Friday, September 02, 2011

Internship Opportunity...


LoftyInc Angel Network Internship Opportunity in Nigeria

Overview
As a volunteer intern, you will provide crucial contributions to LoftyInc's social impact investing activities, especially through the newly formed LoftyInc Angel Network (LAN). 

The LoftyInc Angel Network (LAN) is a network of Nigerian angel investors (registration in progress) organized by, but independent of LoftyInc to offer seed and expansion capital to businesses incubated by LoftyInc Allied Partners Limited.

As an intern, you will augment LAN staff and investor members by tackling projects such as sector or regional analysis, case studies, due diligence support and/or investor support.

Responsibilities
The volunteer intern role provides crucial additional capacity to the LAN team.  Responsibilities include one or more of the following, depending on your experience and interests:

  • Sector and Regional Analysis:
    • Learn about the most attractive emerging investment areas by performing analysis on target investment sectors (such as clean technology, education, mobile technology, mobile payments, or fair trade).
    • Perform market, segment, trend and company analysis to identify what's hot in impact capital and in social enterprise in these areas, identify potential deal flow partners and make recommendations. We plan to use this analysis to guide future investment decisions.

  • Case Studies:
    • Learn how social impact investments are made by studying investments we've made and writing up detailed case studies on how the investment was identified, researched and structured and the potential for exits.  We plan to feature these case studies on our website and in our public relations activities to demonstrate our impact and success.

  • Due Diligence Support:
    • Learn how investors perform due diligence on prospective investments by preparing pre-meeting investor briefs and recording highlights of investor conversations with social enterprises.  We plan to use this input to help us better assess investment opportunities.

  • Investment Meeting Secretary:
·         Be a proverbial fly on the wall for our member investment meetings where we discuss investments and other top issues.
·         Record meeting minutes and distribute to the team. This is a unique opportunity to form relationships with the industry’s leading impact investors in an otherwise closed-doors meeting.  A great way as well to get to hear how investors evaluate projects in real time.

  • LAN MD  Support:
    • Work with the MD of the LoftyInc Angel Network to identify potential members of the network, and follow up as required.
    • Represent the MD as required.
  • Other: We sometimes consider other projects which leverage unique capabilities of our volunteer interns. 


Experience, Education and Training
  • The ideal candidate will be highly analytical; detail oriented and possess a strong interest in social enterprise and impact investing.
  • Experience in social enterprise, developing countries, public policy and/or investing desired but not required.
  • Must be a current student or recent grad living in Nigeria.

Time Commitment
Time commitment is quite flexible.  We would ask for a minimum of 4-6 hours per week or more (depending on your project) for approximately 10 to 12 weeks, though by combining several projects, can also take full-time interns.  We sometimes consider other time periods and time commitments depending on your situation.

Reporting and Compensation
Interns report to the LAN MD and each is mentored, as appropriate, by a LAN member investor.  While this is a volunteer position with no monetary compensation at the moment, we make every effort to assure your experience is valuable.


Next Steps
Send resume and cover e-mail with subject heading- “Attention LoftyInc Angel Network” to solution@loftyincltd.biz on or before September 30, 2011

About LoftyInc
LoftyInc Allied Partners Ltd. is a business development company founded in 2008 to specifically focus on supporting innovative entrepreneurs and businesses. LoftyInc specializes in start-up business and project incubation in West Africa. LoftyInc unique business incubation model is implemented on a platform jointly initiated with the Africa Leadership Forum: the Wennovation Hub. LoftyInc supports over half a dozen domestic start-ups and three early stage projects sponsored by domestic and international clients. www.loftyincltd.biz  www.wennovationhub.com
Plot C, Obasa Road, off Oba Akran Road, Ikeja Lagos

Monday, August 22, 2011

MobiQube Joins Wennovation Platform

Collages.jpg
Mobile platform application developer and indigenous social networking operator, MobiQube Nigeria Limited recorded a milestone when it officially became the newest member of the Wennovation Platform on August 15th, 2011. MobiQube was represented by Chief Executive Officer, Mukhtar Oyewo; signing on behalf of LoftyInc was Wole Odetayo, Managing Partner.

MobiQube have a number of products in the pipeline, including Yarnable: a micro-discussion social site focused on Africa currently undergoing major revamp after MobiQube late May 2011 takeover. Due for release soon are beta versions of FoneRecharge and GreetingCards, as well as suite of free-apps for various smart phone platforms. Major development of the suite is already ongoing at the Hub facilities where MobiQube's top flight team are working towards a mid fourth quarter release in time for the holiday season. 

The Wennovation Platform is one of three flagship programs being run by the Wennovation Hub, the other being WennoConsulting and WennoCamps, focused on offering robust support to start-ups with products in advanced development or in the market. MobiQube joins PrimeCoHall within this program, as well as the three legacy companies for which LoftyInc have always provided ongoing support since 2008. 

LoftyInc & MobiQube sign the dotted line...
Dr. Wole Odetayo reaffirmed at the signing that, "For the Wennovation Hub, this new member is particularly synergistic with our focus on mobile application development or linked companies in 2011; coming off the intensive training  phase of WennoCamp, organized in partnership with MIT-AITI for mobile application development at the University of Ibadan in early August". That training being a precursor for the WennoCamp incubation phase which will soon take off at the Hub. 

In the next few weeks, LoftyInc will partner closely with MobiQube to ensure timely and effective release of products in the fourth quarter, while helping the MobiQube team identify strategic options to enhance the company's viability. LoftyInc will also gain one board sit as a result of this strategic addition to our portfolio firms.