Meet Class 2 of the Obuntu Launchpad Fellowship
We are excited to introduce you to the Obuntu Launchpad Fellowship’s Class 2. These are incredible individuals coming from a multitude of backgrounds. They are Founders, Super Angels, Operators, Corporate employees turned innovators. What do they have in common? They all have a drive to accelerate growth in the African continent, and they are leveraging their learnings from their experience on the ground to back the next generation of Africa based entrepreneurs.
We received over 77 nominations; we picked 15* — all Emerging Fund Managers who are diverse across geography, stage, thesis, gender, and background:
- 60% women
- 86% based in Africa
- 100% African citizens
- 30% co-founders of businesses in Africa
The Obuntu Launchpad Fellowship’s newest 15 Fellows are based in South Africa, Nigeria, Senegal, Egypt, Kenya, Zambia, Mauritius, and the US, representing an incredibly diverse Class North, West, East, Southern Africa, across English, French, and Arabic speaking Africa.
For those finding us for the first time, we are Obuntu Foundation, a 501c3 on a mission to advance the next generation of Africa-focused Fund Managers. We believe in these Fund Managers’ potential to transform the continent so we’re building a support ecosystem for them. Our flagship initiative is the Obuntu Launchpad Fellowship, an invite-only 8-week Fellowship for first-time Fund Managers razor-focused on Africa. We select up to 15 passionate Fellows and support them on their journey to launch and accelerate their first investment vehicle. From exclusive sessions, access to our perks & resources, to our tight-knit community, our Fellows are equipped with most of what they need to succeed.
Now that you know what the Obuntu Launchpad Fellowship is, without further ado — meet our Class 2 Fellows!
Thandeka Xaba 📍 Johannesburg, South Africa 🔗 LinkedIn // Twitter
Thandeka co-founded Digital Africa Ventures, a 25 million Rand Seed venture capital fund. Since inception the fund has invested in market-leading Seed businesses like Tripplo, Flexclub, Locstat and TUNL and has grown by 213% in value. Previously, she spent four years at Investec where she qualified as a CA(SA) and went on to work in the Investment Banking Team. She is recognised as one of South Africa’s Brightest Young Minds, and has been awarded the Allan Gray Fellowship, Obama Africa Leaders Fellowship, and Harambean Fellowship in recognition for her impact in entrepreneurship. She is also the Founder of the Tariro Foundation, an NGO focused on empowering high school girls, and GlamAlly, a BeautyTech marketplace platform.
Aly El Shalakany 📍 Cairo, Egypt 🔗 LinkedIn
Aly is the Managing Partner of Acasia Ventures, a venture capital firm that invests in early stage tech and tech enabled startups in the Middle East and Africa. He has invested, mentored and coached various startups globally across a number of different sectors. Aly is also the Co-Founder of the Acasia Group (formerly the Cairo Angels), one the leading startup support and enabling organisations in the Middle East and Africa; a Founding Partner and Member of the Investment Committee of Saudi Angel Investors, an angel fund that invests in startups in Saudi Arabia; a Member of Afronpreneurs Angel Group, a syndicate of angel investors investing in African tech startups; and a Limited Partner in a number of venture capital funds, including the Launch Fund in Silicon Valley and the LegalTech Fund.
Diago Dieye📍 Dakar, Senegal 🔗 LinkedIn
Diago is currently launching Khuwaylid Capital, a groundbreaking initiative as the first Shari’ah-compliant SME impact investment fund in Francophone Africa. The fund is set to initially focus on Senegal, directing its investments towards SMEs within the Agribusiness, Health, and Education value chains. She is a seasoned professional with a 17-year career spanning the US, the UK, and Senegal in the Financial Services industry as a Corporate Finance specialist. Her focus on MSMEs in frontier markets has been instrumental in delivering capital to MSMEs across the African continent over the past decade. In her most recent achievement, she co-structured and executed Suqali, a US$30M Access to Finance program, facilitating the financing of over 1,000 SMEs and empowering more than 16,600 micro-entrepreneurs in Senegal. Prior to this, Diago played a pivotal role in the founding team of the Sovereign Wealth Fund of Senegal, managing a portfolio of strategic governmental projects in SME Financing, Agribusiness, Health, Energy, and Manufacturing. She also co-structured and co-led the FONSIS anchor investment into Teranga Capital, the first SME impact investment fund in Francophone Africa.
Shiluba Mawela 📍 Cape Town, South Africa 🔗 LinkedIn // Twitter
Shiluba is a qualified chartered accountant and is the Founder and Managing Partner for Tshiamo Impact Partners — a Gender Lens Impact Fund that she is currently fundraising for. She is a 2023 Echoing Green Fellow, and previously consulted as the Secretariat Co-Lead for the National Taskforce for Impact Investing. Shiluba has broad capital markets and impact investment expertise and extensive corporate finance experience, gained while working at the Johannesburg Stock Exchange and a boutique Transaction Advisory firm. She has also served as Senior Project Manager on a national business-led initiative supported by the government, which resulted in legislative change to promote youth job creation. Prior to that experience, Shiluba worked at Ernst & Young in their banking and capital markets division in the Johannesburg and New York offices. She is a World Economic Forum Global Shaper Alumni and Mandela Washington 2016 Fellow. Shiluba is also a feature writer for Accountancy SA on all things impact and serves as the Steering Committee member for the Collaborative for Frontier Finance.
Anne Njuki 📍 Nairobi, Kenya 🔗 LinkedIn
Anne is the Managing Director of Sayni Capital, investing in underrepresented founders building profitable, scalable, and impactful businesses in Africa. She was most recently an Investment Manager at DOB Equity. Anne was responsible for sourcing & structuring potential investments for DOB Equity, and working closely with DOB Equity’s portfolio companies to support senior management achieve their strategic, operational, and impact objectives. Prior to joining DOB Equity, Anne was a Senior Engagement Manager with McKinsey & Company, where she served the leadership of Africa’s top private and public sector institutions. Her initial career began as a process engineer in the United States and Asia, after which she decided to move back home to contribute to growth and development in Africa.
Laissa Mouen 📍 Dakar, Senegal 🔗 LinkedIn // Twitter
Laissa is the Founder of Kinaya Ventures, a platform that sits at the intersection of technology, entrepreneurship, innovation, and digital investments in the African terrain. With bases in both Dakar and Abidjan, Kinaya Ventures has already extended its reach, aiding fledgling startup founders across seven countries in Sub-Saharan Africa. Her career spans two decades in the banking sector, navigating the diverse worlds of corporate & investment banking, as well as the intricate realms of debt & equity capital markets — with names such as Groupe Crédit Agricole, United Bank for Africa, and Société Générale. Beyond the banking sector, Laissa has been hands-on in shaping the pulse of Francophone Africa’s startup ecosystem, having played a pivotal role in its building and in making early-stage investments.
Laurent Fayolle 📍 Port Louis, Mauritius 🔗 LinkedIn
Laurent is Managing Director at DotExe Ventures. The fund’s primary focus for initial investments are Seed and Series A funding rounds, in scalable, high-growth tech companies with potential returns of 10–100 times initial investment (or more). DotExe Ventures brings to life the intention of IBL Group, a leading Mauritian conglomerate, to accelerate its expansion in Eastern Africa. Laurent has over 15 years’ experience in the information technology industry, both at an operational and strategic level. He is currently finishing a 12-months Senior Exec Program in VC/PE with Columbia Business School and follows VCs, LPs, and ecosystem builders evolving in the African tech space as it is something he ranks highly.
Margaret Ntambi 📍 Baltimore, USA 🔗 LinkedIn // Twitter
Margaret is a Partner at Benue Capital, a Pre-Seed to Seed sector agnostic fund investing in Sub-Saharan Africa with a priority towards Uganda. Margaret is a corporate finance professional by trade who spent 10 years specialising in pricing strategy across several industries, including consumer packaged goods, consulting/outsourcing, and financial services — with names such as Accenture and P&G. Alongside her corporate finance career, she has supported founders and built her own residential general contracting company. She has completed an Executive MBA at NYU Stern, and partaken in several Fellowships, including one with RareBreed Ventures. She has also worked in an investment role at RareBreed Ventures, helping them develop their web3 thesis as well as developing the fund’s thesis for Africa.
Ayodeji Arikawe 📍 Abuja & Lagos, Nigeria 🔗 LinkedIn
Ayodeji is a Co-Founder at ThriveAgric where he co-leads the team to build a network of currently over 600,000 farmers who have accessed $200m in financing and are the largest producers of maize in Nigeria. He is also a Venture Partner at Alpha Gaps, and has previously co-founded Velocity, a syndicate that has invested in over 50 companies in Africa. Beyond his daily work, Ayodeji is an Advisory Board Member at Ukhanyo Farmer Development, a Mentor at Google For Startups and VC4A, as well as an Advisor at Quick Leap.
Yvonne Mpala 📍 Lusaka, Zambia 🔗 LinkedIn
Yvonne is a General Partner at wCap Limited (Women Capital), an investment management and advisory firm in the process of creating its own funding mechanism for women-led businesses in Southern Africa. She holds an MBA and is a former banker at Standard Chartered Bank with 18 years management experience in the private sector across the globe. Her expertise covers pre- and post- investment advisory ($1M), corporate governance, enterprise development, business operations management, portfolio management ($7M) and client relations. Yvonne currently also works with SMEs to build capacity in businesses to allow for scalability and capital raise.
Steven Waidelich 📍 Cape Town, South Africa 🔗 LinkedIn // Twitter
Steven is a seasoned startup Operator and a former Founder with a $40M exit. He has previously advised over 30 African early stage ventures on product and growth strategies that enable scale. This, combined with his hands-on value creation role at Founders Factory Africa has given him a birds eye view of the trends affecting ventures in Africa and a unique perspective in evaluating and sourcing new investments. Steven was also a Co-Founder (COO) at Lighthouse Digital, the largest digital media agency in South Africa. Lighthouse Digital was acquired by Publicis in 2014.
Thaheer Mullins 📍 Cape Town, South Africa 🔗 LinkedIn // Twitter
Thaheer is a General Partner at Savant. He takes a hands-on approach to due diligence, deal structuring, execution & monitoring, and evaluation; and is actively involved in helping ventures put together building blocks for commercial success. He has truly grown into his role at Savant, starting as an Entrepreneur in Residence, Commersialisation, Manager, Director, Senior Associate to his current role as General Partner. Having worked with a variety of organisations, Thaheer is able to engage with stakeholders at multiple levels and remains nimbly adept to start-up environments.
Nyeji Chilembo-Mhango 📍 Lusaka, Zambia 🔗 LinkedIn // Twitter
Nyeji is a Managing Partner at wCap Limited (Women Capital), an investment management and advisory firm in the process of creating its own funding mechanism for women-led businesses in Southern Africa. She is a seasoned economist and investment professional with over 20 years of experience covering venture capital, corporate finance, fund management, sovereign debt management, and institutional banking. Nyeji is an expert in finance for development in emerging markets, and her international experience includes diplomatic service in the United Kingdom and Malaysia as an economic advisor handling international trade, foreign direct investments, and private equity transactions on behalf of the Zambian Government. Beyond her current role as a Managing Partner, Nyeji is a member of the Women Leaders for Climate Action Group in Zambia.
Amaka Okechukwu Opara 📍 Lagos, Nigeria 🔗 LinkedIn // Twitter
Amaka is the Founding Partner of the Women’s Enterprise Acceleration Vehicle (WEAV Capital), a mission-driven venture fund that invests in female-led companies that are spearheading innovation and solving critical problems. She is an investment professional with over 15 years of experience in finance & investments, and has extensive experience funding & providing technical assistance to entrepreneurs, business incubators, and venture capital firms in Sub-Saharan Africa — with names such as Deutsche Bank, The Brookings Institution, Afrimind, the World Economic Forum, and the World Bank. Amaka started her career structuring debt and equity investments for hedge fund clients. Most recently, she worked with a leading DFI on private sector development, directly managing a portfolio of $1.1 billion in projects across Sub Saharan Africa.
Ife Oyedele 📍 Lagos, Nigeria 🔗 LinkedIn
Ife is a Venture Partner at Kaleo Ventures, a venture capital firm that invests in tech-driven founders that are ideating on innovative solutions to solve Africa’s problems. He is also a General Partner at Alpha Gaps, a venture firm that partners with bold innovators to tackle inefficient value chains in Africa’s broken markets. Prior to these, Ife co-founded Kobo360, one of Africa’s fastest-growing technology-enabled logistics start-up, backed by Y-Combinator, IFC, and Goldman Sachs. He led growth & expansion of the company into several markets across Africa, and has also championed technology innovation & product development.
*One of our 15 Fellows is currently in stealth mode. We’ll update the article once they’re able to publicly announce they’re a Fellow with us, so stay tuned
Follow them on their socials to keep up with them!
We invite Emerging Fund Managers in Africa to join the movement and take advantage of the resources and opportunities offered by the Foundation. You can visit our website for more information. We’re on LinkedIn as well, where we’ll be posting regular updates on our initiatives.
At Obuntu Foundation, we understand it takes a village; and are always excited to brainstorm and discuss creative ways to partner and collaborate. If that sounds like you, whether you’d like to support us with your time or donate to our 501c3 foundation, please reach out and say hey at hello@obuntu.vc
