measure of its potential because founders are honing their minimum viable product. At best, the venture has signals of product market fit, i.e. user growth, engagement and active usage and retention. The lack of product-market fit and bankable recurring revenue is typically a deterrent for investment by later-stage investors due to their inherently lower risk tolerance.
This is where angel investors and early-stage venture capital (VC) firms step in. Angel investors are high-net-worth individuals who are highly risk-tolerant and have the financial means to invest in startups and their potential future returns at the right price. That “right price” is usually an ownership stake in the business, ranging anywhere between 5 and 15%, with that percentage being a symbol of the risk angel investors accept in return for their capital and operational expertise. Early-stage VC firms, on their end, typically provide additional institutional capital, operational and governance support as well as credibility to ventures.
Angels and other types of early-stage investors, like Founders Factory Africa, play a vital role in the VC ecosystem. Without the high-risk tolerance these investors bring to the table, most early-stage startups would not break out of the pre-seed stage due to a lack of funding.
The role of a term sheet at the point of investment
Given the importance of a startup’s cap table in its future trajectory, it’s worth highlighting the vital role a VC term sheet performs at the point of investment. A VC term sheet is a document that outlines the terms and conditions of a VC investment. It includes details on the amount of money to be invested, the equity being granted to investors, the timing of investor liquidity, and investors’ rights in the venture.
Some of the key terms founders and investors must be familiar with when reviewing this document include:
Valuation – The value of the company which is being used as the basis for the investment.
Pre- and post-money valuation – The pre-money valuation is the value of the company prior to the investment, with post-money valuation is the value of the company after the investment.
Voting rights – A representation of how much say investors have in the future strategic direction of the business.
Liquidation preference – This is a clause that determines the order in which investors and founders are paid back in case of liquidation or bankruptcy. Be aware: liquidation preference typically relates to any liquidity event, not just a liquidation.
Anti-dilution-provisions – These clauses can help protect investors from dilution because of a future financing round of financing. They can have the effect of decreasing a founder’s shareholder value.
An alignment of interest with the future in mind
As both an investor and a venture builder that helps startups improve their product and find product-market fit, at Founders Factory Africa, we often advise founders to be extremely careful when exchanging equity for capital. When an investor decides to invest in a startup, they are looking for an alignment of interests where the founders can make a meaningful return for starting and scaling the venture, thereby providing a higher chance of a successful exit for the investor.
Some of the errors we typically see include founders raising their initial funding at too high a valuation. This creates unrealistic expectations for future funding rounds. At times, founders ask for too much capital without deep thought into what metrics and milestones they would like to achieve with the capital, leading them to give up too much equity very early on without considering the need for future funding rounds. These scenarios, in turn, stunt the venture’s ability to raise funding and scale due to the lack of alignment of financial interests with investors.
As a startup matures and goes through its different funding rounds, the equity allocated to founders is diluted as larger sums of investment are raised at Series A, B, or C. If the cap table is not thoughtfully constructed, the startup may find it increasingly difficult to raise capital as questions around incentives for later-stage investors increase.
The startup ecosystem is binary. Either a business grows and succeeds, or it fails. There is no in-between. The value that a startup places on its equity, and the partners they choose on its journey and collectively creates is the golden thread that runs through every startup’s success or failure. A thoughtful cap ensures that a startup can become successful. A badly designed cap table can do the exact opposite.
Philani Mzila is an Investment Manager at Founders Factory Africa
By Adedapo Adesanya
The Abuja Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ACCI) has called for policy consistency, the protection of Micro Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs), and private sector-led growth to strengthen Nigeria’s economy in 2026.
The President of the chamber, Mr Emeka Obegolu, made the call in a New Year message issued by the ACCI Media and Strategy Officer, Mrs Olayemi John-Mensah, on Thursday in Abuja.
He submitted that consistent policies and private-sector-friendly reforms were critical to reducing the cost of doing business and achieving sustainable economic development, stressing the need for strong protection of MSMEs, describing them as the backbone of the Nigerian economy.
According to him, sustained stakeholder engagement and predictable reforms would encourage investment and business expansion.
The ACCI president said the organised private sector remained cautiously optimistic about business opportunities in 2026, noting that the optimism persisted in spite global and domestic economic pressures affecting businesses.
He commended Nigerian businesses for their resilience and adaptability in navigating the economic challenges of 2025, adding that businesses demonstrated commitment to innovation and value creation despite inflation and foreign exchange volatility.
Mr Obegolu also cited high energy costs, rising interest rates and limited access to finance as key constraints faced by enterprises.
According to him, these challenges underscored the importance of chambers of commerce in advocating stability and competitiveness.
He said economic reforms were necessary but should be carefully sequenced to safeguard MSMEs and organised businesses.
Mr Obegolu warned that poorly managed reforms could result in business closures, job losses and capital flight.
He drew attention to over N720 billion in outstanding contractor debts owed by government.
He said delayed settlement of verified obligations had weakened cash flows and disrupted supply chains.
According to him, the situation had particularly affected indigenous contractors and MSMEs nationwide.
He urged government to prioritise transparent verification and timely settlement of the debts to stimulate economic activity.
Mr Obegolu also called on the Federal Government and the FCT Administration to create a more enabling and predictable business environment.
He noted that Abuja had evolved into a major commercial and investment hub requiring stronger infrastructure and regulatory support.
He reaffirmed ACCI’s commitment to constructive engagement with government to promote ease of doing business and inclusive economic growth.
By Adedapo Adesanya
The Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Mrs Jumoke Oduwole, has said the federal government would deepen its participation in the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) in 2026 by working with state governors to identify at least one exportable product in each of the country’s 774 local governments.
The move gears towards scaling production, boosting non-oil exports, and strengthening competitiveness across Africa.
She made this disclosure while speaking on Nigeria’s AfCFTA Achievements Report 2025 under the Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment.
The Minister noted that Nigeria’s AfCFTA Agenda in 2026 will be building on implementation milestones recorded in 2025.
According to her, the plan aims at positioning the country to better exploit opportunities under the continent-wide trade pact.
Operationalised through the AfCFTA Central Coordination Committee (CCC), the Ministry will collaborate with development partners across public and private sector institutions to mobilise production nationwide, while also undertaking an awareness and sensitisation campaign.
“FMITI will work with the Nigerian Governors’ Forum and State Governments to identify a minimum of one (1) product that each Local Government Area can export into the AfCFTA market,” the report stated.
Beyond local production, the 2026 agenda places a strong emphasis on creating an enabling policy and regulatory environment to support the full implementation of the AfCFTA Agreement and its protocols, with the Ministry of Industry, Trade, and Investment leading the regulatory alignment efforts.
In addition, Nigeria plans to upgrade trade data systems to effectively track AfCFTA trade flows, including disaggregated data on goods, services, and participation by women and youth, while expanding global advocacy and hosting key continental trade events ahead of the Intra-African Trade Fair in 2027.
The report also outlines plans to demystify AfCFTA rules and compliance requirements through a series of targeted publications for businesses, alongside measures to strengthen institutional coordination and improve accountability among public sector agencies involved in trade facilitation.
On investment and industrial capacity, the document notes that: “Investment mobilisation efforts with foreign and domestic investors will prioritise the exponential increase of productive capacity in key sectors, to position Nigeria as the innovation, production and distribution hub of the AfCFTA market.”
By Adedapo Adesanya
The Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited plans to develop new oil fields from next year and seeks to raise at least $30 billion by the end of the decade.
According to Bloomberg, this was disclosed by senior officials familiar with the plans in the country which is Africa’s largest oil producing nation.
The state-owned oil firm is raising the money as part of efforts to reverse years of underinvestment that have left several discoveries undeveloped, the people said, without disclosing the new fields being targeted.
The publication revealed that the NNPC expects significant investment decisions to come through next year, according to the people who declined to be identified because the talks involve confidential commercial matters.
The sources also said the NNPC is also reviewing its portfolio and plans to sell non-performing fields, adding that the firm will likely meet more than half of its fundraising target.
The energy company plans to develop some of the fields in-house and is expected to call for bids early next year, the people said.
NNPC also plans to boost oil output by 5 per cent to 1.8 million barrels per day next year compared with 2025 and is targeting 4 million barrels of daily output by 2030.
It also targets the completion of the $2.8 billion Ajaokuta-Kaduna-Kano (AKK) pipeline, connecting various segments to the main line from early next year, one of the people said.
Once ready, the pipeline will deliver gas at scale to parts of northern Nigeria including the capital of Abuja, supplying industrial parks, fertilizer plants and power-generation facilities.
Recall that the chief executive of the NNPC, Mr Bashir Ojulari, recently said the country would begin to export gas from the $2.8 billion Ajaokuta-Kaduna-Kano (AKK) pipeline from early 2026.
First conceived in 2008, the AKK pipeline is central to Nigeria’s ambition to leverage its vast gas reserves for economic growth. Its completion could transform the north, where chronic power shortages and a lack of energy infrastructure have stifled manufacturing for decades.
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