Meet Our Inaugural Class of Fellows
Meet our 9 Fellows that have participated in our first-ever Class of the Obuntu Launchpad Fellowship. From Lagos, London, Nairobi to Amsterdam, our Inaugural Class (OL1) of Fellows boast a rich range of geographies, sectors, industries, and stages. Also impressive is the gender diversity we see within our OL1 Fellows, with 56% of them being female. Some Fellows are seasoned operators, partners — others founders. However, as diverse as they are, all of them have in common a drive to accelerate growth in the African continent; and have each in their own ways been creatively making that happen.
Our Obuntu Launchpad Fellowship is an invite-only 8-week Fellowship for first-time Fund Managers razor-focused on Africa. We select 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 raise a fund for the continent.
We’re currently taking nominations for the second Class of our Launchpad Fellowship (OL2), and we’ll be introducing you relatively soon to our future Class.
However, today it’s about our OL1 Fellows. So, without further ado, here are our wonderful Fellows.
Emmanuel Adegboye 📍 Lagos, Nigeria / London, UK 🔗 LinkedIn // Twitter
Emmanuel is the Head of Madica, a Structured Investment Program for Pre-Seed companies in Africa. Emmanuel has significant experience designing and managing large technology projects and initiatives in emerging markets, which has given him a thorough knowledge of Africa’s entrepreneurial and political landscape. Emmanuel started his career working for many years as a Project Manager at places such as the Space Applications and Environmental Science Laboratory as well as Venture Garden Group and Andela. He is an ex-Founder, both in Mobility and IT. Emmanuel has also worked at Utopia in UrbanTech as a Strategic Lead as well as at the Chatham House as an Academy Fellow/Associate for their Africa Programme. He believes in the power of young entrepreneurs to solve society’s greatest challenges, and as such tries to be as engaged as possible when it comes to finding ways to use technology for good.
Rumbi Makanga 📍 London, UK 🔗 LinkedIn // Twitter
Rumbi is building Origin Twenty, a community of angels and an early stage fund backing African founders at Pre-Seed and Seed. She is a seasoned Strategist, Operator, and Investor. She has worked at the intersection of technology, impact and investment for several years, scaling and investing in early stage startups. She started her career commercialising DeepTech innovation across Europe and the US, developing and leading business development and go-to-market strategies for hardware and software technology products across the globe. Rumbi has experienced the tech ecosystem from all angles: as an Operator in early-stage startups, as a Founder at nonprofit startup Kwanda, as a DeepTech and marketplace VC at Episode 1, and delivering entrepreneurship programming at organisations like Balloon Ventures, UCL, YSYS, Black Seed Ventures, and more.
Joe Kinvi 📍 London, UK 🔗 LinkedIn // Twitter
Joe is a Community Manager and Founding Partner at HoaQ Ventures Fund, and a Co-Founder at The African Professional Network of Ireland (APNI). With his skills and experience ranging from relationship management, business development, and finance — he has worked with both small and large tech companies. Previously, Joe used to work at Stripe in Growth and Business Migration, Paystack in Financial Partnerships, at both Ernst & Young and State Street as a Senior Auditor, as well as Touchtech Payments (acquired by Stripe) as Head of Finance. He has also been a Financial Consultant for multiple startups throughout his career. Joe is passionate about building communities at scale.
Yewande Odumosu 📍 London, UK 🔗 LinkedIn // Twitter
Yewande is a Partner at HoaQ Ventures Fund, and a Limited Partner at RaliCap. She has extensive experience leading cross-functional teams and a deep passion for solving key business problems — with a focus on leveraging innovation, technology, and digital services. Yewande supports and invests in early-stage startups, especially in the African continent. Previously, Yewande was a Founder and Product Lead at Startup Plug, Country Manager at Nithio, a Principal Consultant at Advent Tech, a Global Manager at Softcom, Project Manager at Google, Vodacom, as well as at Eartoleum Networks. She has a background in Engineering, which has become a backbone for her role as an Operator, Advisor, Entrepreneur, and Angel Investor today.
Iretimipo Kukoyi 📍 Lagos, Nigeria 🔗 LinkedIn
Iretimipo is a Managing Partner at Alpha Gaps, a firm focused on identifying inefficient value chains in large markets and partnering with bold innovators to fix them. She is a serial Founder, having cofounded both Mealimeter as well as Sycamore Africa. Previously, Iretimipo was a Entrepreneur in Residence at Future Africa, Program Consultant at SEND, and Research Scientist at Arla Foods. Iretimipo has a strong passion for advising and supporting companies in the ecosystem; and having been involved in building for impact, she strives to see tech being used for good.
Sewu-Steve Tawia 📍 Nairobi, Kenya 🔗 LinkedIn // Twitter
Sewu-Steve is a General Partner at Jaza Rift Ventures, a $5m seed fund backing East to West Africa focused HealthTech, MedTech and BioTech startups, developed in partnership with Villgro Africa. He is an investment and development finance professional with experience in development finance, strategy consulting, angel investing, as well as with venture capital funds, and fund of funds in Europe and Africa. Through Asime Ventures, he’s also a prolific angel investor with a track record across the continent in FinTech, HealthTech, e-commerce, InsureTech, RetailTech, Renewables and EdTech. Previously, Sewu-Steve has worked at the African Development Bank, the European Investment Fund, CAPCO, BearingPoint, Exane, Audencia, and the AECF. As a VC, PE, and impact investing expert, he is a strong advocate of gender equality and women economic empowerment.
Charnez Jacobs 📍 Amsterdam, Netherlands 🔗 LinkedIn // Twitter
Charnez is an aspiring Fund Manager, specialising in helping early stage startups grow by assisting them with their fundraising activities. He has built a career working in investment management, venture capital, and private equity industries. Previously, Charnez has worked at BDO UK as a Senior Business Advisor, a Valuation Specialist at Ninety One, an Associate at Seedrs, an Internal Communications Consultant at Happeo, and Investment Manager at Capital T. Charnez was also a part of the Included VC Fellowship, supporting their mission to “radically diversify the Venture Capital ecosystem and work towards ensuring that VC is representational of society today in all forms.” As such, he’s passionate about making VC more inclusive and equitable.
Shikoh Gitau 📍 Nairobi, Kenya 🔗 LinkedIn // Twitter
Shikoh is the Co-Founder and Managing Partner at QLab, a human capital fund working with subject matter experts across the continent, and CEO at Qhala, a digital innovation company that catalyses digital transformation capabilities for organisations across Africa. Shikoh has rich experience in venture building, research, design, implementation, and management of digital technologies. She has established expertise in both African and Emerging Markets specialising in solving problems in Agriculture, Education, Health, Payments, Retail and Renewables. Previously, Shikoh has worked at Microsoft and Google as a Researcher, in UX/UI at Mercy Corps, in Inclusive Growth and as an ICT & Innovation Expert at the African Development Bank, and Head of Product at Safaricom. Shikoh believes her true superpower lies not just in her ability to be empathetic, but most importantly to help other people build empathy as well.
Annalisa Mensah 📍 London, UK 🔗 LinkedIn // Twitter
Annalisa is a Co-Founder at Origin Twenty, a community of Angels and an early stage fund backing African Founders at Pre-Seed and Seed. Previously, she has been in the legal space for a long time both at Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner LLP as well as at Ada Ventures. Her role at Ada Ventures introduced her to the world of venture investment — and since then, she hasn’t looked back. Annalisa used to be a Founder at The Power Network, after having been a part of Entrepreneur First’s Outliers Cohort.
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 to nominate a Fellow, or simply, for more information. We’re on LinkedIn as well, where we’ll be posting regular updates on what’s happening.
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
