Quick Angels: The First Angel Investor Company in Ghana by Richard Nii-Armah Quaye

Interview with Richard Nii-Armah Quaye, CEO of Quick Angels

What is your assessment of the sector in Ghana? What are the latest trends?

Quick Angels is an angel investor company. We focus on supporting startups and businesses at their early stages with equity funding. The angel investor industry is very common in developed economies such as the US, Canada, Europe, Asia, India, China. There are a lot of angel investors out there helping young entrepreneurs and young businesses build great companies for the future, changing the world, changing lives, creating jobs for thousands and millions of people, and building economies over years. The angel investor industry is a very important industry that has come to make the world a better place. We have brilliant companies that have been built together with or have been established today because of angel investors. Back home here in Ghana, unfortunately, we do not have angel investors at all. We have been trying to build our economy for years by ourselves. That is a great problem for the economy and for me. I am an entrepreneur myself and when I started my business, it was very difficult for me to generate funds. I felt like giving up because there was no support coming in from anywhere. Angel investors, once present in Ghana, will help people that would be in the same situation that I was in years ago. That is why I have established Quick Angels. I have come in as a pioneer in our economy and our country to start this angel investing ecosystem here to support young entrepreneurs and businesses and give people confidence to be innovative and believe that once they come up with a smart business idea, this time around, there is a place for them to go to get funding to help start what they believe in.

If you are a young entrepreneur here starting a business, what are the other solutions? And what are the problems with that path?

Not all businesses need debt funding. But those that need debt funding should be able to get it from Quick Credit and those that need equity funding should be able to get it from Quick Angels.

In the economy today, if you are a young entrepreneur or a young business and you start up, you have no option. You probably would have to get a family member or friend to help you with funding. If you are not blessed with a rich family or friends that are well to do to support you with funds, then you have nowhere to go. You will then look to the banks. In Ghana, our economy is all about banks and financial institutions and savings and loans. But these are all institutions that provide debt financing where they give you loans and you have to pay back the loans with interest and you have a very short period to do that. This will always put pressure on the entrepreneur. It will make it difficult for them to be innovative and take risks and even invest in research and development to fine tune their products and services. This has always been a problem but it is the only solution we have. It must change. That is where equity funding is very important. It gives you the freedom as an entrepreneur to be able to try new things, to take risks, to be innovative without fear that if you fail you will be punished by a bank taking your collateral or your car or your assets away from you.

How does the process work? Do the young startups come to you? Do you take a percentage or minority share?

It varies. There are times where some startups do not require much funding. In those cases, we would take very little stake from the business, 10% to 30%. But there are some startups that require extensive funding. With them, we sometimes end up taking 50% or even a majority stake in the business to be able to protect our investments.

Can you provide some examples of what has been done? What companies have you helped through angel investing? Do you have a success story that you are proud of?

We have not started yet. We just launched the company a few months ago. We are scrutinizing the ideals and funds so we do not have a story just yet. It is too early.

Among the cases that you find, what is an example of an interesting company that you think you could help?

Currently, we have had a lot of deals coming through from tech related innovations, agriculture, palm oil production, honey production, cocoa and chocolate processing companies. Because angel investors are not present in our economy, there is a lot of backlog. There are many entrepreneurs in all sectors that require this funding. Deals have been coming in from all sectors.

Does your business model work for any size company? What is the minimum and the maximum you can invest?

At the moment, we do not want to restrict ourselves to minimum and maximum because the angel investor industry is new here. Once we put limits, then we restrict others from benefitting from it. That will not fit into the agenda or the main purpose for which we have set up this company. We believe that a lot of people really need our help out there and we do not want to restrict anybody. We want those people that only need small funds to be able to come get it and at the same time those that have wonderful ideas and need large funding we want to do our best and make sure we provide that funding for them, too. As long as what they have is viable and will build big business for the country and the economy and create hundreds and thousands of jobs, we want to do everything possible to make sure that we provide the funding they need to be able to set up. So, we do not want to restrict anyone at all.

What is the length of time for you to accept an applicant or a company? How long does it take from the time they come to your office to when you accept the bill?

We are currently looking at from two to four weeks. Of course, we want to improve on this and even fine tune it. If we can do it much better, that is how we want to go.

Do they receive the funds very quickly? What is the process?

We have a team of experts that analyze the deals we are brought. Once they come out with positive conclusions on the business proposals we are brought, I am the last person to make the final decision because I sign off on the check. I would have to also satisfy myself that the entrepreneur meets my criteria apart from the financial viability of the business. I want to know that the entrepreneur has integrity, is passionate about their business, is hardworking, is someone who is ready to be managed and mentored, and once I see such qualities and traits in that entrepreneur, I sign off and issue the check out.

You are not only providing funds, but also helping to develop.

Exactly. I am an entrepreneur myself. I have a company called Quick Credit that is into credit or giving loans to small businesses. That is something I have done for the past decade in the country and over 25,000 Ghanaians are currently benefiting from small scale loans from me. This is a very challenging and difficult industry to traverse as an entrepreneur. This is something I do without taking deposits, savings, investments, from anyone. It is very difficult. For me to be able to do this over a decade and do it successfully suggests that I have a lot of experience in the economy on how to navigate the entrepreneurial career here. So, I have a lot to bring onboard. I have met a lot of challenges during this period and I know that young entrepreneurs will also have their fair share, but with all of the experience I have, I want to help them navigate their challenges as well. I am not only bringing funding, but also my expertise, my experience, my networking to help them succeed, survive, and grow to become very successful entrepreneurs as well.

What makes you different from other companies in the sector?

Quick Credit is a microcredit company licensed by the Bank of Ghana to engage in lending. We are a non-deposit taking financial institution and we grant small, short term loans to traders and small businesses in the country. We have been doing this for ten years now and we have tried as much as possible to be very successful in doing this. In all, we have helped over 100,000 Ghanaians and currently have over 25,000 active customers that we are helping. The strength of Quick Credit has been that we provide credit to Ghanaians without taking deposits, investments, or accepting any form of money from them. That is the difference between us and the rest. In our economy today, all financial institutions have their focus on taking deposits and investments from customers. It is only after they have taken that money from you that they give you money in return. While they were doing this, we have differentiated ourselves and have only given credit to people without taking because we understand that these people are the needy ones, these are the people who need funds for their business, these are the people that need help. For us to provide help for people, the solution is not to first take money from them. We go directly to fix their problem by giving them direct credit without taking anything from them to help expand and grow their business. That is the difference between us and the rest of the financial institutions in the country.

How do you see the group growing? What is your vision for the group in the next three years? What do you want to achieve?

The objective is for us to be a one stop shop when it comes to funding in the country. As it stands now, we have been providing debt financing for thousands of Ghanaians over the years. What is lacking is equity funding. We have had people coming to us looking for equity funding over debt funding and this is something that they do not get at all in the economy. We want to be able to provide an alternative way of funding for these people. Not all businesses need debt funding. But those that need debt funding should be able to get it from Quick Credit and those that need equity funding should be able to get it from Quick Angels. We are looking at the company being a very solid brand in our economy in the next two to three years that will provide all around financial support to both individuals and young entrepreneurs to start ups and growing businesses.

What are the challenges that you face?

All businesses have their own challenges. In as much as we have been trying to provide funding for both debt and equity funding customers, we do this without taking deposits and savings and investment from people. Obviously, these are things we have to generate ourselves to be able to provide the funding for these people. So, funding will always be a problem for us as well because until we are able to generate funds on our own, we will not be able to support these people. We are open to equity investment in our business as well, not debt financing. We do not want loans. We are looking for equity investors, people who are also ready to partner with us to help alleviate the challenges that Ghanaian businessmen and women are facing. Another challenge that we have is that currently we are the only angel investors or equity investors in our country. That is problematic. It puts a lot of pressure and stress on us. What it means is that if there is a good deal that comes to our desk, and it requires a lot of money to fund it, we either say no or we fund it all alone. But, in advanced economies there is the opportunity for angel investors to come together and do a syndicated investment where a group of angel investors will share risk by funding in bits to get the total funds that are required to invest in that business idea. As it stands now, we are the only angel investors in our country, so this syndicated investment is impossible. We want to use this opportunity to reach out to others in our country and beyond who have idle funds to also bring their funds in as known, formal, recognized angel investors in our country so that when these great opportunities and great talents come to us for funds, we can reach out to the rest of our colleagues who are also angel investors to come together so that we do the investment as a group, thereby reducing the risk of exposure and also making sure that we do not say no to ideas and entrepreneurs that tomorrow will change our country and change the world.

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