Our new book, How we made it in Africa II: Real stories of entrepreneurs turning opportunity into profit, is available here. The book was recently shortlisted for the Business Council for Africa (BCA) African Business Book of the Year Awards 2026.
In a recent interview with How we made it in Africa, Ibrahim Sagna, executive chairman of investment firm Silverbacks Holdings, revealed the five things he looks for when investing in a company.
1. Second-time founders. The firm has had the most success with people who are not running their first company. “We haven’t been lucky ever with first-time founders,” Sagna says.
2. Growth. It looks for companies posting year-on-year growth of at least 60% for three years.
3. Customers turned investors. Silverbacks sees it as an important signal when a company’s clients take a stake in it. Moove is one example. A vehicle supply partner for Uber since its early days, it saw Uber come in as a shareholder in 2024 as part of a $100 million funding round. At OmniRetail, food giant Flour Mills of Nigeria made the same shift from customer to investor.
4. Hard currency earnings. Silverbacks is wary of taking on too much exposure to African currencies. For foreign investors, who typically measure returns in US dollars, a rapid depreciation of the kind seen in Egypt, Nigeria and Ghana can wipe out investment gains. The firm therefore looks for companies that collect at least 30% of their income in hard currency.
5. Global ambitions. Finally, it wants founders who have stated an intention to take their companies worldwide.
