TechCrunch Startup Battlefield Africa
October 11, 2017
Speakers
Chukwuemeka Afigbo
Ime Archibong
Solomon Assefa
VPIBM Research
Wale Ayeni
Regional Head Africa Venture CapitalInternational Finance Corporation
Shuonan Chen
General PartnerAgile Venture Capital
Yariv Cohen
Graeme Cumming
Group General Manager of Digital MediaDDM
Harry 'Tomi Davies
Co-Founder and PresidentAfrican Business Angel Network
Chijioke Dozie
Founder and Chief Executive OfficerPaylater
Michael Essien
Aaron Fu
Head of GrowthCatalyst Fund
Erik Hersman
FounderBRCK
Monique Idlett-Mosley
Managing PartnerReign Ventures
Wambui Kinya
Vice President, Partner EngineeringAndela
Isis Nyong’o Madison
Samuel Mensa
Founder and CEOKISUA
Andreata Muforo
PartnerTLcom Capital Partners
Uche Ofodile
Chief Executive OfficerMTN Group
Eghosa Omoigui
Founder & Managing General PartnerEchoVC Partners
Tayo Oviosu
Founder & CEOPaga
Sacha Poignonnec
co-Founder and co-CEO JumiaJumia Group
Juliana Rotich
DirectorBRCK
Chris Savides
Blinky Bill Sellanga
Leonard Stiegeler
Eric Thimba
CEO and Co-founderMOOKH
Alexia Tsotsis
Ime Archibong leads a business development/product partnerships team at Facebook. Ime has led several of the company’s major media related partnerships, including those in the music industry and online video space. Prior to joining Facebook, Ime was an Advanced Technology Business Development Professional at IBM where he focused on the licensing of IBM’s global portfolio of storage research technology. Ime started his career at IBM as a software engineer working in the Systems and Technology Group before transitioning to the IBM Corporate Strategy team, and eventually settling in business development. Ime holds a Bachelor’s of Science degree in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from Yale University and a MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business.
Dr. Solomon Assefa is the VP of IBM Research – Africa & Emerging Market Solutions. He is responsible for developing strategy for innovative and scalable industry research solutions for emerging markets in sectors such as financial services, healthcare, and public sector. He is also directing the worldwide effort at IBM Research focused on developing technologies, platforms, and partnerships for climate change mitigation and adaptation; under his leadership, researchers from the IBM’s global labs are innovating in areas such as accelerated material discovery, AI-driven climate modelling, carbon footprint optimization, and decision support for business and societal resiliency towards extreme climate events. Furthermore, he is responsible for IBM’s research labs in Kenya and South Africa, and heads IBM’s research strategy and partnership across MEA. IBM Research is pioneering disruptive technologies that will transform industries and society, including the future of AI, blockchain, and quantum computing. Specifically, IBM Research – Africa is developing technologies that address Africa’s grand challenges; promoting Africa’s leadership in science and technology; and fostering local innovation ecosystems. As a Research Scientist, Solomon has worked on IBM’s nanophotonics technology with responsibilities spanning research, development, and technology transfer. He has co-authored over 150 publications in peer-reviewed journals and conference proceedings, has over 50 patents, and has appeared as a guest speaker at numerous conferences worldwide. His work has been featured in Nature magazine, The Wall Street Journal, BBC News, Forbes, Technology Review, EE Times, and IEEE Spectrum, among many others. Solomon is a recipient of several awards including Corporate Recognition Award and Invention Achievement Awards from IBM. He was named one of the World’s Top Young Innovators under 35 and received the TR35 awarded by MIT’s Technology Review (2011). Solomon was honored by the World Economic Forum as a Young Global Leader in 2013. He is a Fellow of the Ethiopian Academy of Sciences, and an Honorary Professor at Wits in South Africa. He received a B.S. in Physics (2001), a B.S. in EECS (2001), a M.S. in EECS (2001) and a Ph.D. (2004) all from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
Wale Ayeni leads the IFC’s Venture Capital practice focused on Africa, South of the Sahara – the International Finance Organization is part of the World Bank Group. The IFC’s Venture capital team invests in technology companies in frontier markets, and has deployed over ~$800MM in early/growth stage tech investments over the past decade. IFC’s early/growth stage tech portfolio in Africa includes Andela(Edtech); Africa’s talking(APIs), Fawry (Fintech), Interswitch(Fintech), Mobisol(Cleantech), TwigaFoods(mCommerce), Zoona(Fintech), etc. Wale has a global technology experience spanning several roles including Venture Capital, Investment Banking, Corporate Development, and Microprocessor & ASIC chip design. Prior to the IFC, Wale led venture capital early-stage investments in disruptive start-ups across various technology sectors for Orange in Silicon Valley with representative investments in the US including PayJoy(FinTech), Veniam(Mesh Networks), Chain (Blockchain, acquired), WEVR (Virtual Reality). Wale started his finance career with J.P. Morgan’s Technology Investment Banking group in San Francisco where he successfully executed over $12 Billion worth of closed transactions spanning mergers & acquisitions to IPOs for large-cap technology clients including Facebook, Electronic Arts, Activision Blizzard, Intel Corp., AMD, Shutterfly, etc. Wale started his career as an Engineer, and in his previous technology career Wale was a microprocessor design Engineer with Intel Corp. where he led critical aspects of Intel’s “CSI” chip architecture – the biggest micro-architecture change in Intel’s history. He also led aspects of the very first “Snapdragon” chipsets working at Qualcomm Inc.’s chip design center enabling the initial smartphone designs. Wale has an MBA from Tuck, Dartmouth College, and his Bachelor’s degree with distinguished “Red diploma” from Moscow University. He is a Kauffman Venture Capital Fellow and a recipient of the top global 100 Rising Stars award in Corporate Venture.
Shuonan Chen, Founding Partner of IOVC & Agile VC, CEO of Shinect (Silicon Valley-based community of 3,500+ engineers interested in entrepreneurship), and Board Member of North America Blockchain Association. At IO and Agile, Shuo has invested in and helped various startups globalize and expand into new markets. She is the Advisor and Interim China GM for Rescale, a cloud simulation platform with high performance computing (backed by Peter Thiel, Paul Graham and Jeff Bezos) serving Boeing and Formula 1. Prior, Shuo worked at Goldman Sachs in investment banking, where she was involved in deals including Alibaba’s $21.8 billion IPO, the largest IPO in US history. There, she also helped run the convertibles business and represented the firm on the Board of Women in Finance. Before that, Shuo has been at PwC, where she worked on Google’s $12.5 billion acquisition of Motorola and LinkedIn’s $119 million acquisition of SlideShare. She also ran Cashify, a social enterprise for financial literacy. Shuo graduated cum laude from UC Berkeley with a triple major (and 2 minors) in 3 years, where she currently teaches and has been a Board Member for the alumni organization. She also completed a JD with the Chinese University of Hong Kong, where her work on financial regulation will be soon published by Cambridge University Press.
Yariv Cohen is an impact investor and executive, focusing on value-added businesses and technologies targeted at the developing world. Previously, Cohen served for more than 18 years as president, chairman, CEO and chief technology officer in high-growth companies, both public and private, operating in more than 20 countries. His experience spans a wide range of cross-border activities, which include investor, project developer, entrepreneur, TV commentator, mathematician and lecturer. Cohen holds an M.B.A. with high distinction and a master in research on negotiations, both from the London School of Business. He has multiple publications and registered patents.
Graeme is the Head of DStv Digital Media, the division within MultiChoice that is tasked with building the over-the-top delivery platform and product set. With more than 17 years experience in the digital media space, Graeme has been involved with the development and management of some of Africa’s biggest and most successful entertainment, sport and e-commerce digital platforms. Until recently, he headed up the Video-On-Demand portfolio of the business, responsible for rolling out the group’s Catch Up VOD service, the BoxOffice transactional VOD product as well as DStv Now, the TV Everywhere application that allows subscribers across the continent to watch their favourite shows and channels on-the-go. Graeme holds a B.Comm Honours Degree (Information Systems) from Wits University and is a passionate mountain biker, having competed in endurance events on 3 continents and is always on the lookout for new trails.
Harry Tomi Davies (TD) is a versatile technology business leader, keynote speaker and advisor with over two decades of outstanding experience building large-scale, national and regionwide IT infrastructure projects across Africa. He has held a variety of executive and non-executive leadership roles with influential global brands like Ernst & Young, Marks & Spencer, Elf, Sapient and the One Laptop Per Child project. Over the last decade TD has looked after a growing portfolio of Africabased tech-enabled early stage businesses and is the Founder of the Lagos Angel Network (LAN). He is also President of the African Business Angel Network (ABAN). He is a seasoned technology strategist and project development expert with significant market intelligence, research and project management skills. Author and regular keynote speaker with a substantial network of connections globally including on most major social media platforms. He is an inspiring thought leader TD is a volunteer to a number of non-profit organizations and Guest lecturer at the Pan Atlantic University’s Enterprise Development Centre. His rich and varied experience has been leveraged by organisations for advisory services, speaking engagements and nonexecutive board roles at companies like MBO Capital Limited (Private Equity), TextNigeria Limited (Telecoms) and Sproxil Nigeria (Anti-Counterfeit Technologies)
Chijioke Dozie is a co-Founder and CEO of OneFi, a digital financial lender and Paylater. He was previously an Investment Analyst at the International Finance Corporation (IFC) responsible for sourcing investment opportunities in Sub-Saharan Africa. Prior to IFC, Chijioke worked with Zephyr Management LP in the US and South Africa as an Investment Associate sourcing private equity opportunities in Africa and working closely with Zephyr’s portfolio companies. Chijioke holds an MBA from the Harvard Business School and an MSc in Risk Management from the University of Reading. He also graduated with a BA Economics from University of East Anglia
Michael Essien is a product of Los Angeles Unified School District. He left home to attend UC Berkeley. At UC Berkeley, he played college football while completing his undergraduate degree in African American Studies. After graduation, Michael worked as a mentor in the High Achievement Wisdom & Knowledge (H.A.W.K.) Program focused on African American youth in the City of Oakland. Mentoring youth caused him to choose education as a career. Michael began teaching at McClymonds High School in Oakland Public Schools. He taught Algebra 2/Trigonometry, Geometry and Special Education for 22 years. Michael became a UC Berkeley Mathematics Engineering Science Achievement (M.E.S.A.) instructor while simultaneously teaching in Oakland. M.E.S.A. focused on increasing the number of African American and Latino students eligible to attend the University of California system. Michael felt the classroom limited his ability to impact change for African American and Latino students and decided to return to school and become an administrator. He received his masters degree from UC Berkeley’s Principal Leadership Institute with a focus on urban education. Michael became an administrator at MLK Middle School in San Francisco Unified School District four years ago. He has worked to address inequities in the system and end the predictability of negative student outcomes for African American and Latino students.
Aaron has 10+ years of global experience building, scaling and investing in technology products in corporate and startup environments. He has co-founded both B2B & B2C businesses, in Africa – he has led seed stage equity investments in 20+ startups (totaling $2m+), driven the exit of 3 startups in Africa, he also sits on the board of of startups ranging from AgriTech to Transport and has worked with 100s through partners like Visa, MTN, Airbus, Société Générale and the World Bank. Prior to the Catalyst Fund, he was the Managing Director of MEST, Africa’s Largest Pre-Seed Incubator, and Managing Partner for Africa at Nest.vc, a Hong Kong based fund, which he joined after a career in financial services.
Erik Hersman is the CEO of BRCK, which creates rugged wireless WiFi devices designed and engineered in Kenya for use throughout the emerging markets. BRCK has a free public WiFi network called Moja that sits on top of the BRCK hardware that creates an affordable model for internet in emerging markets. In 2010 Erik founded the iHub, Nairobi’s innovation hub for the technology community, bringing together entrepreneurs, hackers, designers and the investment community. He is also a co-founder of Ushahidi, the free and open source software for crowdsourcing crisis information, and also established afrigadget.com and whiteafrican.com as key online communities promoting creative solutions entrepreneurship and development challenges across Africa. He is also a general partner in the Savannah Fund, and sits on the boards of Gearbox, Akirachix, the Kijabe Forest Trust, PopTech, and the Whitaker Peace and Development Initiative (WPDI).
Monique Idlett-Mosley is a globally recognized entertainment pioneer. Her power and influence stem from a unique blend of business acumen and innovative strategic vision. Monique brings over two decades of unprecedented success as a CEO. By adeptly traversing the spectrum from entertainment, marketing, press, and entrepreneurship, she has earned a reputation as an industry visionary. One of Gotham Magazine’s Powerful 100 names to know, her expansive reach into the hearts and minds of people across the world is transforming the way people interact with each other and iconic brands. In 2017, she founded Reign Venture Capital, an early stage investment firm that focuses on women and minority led startups. Reign invests at the Seed and Series A Stage in promising technology and tech-enabled startups with high-potential founders. The firm brings together a network of LPs who are leaders in business and entertainment to help accelerate the growth of their diverse portfolio through mentorship and unique access. Working with companies like the award winning technology innovator LISNR, and Appy Couple, Reign Venture Capital is changing the VC world. Since 2014, she has lent her industry expertise to FOX’s #1, record-breaking television show, Empire. Her As a music and fashion consultant, As an executive music producer and fashion consultant, Mrs. Idlett-Mosley brings her insider knowledge and keen fashion sense to the network. For over fourteen years, she served as the CEO of Mosley Brands and Mosley Music Group, home to a multiplatinum roster of artists, including iconic producer Timbaland, One Republic, Nelly Furtado, and Chris Cornell. Under her leadership, MMG artists were RIAA certified platinum 64 times and RIAA certified gold 22 times. Timbaland celebrated his most successful multi-platinum album to date, Timbaland Presents Shock Value, going platinum sixteen times in ten countries. Nelly Furtado’s Loose was certified platinum over 44 times in 17 countries. Most notably, she brokered groundbreaking deals with corporate powerhouses such as Pepsi, Verizon, MTV, Mini Cooper, Gucci, and Rockstar Games, amongst many others. Prior to 2004, Monique directed and developed sales, marketing and public relations strategies for personal clients such as Kanye West, Verizon, Burrell Communications, T.I. and Timbaland. Before becoming an entrepreneur, she served as a Senior Sales Executive with USA Today, developing nationwide strategic sales plans for Saab, Ford, Lincoln, Turner Networks, Home Depot, ING, Motorola and Minute Maid, to name a few. As the youngest executive at the time, she was the first account executive to broker a multimedia advertising campaign with The Coca Cola Company. In addition to her entrepreneurial pursuits, Mrs. Idlett-Mosley is well known for her philanthropic work. As the Founder and Executive Director of Always Believing Foundation, Monique finds innovative and empowering solutions to combat childhood obesity, promote healthy lifestyles and expression through education and communication. Since 2014, Monique has served as a National Trustee for The Boys & Girls Clubs of America. She became the first African-American woman to serve as a chairperson for the Southeast Youth of the Year gala. She is on the Board of Directors for The Miami Bridge, a south Florida based nonprofit organization that provides emergency shelter, food and counseling for at-risk youth and has previously served on the board of the Ryan Cameron Foundation. Her impact on youth is globally recognized through her role as a UN Foundation Representative, part of the first-ever mPowering Mobile movement, the United Nation’s largest youth initiative in history, leveraging youth voices to drive international policy decisions. A strong voice for change through social media, she was appointed as a surrogate in Gucci’s CHIME FOR CHANGE campaign. Alongside Beyonce and Salma Hayek, Monique works to positively impact the lives of women across the globe. With a focus on women’s empowerment, she shares her wisdom and experience, inspiring countless women to achieve their dreams through education and the power of perseverance.
Wambui Kinya is a vice president, Success at Andela, a company that recruits the most talented software engineers on the African continent and pairs them with global tech companies as full-time, distributed team members. Founded on the premise that brilliance is evenly distributed, Andela has built one of the most selective engineering institutions in the world, with headquarters in Lagos, Nairobi, Kampala, San Francisco and New York City. As Chief Strategy Officer, Wambui develops partnerships with top tech organizations across Africa and spearheads Andela’s efforts to recruit technical leadership. Wambui was formerly Group Managing Director, Pan Africa and South America, for global technology consulting firm ThoughtWorks. She has since transitioned to a consultative role building the open source and health service ecosystems in Africa, both areas of great personal passion. Currently based in Nairobi, Wambui has been in the professional services (digital, mobile marketing and technology consulting) industry for over eighteen years and has worked in North America, Europe and Africa for companies such as Praekelt Consulting, IBM Global Business Services and Digitas (Publicis Groupe).
Isis is an African business leader with deep operational experience scaling media and digital businesses across the continent for notable brands including Google, InMobi and MTV. She is a Founder and Principal for Asphalt & Ink, an Africa-focused strategic advisory firm. She is also the Founder of MumsVillage, a media platform designed to inform and enrich the lives of who are rapidly coming online in Africa. Isis is active in Africa’s tech entrepreneurship and women’s leadership spaces. She’s a mentor and angel investor in several start ups and an early member of the Kenya Chapter of Grace Machel Trust’s New Faces New Voices which is focused on growing women’s participation across sectors in Kenya. Isis is a graduate of Stanford University and Harvard Business School. She has been named a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum and one of Africa’s most Powerful Women by Forbes.
Sam Mensah is Founder and CEO of KISUA, a unique fashion brand that takes inspiration from traditional African techniques and materials, blending them with a contemporary design aesthetic and ethical production methods to create styles for the modern professional. The brand’s clients include award winning musician Beyoncé and the YOOX Net-a-Porter Group, the world’s leading online luxury fashion retailer. KISUA is the only African fashion brand with distribution centers on 3 continents- Africa, Europe and America, from where the company services a global client base through its international ecommerce platform. Sam has long been an advocate for the adoption of technology as a driver of economic growth and development in Africa. He has advised the African Union and several governments on digital inclusion and entrepreneurship policy. Prior to founding KISUA he worked in investment banking at Deutsche Bank, in technology at Intel setting up the Silicon Valley company’s Africa operations, and in venture capital as Africa Director for Intel Capital. Sam who is from Ghana but lives in Johannesburg holds an MA in Economics and Management from Oxford University, is an Arch Bishop Desmond Tutu African Leadership Fellow and a Board Member of the Tomorrow Trust, a charity that provides holistic financial support for the educational needs of over a thousand disadvantaged and vulnerable children and youth, the majority of whom are female.
Andreata Muforo is a Partner at TLcom TIDE Africa Fund and is based in Nairobi. She is engaged in local partnerships with tech entrepreneurs, accelerators and incubators for deal flow generation and mentoring. Andreata has extensive transaction structuring and corporate finance experience. She has worked on mergers and acquisitions (M&A) and capital raising mandates for projects across Africa and has a strong network among entrepreneurs and financiers in East Africa. Prior to joining TLcom, Andreata was a transaction Manager at Horizon Africa Capital Ltd, a boutique M&A firm, in Nairobi, Kenya. While at Horizon, she structured and advised on complex M&A, and capital raising transactions in the greater East African region. She covered a range of sectors including ICT, financial services, manufacturing, real estate, and fast moving consumer goods. Andreata also worked as an Investment Officer in the private sector department of the African Development Bank (AfDB) in Tunisia where she participated in the structuring of project finance transactions and evaluated the AfDB’s investments into private equity funds. Also while at the AfDB, Andreata worked directly with President Kaberuka and his Advisors to support them on issues of corporate and strategic significance to the Bank. Andreata holds an MBA from Stanford Graduate School of Business and graduated Phi Beta Kappa in Economics from Grinnell College in Iowa, USA.
Eghosa Omoigui is the founder and Managing General Partner of EchoVC Partners (a seed & early-stage technology venture capital firm bridging Silicon Valley & underserved emerging markets), EchoVC Pan-Africa Fund, a seed-stage tech VC fund focused on sub-Saharan Africa & EchoVC+, an early-growth-stage VC vehicle focused on emerging markets including Africa. Before this, Eghosa was with Intel for nearly 10 years and his last role was as Intel Capital Director, Consumer Internet & Semantic Technologies, where he acted as a senior investment professional focused on platform-agnostic consumer, web services and digital media-based investment opportunities in the US, EU & Asia. Omoigui also drove ICap’s stage-agnostic investment focus on next generation semantic technologies, smart data and the realtime web. Eghosa was personally responsible for (developing supporting theses for and) sourcing investment opportunities in various companies including AdMob, Jaiku, Powerset, Facebook, LinkedIn, Teracent, Qik and Pandora. Eghosa has advised SWIFT (the inter-bank consortium) on technology innovation for financial services (InnoTribe), is a member of the ASTIA Venture Advisory Board (an organization focused on mentoring and supporting women entrepreneurs), was a winner of the Moss-Adams/ASTIA Women Entrepreneur Mentor of the Year award, and is a Kauffman Fellowship and Pipeline Angel Fellowship Mentor. Representative investments include Lifebank, Migo, Frontier Car Group, SystemOne, Gro Intelligence and KBox.
Tayo is the Founder & Group CEO of Paga (www.paga.com), Nigeria’s leading mobile money service. Prior to Paga, Tayo was Vice-President at Travant Capital Partners, a private equity fund in West Africa. Prior to joining Travant, Tayo was a Manager, Corporate Development, at Cisco Systems in San Jose California. Tayo’s work at Paga has been recognized globally – in 2014 CNBC selected Tayo as the Entrepreneur of the Year West Africa, and in 2015 the African Leadership Network selected Paga as the outstanding growing company of the year in Africa. Tayo is also the co-founder of Kairos Angels, an angel investment club. Tayo earned his Bachelors of Science degree in Electrical Engineering, cum laude, from the University of Southern California, and also has a Masters in Business Administration from the Graduate School of Business, Stanford University.
Sacha Poignonnec is the Co-CEO of Jumia (formerly Africa Internet Group), Africa’s leading Internet platform, a group that operates online and mobile e-commerce retail, marketplaces, classifieds and services companies and facilitatory services such as booking agencies. Since starting in 2012, he has overseen with Jeremy Hodara the launch and expansion of ten companies in more than 30 countries across Africa. Previously, Sacha worked for McKinsey in Paris and New York, focusing on Consumer Goods and Retail. He started his career with Arthur Andersen, and then participated in the creation of Accuracy, a corporate finance boutique based in Paris. Sacha holds a master’s degree in business administration from EDHEC Business School, France, where he majored in Finance.
Juliana Rotich is a consultant, technologist, strategic advisor, entrepreneur, and keynote speaker. Juliana serves as an advisor to the councils of BASF, Risk Cooperative, Africa Technology Ventures (ATV) and the Lemelson Foundation. She is also a trustee of Bankinter Foundation for Entrepreneurship and Innovation in Spain, board member of Digital Impact Alliance and the Kenya Vision 2030 Delivery Board. Juliana enjoys forging powerful partnerships to accomplish transformational projects and provide opportunity for innovators in East Africa. Her personal mission is to make things, fix problems and help others. Wherever technology can help to do these three things and accelerate progress, she enjoys figuring out that intersection and adding constructive value. She is a champion for internet connectivity, science education, inspiration and works to support entrepreneurs to scale their work and impact. She is Co-founder of BRCK Inc, a hardware and services technology company based in Nairobi, Kenya. BRCK was formed to realize a vision for enabling communication in low infrastructure environments by developing useful, innovative, and exciting hardware-centered technologies in Kenya. She drives partnerships for tackling social problems through appropriate technology. Juliana co-founded Ushahidi Inc., a non-profit tech company, which specializes in developing free and open source software for changing how information flows in the world. She was Executive Director from Jan 2011 to September 2015, strategically spearheading Ushahidi to be translated into over 30 languages, over 90,000 deployments and a 20 million populations reach. She was instrumental in increasing business development revenue and philanthropic capital into Ushahidi and its related initiatives like iHub. Before Ushahidi, she worked in the telecommunications and data warehousing industry with over 10 years of experience.
Chris Savides is the head of the Showmax business in Africa. He’s part of the core team that first conceptualised and built Showmax, bringing extensive online payments and marketing experience from previous roles at DStv Digital Media, First National Bank (FNB) and Sun International. In his role at FNB, Chris was instrumental in bringing PayPal to South Africa and Kenya.
Blinky Bill (Bill Sellanga) is a Kenyan Musician/Producer and DJ and a founding member of the forward thinking Art and Music Collective Just A Band. He is an alumni of the US State funded music Program One Beat Music in 2013. He was also participant at Red Bull Music Academy Tokyo in 2014 and is a TED Fellow. He has played in numerous places around the world including 2017 Design Indaba in Cape Town, TEDGlobal Africa in 2017, SXSW in 2015 and 2012 , Summerstage In Central Park in NYC, Paleo Festival in Switzerland, Future Ports Of Entry Festival in 2016 in Germany and Made In Space in Copenhagen in 2017 amongst others. His music is a mix of futuristic African beats meets, Funk, hip hop, electronica and hint of jazz. He is currently in studio working on his first full length project ‘Everyone’s Just Winging It And Other Fly Tales’ which is slated for an early 2018 release, coming hot off the heels of his first EP that came out in 2016 and is available on all music portals
Leonard Stiegeler is the Founder of Pulse, the leading innovative media company in Africa. He is backing & investing in media-/art-/technology- & -enabled ventures/assets. Some of his interests include Business Insider Africa, Art News Africa and Digital News Africa. Prior, he was the General Manager of Swiss Ringier Africa AG since 2016 – responsible for buiding up the group’s business on the continent. Ringier is today active in 8 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa and through its ROAM-holding leads brands such as Jobberman, Cheki, Private Property, BuyRentKenya, Pigiame, ZoomTanzania, and many more. Prior to his work with Ringier since 2013, Leo helped to establish Rocket Internet and other German investors in Africa. Leo is originally from Germany and has been based in different African countries since 2011.
Eric Thimba is co-founder and CEO at MOOKH which is a social e-commerce platform that allows sellers to quickly and easily set up online stores with full payment integration. MOOKH currently allows sellers to set up online stores within 4 specific categories i.e. Products, Ticketing, Music and Donations (crowd funding). MOOKH launched in August 2015 in Nairobi, Kenya and over the last 2 years has had over 1,000 merchants use the platform to trade online. Eric is a seasoned marketer with over 15 years experience in the industry. He is a strong believer in design centered innovation.
Alexia Tsotsis is a big nerd who is working on something under the radar. Before this she was at business school and before that she was at TechCrunch.
