Connecting African VC Talent: Introducing the Launch into VC Mentorship Network

Building bridges to help young African VC Talent navigate their journey in the venture capital industry

At Dream VC, we are committed to unlocking the keys to the venture capital industry for all of our fellows through the most valuable resource of all: social capital.

For the first time this year, we are launching our Mentorship Program for our Launch into VC (LIVC) fellows, where every fellow is paired with individuals currently in junior-to-medium roles in African-focused VC firms (analysts, associates, senior associates, junior managers, principals). Some mentors may not be working in VC funds, but are from Dream VC’s inaugural cohort, so regardless of the mentor that fellows get paired with they will be connected to someone working within the African investment ecosystem.

Our mission is to create safe spaces for fellows to bond and network with individuals either working in the VC space and/or who have participated in the past Dream VC program. These sessions are intended to provide an additional support system of knowledge and connection beyond the current community and resources within Dream VC.

A massive thank you to the amazing individuals who have joined on board as the first cohort of LIVC Mentors, and we are excited to introduce them to you!

Egla Ntumba (Investment Analyst at Newtown Partners) | Twitter | LinkedIn

Egla is an Investment Analyst at Newtown Partners, investing in early-stage businesses across logistics, supply chain, and health tech. She has experience in equity analysis, research, and corporate credit analysis. Egla is passionate about the entrepreneurial journey and creating a platform for disruptive female-led businesses. She recently completed her MBA at UCT’s GSB in which her dissertation looked at ways to provide small business owners with financial education to help them make better financial decisions. She is the chairperson of the Women in Business Committee and the Mental Health & Awareness Committee at the GSB. She also mentors various early career development and investor readiness programs.

Gift Agboro (Head of Community at DFS Lab) | Twitter | LinkedIn

Gift is Head of Community at DFS Lab where she connects angels & venture professionals to African startups building a modern digital economy. Previously, Gift worked with Ventures Platform & LoftyInc Capital Management. She was Deputy Director at the UK-Nigeria Tech Hub where she designed high-impact capacity-building programs for founders, angels & digital talents, & brokered partnerships between the UK & Nigerian tech ecosystems. Gift has a Bachelor’s Degree in Law from the University of Ibadan.

Osaruyi Enofe ( Investment Analyst at Oui Capital) | Twitter | LinkedIn

Osaruyi is an Investment Analyst at Oui Capital where he carries out sourcing, due diligence, and portfolio support. He has previous experience from MZZ Africa where he was a venture director providing growth scaling and preparation for fundraising support to African tech start-ups. He also has work experience at Coca-cola HBC where he was responsible for purchasing packaging materials and providing support to the buyers and senior buyers on the procurement team. As an undergraduate, he co-founded C-mobi, a mobile money tech start-up. Osaruyi is a 2021 Dream VC inaugural venture fellow and has a B.Sc in Computer Science from Wellspring University.

Joseph Benson-Aruna (Partner/Head of Entrepreneur Support at DFS Lab) | Twitter | LinkedIn

Joseph is a Partner at DFS Lab where he leads Entrepreneur Support, providing startup founders with guidance on product, operations, and fundraising. Before DFS Lab, Joseph was the co-founder of Y Combinator-backed neobank, Wallets Africa. Prior to that, he led Product and User Experience Design teams at McKinsey Digital, Carbon, TeamApt, Interswitch, and Jobberman.

Kenechi Eze (Investment Analyst at Microtraction) | Twitter | LinkedIn

Kenechi is an Investment Analyst with a passion for venture capital, business strategy, start-up growth, and technology financing and the opportunities they present for African advancement. She has prior early-stage investment experience having worked directly with startups on their fundraising journeys and at VC funds in different capacities, including Ingressive Capital and Microtraction.

Chidinma Okoli (Investment Analyst at Aruwa Capital Management) | LinkedIn | Twitter

Chidinma is an Investment Professional with over 4 years of experience working in Africa’s venture capital and private equity industry. She is passionate about financial literacy and how it can result in reduced poverty levels across Africa, hence she founded “Financially Literate Africa”, a digital financial education company that provides Africa’s youth with easy-to-understand content on personal finance and investing. She is a recipient of the 2019 Diana Award and Nigeria’s 25Under25 Prize (2019) in recognition of her work in the Finance sector. She is also an Associate Chartered Accountant with a Bachelor’s degree in Finance from the University of Lagos, and a Mini-MBA from the Lagos Business School Venture in Management Program.

Lionel Rey (Managing Partner of Ivoire Angels) | LinkedIn | Twitter

Profoundly “afro-optimist”, Lionel is passionate about supporting entrepreneurs scaling up into competitive and profitable businesses. He has a solid track record in providing tailored technical assistance to startups and MSMEs in areas such as business modeling, operations efficiency, and financial modeling. For the last six years, Lionel has been collaborating with multiple international partners on the continent to deliver investment-readiness programs that empower entrepreneurs and foster youth employment in Africa. He currently leads Ivoire Angels, a sector-agnostic BA network in Côte d’Ivoire, that focuses on investing in early-stage startups and growing SMEs. Prior to that, Lionel worked with PwC Advisory as a lead consultant supporting early-stage companies for institutional clients in francophone West Africa. He also has an extensive experience in the hedge fund industry in Canada at Dundee Capital Markets where he oversaw the valuation and reporting for a $100M+ AUM. Lionel is a Dream VC alumni and holds an Executive MBA from Manchester University.

Miriam Atuya (Senior Associate at AlphaMundi) | LinkedIn | Twitter

Miriam is a Senior Investment Associate at AlphaMundi, based in Nairobi, Kenya. She has over 5 years of experience supporting both the private and public sectors across several East and West African countries (in Anglophone & Francophone Africa) and delivered business, operational, transaction advisory, and investments in the Agriculture, Renewable Energy, Consumer goods, and Water & Sanitation sectors. Prior to joining AlphaMundi, she was an associate at Open Capital Advisors where she worked on projects in agriculture, water, sanitation & hygiene (WASH), and renewable energy in providing investor readiness support and strategic advice to entrepreneurs, governments, and regional bodies. Miriam has relevant work experience in Kenya, Ghana, Guinea Bissau, Ivory Coast, Mozambique, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, and the U.S. She holds a BSc in Economics and French Studies from Trinity College, Hartford, Connecticut.

Florent Nduwayezu (Senior Investment Analyst at Talanton) | LinkedIn

Florent has experience in financial advisory and management consulting supporting businesses, investment funds, and other strategic investment partners in the Sub-Saharan African region. Prior to joining Talanton, he was a Senior Analyst at Open Capital Advisors, a consulting firm based in Nairobi that drives growth, enables investments, and builds markets across Africa. He has a Bachelor of Business Science in Actuarial Science from Strathmore University in Kenya. He is passionate about faith-driven social impact ventures and is an advocate for sustainable or socially responsible investing. Having lived in different parts of Africa, Florent can fluently communicate in English, French, Swahili, and Kirundi. As a member of the Talanton Investment Team, Florent is instrumental in sourcing investment opportunities, conducting due diligence activities, and providing analytical support and consulting related to new investment prospects.

Lesego Tladinyane (Investment Associate at Newtown Partners) | LinkedIn | Twitter

Lesego is an investment associate at Newtown Partners. An actuary by training with a Bachelor of Business Science degree in Actuarial Science, Lesego spent a number of years as a senior interest rate derivatives and fixed income trader at Deutsche Bank and Nedbank. Following a fruitful career in global markets, Lesego pursued an MBA at the UCT Graduate School of Business to further sharpen his investment skills with a particular focus on business model innovation, strategy, and technology where his aptitude for alternative investments enabled him to lead several large-scale venture capital transactions.

Olumide Ashade (Analyst Intern at Lateral Frontiers) | LinkedIn | Twitter

Olumide is a past fellow of the Dream VC program. He is an NUTM & NHEF scholar, and a graduate of finance, and accounting. He is currently an Intern Analyst at Lateral Frontiers, a pan-African VC firm investing across his two sectors of interest — FinTech and Cleantech, and he’s also one of founders of FinWise, a financial literacy initiative he’s been running since 2020. Olumide is very passionate about using finance — especially investing — to transform the fortunes and future of the African continent, one startup at a time and he is always on-hand to provide support, whenever needed.

Jordy Kiange Beni (Associate at Octerra Capital) | LinkedIn

Born and raised in France, Jordy decided to dedicate his career to helping African & Afro-descendant entrepreneurs change the narrative around innovation and development in the continent. Holding a Corporate Finance degree from a French Business School, Jordy has been working in the Emerging Market team of a prestigious Corporate Venture Fund for several years before relocating to Lagos, Nigeria. He is currently working at Octerra Capital — an early-stage Venture Capital fund — as a Senior Investment Associate. In this ambitious team, Jordy is actively identifying and empowering the founders that are willing to solve African problems. Open-minded and easy to reach, Jordy likes to travel, read books, visit art galleries, go to the gym, and play Football Manager. He looks forward to connecting and exchanging with the next African game-changers.

Jill Curr (Associate at Newtown Partners) | LinkedIn

Jill is an associate at Newtown Partners with 5+ years of experience in investments, focuses on health tech and last-mile aggregation investments, with a background on the sell-side as an equity trader. She moved towards unlisted investments, working at a hedge fund and private equity firm, which ignited her passion for investing differently.

Kamohelo Motaung (Investment Associate at Launch Africa) | Twitter | LinkedIn

Kamohelo (“Kamo”) is a corporate financier at Valeo Capital. Prior to joining the Valeo Capital team, Kamo gained experience as a Venture Capital, Private Equity and Impact investing professional having worked for Hlayisani Capital (Growth Equity Fund, ~R350M AUM), Launch Africa Ventures (Seed VC Fund, ~R550M AUM) and WIBC (Developmental fund ~R100M AUM). Prior to his investment career, he founded a patented consumer electronic business incubated at the Innovation hub.

Ayobami Olajide (Associate at Ingressive Capital) | Twitter | LinkedIn

Ayobami (‘Bami’)is a venture capital professional focused on catalyzing innovation in emerging markets with capital and support. He is an Associate at Ingressive Capital serving African founders and the ecosystem with its $10M maiden fund and current $50M fund II. He has led early-stage investments into promising African startups in Agritech, Insurtech, Fintech, among others. As a Brand-first operator, he contributes to raising the brand quality of startups in the African tech ecosystem with strategy & storytelling. Aside from his periodic essays, his broader ecosystem interaction includes serving as a Mentor at MarkHack 1.0 — Nigeria’s First Marketing & Media Hackathon, and pro-bono consulting in investment readiness, investor relations, and brand strategy for startups.

Blessing Iyamadiken (Head of Platform at Ajim Capital) | LinkedIn | Twitter

Blessing is the Head of Platform of Ajim Capital, an early-stage VC fund backing world-class African tech entrepreneurs solving some of the most challenging problems on the continent. She is also a media and marketing specialist with 5 years of experience in the industry of digital marketing, publishing, and advertising. She is passionate about Venture Capital, Product Marketing, Growth Hacking, and SEO. Blessing is an inaugural Dream VC venture fellow, and in 2017, she also founded Urban Woman Magazine https://urbanwomanmag.com, a feminist magazine aimed at discussing topical issues affecting women.

Olasunkanmi Olabamiji (Investment Professional at V8 Capital Partners) | LinkedIn | Twitter

Olasunkanmi is an Investment Professional at V8 Capital Partners. He is an experienced professional having evaluated and raised capital for a number of companies across multiple sectors in Nigeria. He has also worked at PwC in the Corporate Finance Division, and at ECOWAS Bank for Development and Investment (EBID-BIDC) as a Private Sector Financial Analyst. Olasunkanmi is also an SEO Alumus, a program that selects the most talented and motivated university students in Africa to receive world-class training. He graduated with Honours from the University of Lagos, Nigeria studying Industrial Mathematics with a minor in Computer Science.

Olivia Gao (Associate at Verod-Kepple Africa Ventures) | LinkedIn | Twitter

Olivia is currently an Associate at Verod Kepple Africa Ventures (VKAV). She is enthusiastic about the future of tech and innovation ecosystem in emerging markets — in particular across the African continent. Prior to VKAV, Olivia spent one year and a half in Rwanda where she worked for SouthBridge Investments, the asset management arm of the pan-African investment bank SouthBridge Group. Previously, she worked for Future Hub Africa which was focusing on early-stage venture investment in Africa. She holds a Master’s degree in International Economics from Johns Hopkins SAIS, and received her Bachelor's degree from Fudan University.

Eugene Mutiso (Investment Analyst at Enza Capital)| LinkedIn | Twitter

Eugene is an early-stage investor with an operational background across tech and talent applying a multidisciplinary lens to identify and back teams solving large and meaningful problems. Prior to his current role at Enza Capital, he worked for various African-focused ecosystem players such as Pariti, MZZ Africa, and Brave Venture Labs. He was part of Included VC’s 2021 cohort as one of their first African fellows.

Emmanuel Senzighe (Former Head of Community & Acceleration Program at Sahara Ventures) | LinkedIn | Twitter

Passionate about accelerating human development, Emmanuel has over six years of experience working in the Africa Technology Innovation Ecosystem and a proven ability working with companies and International organizations exploring the role of technology, innovation, entrepreneurship, and local knowledge in creating paths to sustainable development. He has extensive experience working with startups in Africa and uses technology to help address the challenges and opens up opportunities for the continent.

Saeed Seghosime (Senior Analyst at EchoVC) | LinkedIn | Twitter

Saeed is a Senior Analyst, Investments and Portfolio Operations at EchoVC Partners. Prior to joining EchoVC, Saeed worked at Sahel Capital as an analyst in their investment fund. Before Sahel, Saeed worked on the investment team at Verod Capital, a West Africa-focused private equity fund manager. At Verod Capital, he worked on emerging market transactions across various sectors including Education, Pharmaceuticals, FMCGs, and alternative energy. Saeed holds a bachelor’s degree in chemistry and chemical engineering from the University of Huddersfield.