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Telecoms and Fintech Executive with 12+ years of international experience, including 8 years in C-level roles leading growth, innovation, and transformation.

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As CEO of Orange Money Mali, Aicha led it to become Orange Group’s largest and top-performing financial institution. Previously, as the inaugural Chief Strategy and Innovation Officer at Orange Mali, she built and scaled a newly created department into a key decision-making hub.

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Named Female Innovator of the Year at AfricaCom 2020, she excels in leading through disruption, building high-performing teams, and driving customer-centric innovation.

Collins is a versatile and experienced professional with a passion for entrepreneurship and innovation. He has a diverse background, having worked with organisations such as Ventures Platform Foundation, Sail, Greativation Limited, and Dataville Research LLC. 

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Currently, Collins serves as an Analyst at Ventures Platform Fund, where he builds the company's Portfolio Support platform to provide support to its portfolio companies at scale. He also supports the investment team in finding and funding mission-driven founders building exceptional solutions to some of Africa's biggest problems.

Alongside his role at Ventures Platform Fund, Collins is the co-founder of Sail, where he leads a team of value creators to innovate and create pragmatic solutions that enable entrepreneurs to create wealth and serve their customers excellently. 

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Collins holds a certification in Entrepreneurship in Emerging Economies from HarvardX and a B.Tech in Physiology from Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, Oyo state.

Damilola Teidi is an ecosystem builder with 10+ years experience in the technology space in Africa, with most of that time spent supporting and facilitating access to capital for high-growth technology startups across different stages of growth.

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Damilola is currently the Head of  Platform and Networks at Ventures Platform, where she leads a team focused on building and ensuring the effective delivery of expertise-driven post-investment support initiatives that create value for the fund’s portfolio companies.

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Damilola’s career thus far has involved building strong pan-African startup programmes and initiatives, directly providing support to startups to build and scale solutions, as well as engaging with various key stakeholders to create an enabling ecosystem for African startups to thrive.

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She has led the implementation of over 22 startup initiatives that have supported over 150 technology startups. Some of the initiatives in her portfolio include: Google's Black Founders Fund for Africa, The $1.5M AYuTe programme by Heifer International, The Facebook (Deeptech) Accelerator, Africa4Future Programme III by Airbus and GIZ, PitchDrive Asia by CcHUB in partnership with Google for Startups, The Women in Business programme and more.

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She has also managed strategic engagements with leading local and international organisations like Google, the African Development Bank, Meta, Mastercard Foundation, Airbus, and GIZ. 

In 2022, she was named one of the 100 most inspiring women in Nigeria by Leading Ladies Africa and was a featured author in the 2022 Global Startup Ecosystem Report by Startup Genome and Global Entrepreneurship Network. She also sits on the advisory board of Wealth8 - a fintech company.

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She holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Information Technology and a Masters Degree in Strategy and Innovation Management from the University of Southampton, United Kingdom.

Desigan Chinniah, aka Dees or cyberdees, is a creative technologist. Dees has a portfolio of advisory roles and board positions. He invests early into diverse and underestimated minority founders.Dees has had two decades of dot-com check-ins*. His superpower is his global relationship network and the ability to embrace chaos and context switch in sub-50ms.

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Advisor: Cloaked + Interledger Foundation + TigerBeetle + Zama

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Investor: 29acacia + Affinity Bank + AltSchool Africa + Anterior + Aster + Astron + Axiom + Bea + Biostream + Block Party + Bloomful + Bloom Money + Boldr + Borderless + CDcare + Chimoney + Clear + Code First Girls + CoGrammar + Coreloops + Curacel + Dado + Diagon + E.A.K + Earnipay + Eraser + Fertility Mapper + Foragers + Gradual + HANX + Howbout + HTCH + Ikigai Data + Imagine Health + Intron + Jove + Kimeze + Klarytee + Koniku + LightHearted + Light Phone + Loka + Manara + MOSA + Mykor + Noggin + Novek + Odin + Organise + Panakeia + Payflows + Replay + Run Yourself + Shellworks + Sojo + Sourcerie + Talus Robotic + The Renatural + Twig + Unravel + Untangle + Venco + Wype + Yuty  

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Acquisitions: Eat Blueprint (Bryan Johnson) + Opensauced (Linux Foundation) + Snips (Sonos) + The Bot Platform (Flip)

Dolapo is an Investor at Ventures Platform. She is responsible for driving the investment process end-to-end including functions such as Deal Sourcing, Due Diligence, Transaction Structuring, and Portfolio Management. She currently serves on the board of Termii and as a board observer for SunFi. She is also a Mentor at Google for Startups.

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She spent 5+ years as a Strategy Consultant for Accenture and Bain working on transformational projects across multiple countries in the Middle East and Africa (e.g. Nigeria, Ghana, South Africa, Seychelles, Saudi Arabia, UAE) where she supported multiple government ministries and the largest multinational corporations across Energy, Finance, Agriculture, Consumer goods, Telecommunications and Mining. 

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Dolapo is an accomplished professional with a track record of delivering results and driving growth in various roles. She gained a First Class Degree in Information Management for Business from University College, London.

Dotun is the General Partner at Ventures Platform, with extensive experience in entrepreneurship, investing, and C-level operations. His skill set includes venture investing, portfolio support, board management, startup fundraising, product development, innovation consulting, community building, local and remote team leadership, P&L oversight, and multichannel growth marketing for both startup and established organizations.

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Before joining Ventures Platform, Dotun served as Principal at Novastar Ventures Platform and Chief Commercial Officer at Moniepoint. In these roles, he provided leadership in fundraising, investor relations, strategic investment, and acquisition. Dotun has over 20 years of experience across various sectors, and as a Board Observer for Moniepoint, he worked with the company from 2021-2022 to establish its services as a leading financial technology provider for SMEs and consumers. He was also an Investor and Board Observer at Turaco from 2020-2021.

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Dotun is also a highly regarded Executive Producer and Host of the “Building the Future” Podcast. The podcast features conversations with entrepreneurs, innovators, investors, and thought leaders who are shaping the African future. In addition, he is an astute researcher with several works, including air quality and climate change in Bristol, England. He received the 2014 South West England Breakthrough Business Prize and was identified as one of the 42 under 42 most influential business people in the region. Dotun holds a PhD in environmental management from the University of the West of England and has worked as a consultant with many international institutions, including The World Bank Group as Mentor, XL Africa.

Elo is the Founder and CEO at Terragon Group, the leading DATA and Marketing Cloud company in Africa, which helps Brands intelligently deliver more meaningful experiences to African consumers on mobile.

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For over 13 years he has steered the company through its evolution from a digital agency to Africa’s foremost SaaS (Software as a Service) company; with development of proprietary, patented technology solutions, successful acquisition of a software company in Bangalore in 2018 and strategic partnerships with global technology and indigenous companies including Meta, Microsoft, MTN, Nigerian Breweries etc.

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In a career spanning over 20 years, he has worked in mobile and digital technology companies across East and West Africa in Executive capacities. He was part of the founding team that grew MTech Communications, a premiere mobile technology start-up, and took it public in Nigeria. He has also consulted for various organizations in the telecommunications and banking sectors, including the World Bank and the International Finance Corporation (IFC) on the development of rural telephony initiatives and mobile payments in Africa.

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He has contributed and offered his contributions to thought leadership articles and features on marketing technology in Africa on platforms such as Nextbillion.com, Harvard Business Review, Forbes, CNBC to mention a few. He currently serves as the Chapter Chairperson on YPO – the world’s largest leadership community of CEOs with more than 30,000 members from 142 countries.

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Elo holds a global executive MBA from IESE business school and a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from Lagos State University. In 2017, he was recognised by IESE in their list of top entrepreneurs under 40 (IESE 40under40). In 2019, he was named the Business-to-business (B2B) SME CEO of the year by Business Day. He holds founding and leadership positions with the Mobile Marketing Association (MMA), Nigeria, and the Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB) West Africa.

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Ezinne is an experienced Executive Assistant and manages Investor Relations at Ventures Platform Fund. With over seven years of experience at the company, she has demonstrated excellent skills in schedule management, event coordination, and investor experience.

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Prior to joining Ventures Platform Fund, Ezinne worked as a program associate at the TY Danjuma Foundation, where she gained experience in Project Management and Coordination, managing several projects across Nigeria. She also worked as a Human Resource Manager at the Corporate Affairs Commission. Overall, she has developed strong communication, organisation, and project management skills, which have enabled her to excel in her roles at Ventures Platform Fund.

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Ezinne is a certified Project management professional with Jeman Consulting and a specialized Time management professional with the International Business Management Institute (IBMI). She holds an MSc in Psychology from the University of Sunderland.

With over a decade of experience across fintech, global health, and social impact, Barry is a seasoned operator and strategist who brings rare depth and regional expertise to the firm. Her role will see her centrally placed in identifying and supporting transformative early-stage startups, particularly those building a low-carbon, inclusive, and prosperous future for the continent.

Prior to joining Ventures Platform, Barry led business development in Francophone Africa for Taptap Send, one of the largest cross-border payment companies operating across Africa, Asia and Latin America. Through her leadership, the business achieved significant profitability through strategic partnerships. She also held pivotal roles at Zipline, where she negotiated national-level partnerships to expand access to essential health commodities. 

Barry holds an MBA from UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business and a BSFS in International Economics from Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service. Based between Dakar and Abidjan, she brings not only market fluency but also a deep personal commitment to empowering visionary founders across the region.

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Ifeoma is an experienced Fund Operations Analyst, Growth Strategist, and Audit Analyst. She is currently working as a Fund Operations Analyst for Ventures Platform Fund, where she provides insight into fund operations procedures for prospective clients due diligence processes and retrieves and maintains records of portfolio statistics and other investment operations reporting for internal and external stakeholders. 

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Ifeoma has also served as a Director of Growth and Strategy at Quayo Ecosense Limited, where she is responsible for defining the company's growth strategy, coordinating and executing growth plans, and optimizing the funnel to meet revenue targets. 

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Additionally, Ifeoma has worked as a Senior Associate in Internal Audit and Corporate Compliance at Ventoven Limited, where she led planned audits of various departments and organizations within the group, organized and presented meaningfully detailed reports to communicate the results of various audits to company management, supplemented with recommendations for changes in policy, and reviewed the internal controls policies and procedures for effectiveness.

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Ifeoma holds a certification from the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA). She’s a member of the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners and holds a BSc in Economics from the University of Benin.

Innocent Isichei is an accomplished policy professional with extensive experience working with stakeholders in both the public and private sectors across Africa. He currently serves as a Director at ACIOE Associates, where he assists clients in entering new markets in Africa. His role involves shaping policy discourse on critical issues, such as fostering the growth of the payment ecosystem in key African markets. Additionally, Innocent supports the regulatory and government engagement efforts of clients, enhancing their understanding of the policy environment in countries like Nigeria, Ghana, South Africa and Kenya.

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Innocent is also a Senior Policy Adviser to Paystack Payments and a Partner at Ventures Platform, one of Africa’s leading venture capital firms. He previously served as the Director of Policy for Paystack Payments, where he played a pivotal role in shaping the company’s strategic direction and regulatory compliance.

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Before his current roles, Innocent was an Assistant Director at the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). During his tenure at the CBN, he contributed to initiatives aimed at improving financial access for unbanked Nigerians. Notably, he helped develop the National Collateral Registry, which allows SMEs to leverage movable assets for credit access, and the establishment of Payment Service Banks, enabling Mobile Network Operators to offer limited banking services.

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Prior to his work at the CBN, Innocent was the Head of Governmental Policy (West Africa) for IBM. In this capacity, he strengthened IBM’s public sector engagement across key West African markets.

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Innocent holds a Master’s degree in Public Policy from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government and a Bachelor’s degree in Economics and Political Science from the University of Michigan – Ann Arbor.

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Innocent’s extensive experience and strategic insight make him a valuable asset in navigating and influencing the policy landscape in Africa’s dynamic markets.

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Kola is an established investor, insightful non-Executive director, and company chair who is passionate about seeing start-ups grow and improving the lives of ordinary Africans by democratising prosperity. 

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He brings demonstrable success from leading investment in over 70 companies in Africa, India, and the US, including payments companies such as Paystack. He has established networks across the private sector, development partners, financiers, governments, and regulators. 

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He is an entrepreneur, technology operator, and venture capital investor with vast experience working in Africa’s most significant economic market. He brings expertise across several sectors, including venture capital, technology, media, agriculture, infrastructure, publishing, and real estate, and a significant interest in the arts.

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He is currently general partner at the largest early-stage technology startup fund in Africa - Ventures Platform.

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Kola is a passionate art patron, chairs the advisory board of the Yemisi Shyllon Art Museum, and is a member of the Africa Acquisitions Committee(AAC) of the Tate Museum. He is also a member of the Young Presidents’ Organisation(YPO) and a fellow of the Aspen Institute USA (ALIWA). 

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Kola enjoys mentoring the next generation of entrepreneurs, loves collaboration and is passionate about driving innovation and supporting new business models.

Moyosoreoluwa is a highly skilled Executive Assistant, Virtual Assistant, and Administrative Manager with over six years of experience providing comprehensive support to executives and managing client-focused office operations.

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She is goal-oriented, results-driven, and recognized for her exceptional ability to streamline administrative processes, optimize productivity, and ensure seamless executive support.Currently serving as an Executive Assistant and Administrative Manager at Ventures Platform Fund, Moyosoreoluwa expertly manages executive schedules, event coordination, and high-level administrative functions. She is highly regarded for her adaptability and efficiency in handling dual responsibilities, ensuring smooth day-to-day operations.

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Prior to joining Ventures Platform Fund, she held the Head of the Administrative Department at Rydal Mews Limited, overseeing both internal and external administrative services,  as Human Resource Assistant Manager & Executive Assistant at Attarhi Nigeria Limited, where she played a pivotal role in HR and executive support functions.

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With a proven track record in managing internal and external communications, Moyosoreoluwa excels at aligning business goals with strategic administrative expertise. She is adept at handling high-pressure environments and ensuring operational efficiency.In addition to her extensive experience, she is a certified Virtual Assistant and AI-Augmented Professional, leveraging AI-driven solutions to enhance productivity and optimize workflows for top executives.

Odunayo is an experienced accountant with over 7 years of professional experience in finance and accounting. She holds a BSc degree in Accounting from Wesley University in Ondo and is a chartered accountant with the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN).  

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Odunayo has a strong background in Budgeting, Financial planning and management, Financial reporting, Financial Analysis, and Accounting. She is detail-oriented, highly organized, and has excellent communication and analytical skills.

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Her prior experience includes working as a Head of Finance and Finance Associate for various organisations, including Ventoven Limited, Ventures Park, Ventures Platform Fund, and ACE Solicitors. 

Oluwaseyi Tomosori is a corporate communications professional with 7 years of experience in driving reputation management and other strategic communication priorities  for global brands and organizations. 

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She is currently a Communications Associate within the Platform and Networks practice at Ventures Platform, where she leads the firm’s strategic communications efforts while also fostering a thriving community amongst its portfolio companies.

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Prior to joining the firm, Oluwaseyi worked within the Publicis Groupe network, driving reputation management for key accounts such as Qatar Airways, Kimberly-Clark, Procter & Gamble, ALX, Danone, Confederation Africaine de Football (CAF), Novo-Nordisk, Itana, Amazon Prime Video, among others.

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She also consulted for Nigeria's most popular digital news website (Legit.ng), to manage reputation and drive stakeholders’ love for the brand. In doing so, she conceptualized a media literacy project that won the WAN-IFRA award for 'Best Trust Initiative' in 2023, on a global recognition stage in Taiwan. 

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Oluwaseyi has consulted for franchisees launching popular sport brands in Nigeria, including PUMA, Lacoste, Dr Teal's, Adopt Perfumes, among others in Nigeria. Additionally, she collaborated with AON Reinsurance over the course of three years (2020-2023) to drive the company's social impact initiative in partnership with Lloyd's and global partners, introducing a global diversity and inclusion festival hosted across +30 countries, to Nigeria, and earning the initiative a SABRE Award in 2021/2022. 

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Sola is an investment analyst with extensive experience in fixed-income research, financial valuation, competitor research, investment deal execution, accounting, and auditing. She has worked at different companies, including FCSL Asset Management, MBO Capital Management Limited, Aircom Nigeria Limited, and Adcem Healthcare Ltd.

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Currently at Ventures Platform Fund, Sola is responsible for sourcing, evaluating, and executing deals. She conducts research on various investment, reviews and analyzes industry, company, and third-party research for the Active portfolio, and prepares presentations to the Investment Committee at VP Fund.

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While working at MBO Capital Management, Sola conducted in-depth competitor research for a buy-side deal, assisted in the financial valuation of the subsidiaries of a tier-1 bank, and participated in the selection of two companies from a startup pitch. At Aircom Nigeria Ltd, Sola reduced time spent reconciling revenue from various service lines and receipts in the bank statements, posted recurring invoices and payments on the accounting software, and prepared credit appraisal memos for staff loans.

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Sola also has experience in accounting and auditing with a certification from the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN). She holds a BSc in Accounting from Pan- Atlantic University, Lagos. 

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Sola is an investment analyst with a strong background in fixed-income research, financial valuation, competitor analysis, investment deal execution, accounting, and auditing. She has built an impressive track record through her tenure at organizations such as FCSL Asset Management, MBO Capital Management Limited, Aircom Nigeria Limited, and Adcem Healthcare Ltd.

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Presently, as a member of the Ventures Platform Fund team, Sola is responsible for sourcing, evaluating, and executing investment deals. She conducts comprehensive research on diverse investment opportunities, reviews and analyzes industry, company, and third-party research to inform investment decisions and support the active portfolio.

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During her tenure at MBO Capital Management, Sola contributed to the success of numerous projects. She undertook industry research for a buy-side deal, played a pivotal role in conducting financial valuations of subsidiaries affiliated with a prominent tier-1 bank, and actively participated in the selection process of two companies during a startup pitch. During her tenure at Aircom Nigeria Ltd, Sola streamlined revenue reconciliation processes, managed recurring invoices and payments using accounting software, and prepared credit appraisal memos for staff loans.

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Additionally, Sola possesses extensive expertise in accounting having earned a certification from the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN). She holds a BSc in Accounting from Pan-Atlantic University, Lagos.