Founders Factory Africa

Jacqui Maroun is a Product Manager at AURA focused on growth and demand. She has experience in product strategy, innovation, user experience, and customer research, with a background that includes co-founding a software company that pivoted to become a major creative agency before its acquisition by WPP.

Roo Rogers is a Founding Partner at Utopia Capital Management, which invests across frontier and emerging markets including Africa, Southeast Asia, the Middle East, and Latin America. Since its launch, Utopia has raised over $200 million from institutional investors including the Mastercard Foundation, Standard Bank, and Johnson & Johnson, and has supported and invested in more than 150 startups across three regions. Rogers has spent the last decade working with early-stage entrepreneurs in emerging markets and aims to expand the firm's investment activities across all emerging markets over the next decade.

Boye Oshinaga is co-founder and CEO of Gradely, an edtech platform serving K-12 schools and educators in Africa to personalize learning. Previously, he co-founded Riby, a fintech company serving over 3 million Nigerians through cooperative-based financial management, and led the education division of a technology group that launched the country's first locally-accredited online degree programs, which enrolled over 5,000 students. His background spans team leadership, product development, corporate strategy, business development, and software sales and marketing, along with angel investing and founder mentoring.

Adam Morris is a Product Designer at Luno with over four years of experience supporting early-stage technology startups. He has received recognition in the creative industry and works across fintech and AI-related products in agile environments.

Adam Wakefield is a Content Manager at Gap Infrastructure Corporation with over 12 years of experience in media, venture capital, marketing, and infrastructure. He works on organizational communications and content strategy, drawing on background in journalism, systems analysis, and historical context to inform narrative development.

Alina Truhina is the Founding and Managing Partner of Utopia Capital Management, an integrated venture investment platform targeting early-stage technology companies across the Global South. She manages three operating entities: A-typical Ventures, which invests across the GCC, Levant, Türkiye, and Pakistan; The Radical Fund, a Southeast Asia-focused climate technology fund; and The Studio, an AI-native venture builder. With over 15 years of emerging markets experience, she has invested in more than 100 early-stage companies and raised over $100 million in institutional capital, and previously held a seven-year tenure at the World Bank Group.

Andile Masuku is Executive Editor at Future in the Humanities (FITH). A journalist and strategist with over twenty years of experience, he specializes in storytelling, content strategy, media campaigns, and community building across multiple continents. His work focuses on connecting entrepreneurs and organizational leaders with audiences and stakeholders through media-led network strategies and live events.

Andrew Obuoforibo is a Senior Product Manager at Bolt, where he leads growth and demand initiatives for Bolt Drive, the company's car-sharing vertical across Europe. With over 20 years of experience in product and software engineering, he has worked on problems spanning payments, agritech, logistics, fraud prevention, healthcare, and media. He is fluent in English, French, and Spanish.

Ayotunde Aladejana serves as Director of Government Engagement for West Africa at Mastercard, focusing on institutional partnerships and digital infrastructure in emerging markets. With over a decade of experience in venture capital, financial services, and global partnerships, he works on market expansion initiatives and public-private collaborations that connect corporations, investors, and governments. His expertise includes strategic partnership development, cross-border collaboration, and commercial growth strategies across emerging market ecosystems.

Fiona Mulligan is the founder of Fiona Mulligan Concierge, a company specializing in employee experience and culture development through office environments, team-building events, and travel experiences. Her work focuses on aligning strategic cultural initiatives with operational execution across organizations. She has experience working in entrepreneurial environments and African markets, with engagement spanning multiple organizational levels.

Lisa Kimondo is an Ecosystem & Operations Advisor at Musa Ventures with ten years of experience applying startup principles to development-focused initiatives across Africa. She previously led growth strategy at Moringa School, expanding its coding program tenfold in seven months and establishing partnerships with over 20 organizations, and directed the entrepreneurship portfolio at African Management Institute, where she launched programs in collaboration with Stanford Seed, MIT, and Equity Bank. Most recently, she founded and scaled 54 Collective's Entrepreneur Academy, launching a business incubator and accelerator that expanded to Kenya, Nigeria, and South Africa while supporting 3,000 entrepreneurs within its first year.

Lumi Mustapha is a strategic advisor and general counsel at Pareto Mosca Elite Advisory, where he develops analytical and legal infrastructure for African and frontier market transactions. He has created proprietary market-sizing and capital-structuring frameworks for general partners, development finance institutions, and sovereign entities, and provides legal architecture and transaction advisory services focused on fund governance and valuation of intellectual property and creative economy assets.

Mercy Daniels is an events and stakeholder engagement specialist based in Johannesburg with over five years of experience managing 30–40 events annually across Africa and internationally. Her work spans investor roadshows, technology conferences, ecosystem summits, and founder-investor platforms for organizations including TechCabal, Africa Tech Festival, and Google Cloud for Startups, as well as corporate partners such as Microsoft, Nestlé, and Google. She manages end-to-end event delivery including stakeholder relations, vendor management, technical production, and live content production, and is available for contract and fixed-term roles globally.

Paul Egan is Chief Technology Officer at MediShout with over 20 years of experience in early-stage startups as both founder and operator. He has worked in venture portfolio management and built technical and product teams across multiple geographies and functions including engineering, data, product, and design. Egan has led companies through scaling phases from initial formation through senior leadership expansion and serves as a mentor to startup founders.

Philani Mzila is an Investment Principal at Edge Growth focused on early-stage ventures in financial services, green economy, industrials, and underserved markets across South Africa. He has invested over $180 million in more than 30 companies across African countries, with experience in private equity and venture capital across agriculture, FMCG, property, technology, and financial services. Mzila holds a BCom in Investments and Corporate Finance from the University of the Witwatersrand and an MPhil in Development Finance from Stellenbosch Business School, and is a Chartered Development Finance Analyst.

Rugare Ncube is Chief Operating Officer at the Roger Federer Foundation, where he oversees operations and strategic initiatives. His background spans operations management, program management, strategy development, change management, and organizational development. He has expertise in monitoring and evaluation, knowledge management, and business optimization.

Ruhi Manek is a founder and venture builder with experience in venture capital and wellness technology. She currently serves as an Ideation Fellow at LSE Generate and focuses on digital infrastructure for Africa's wellness and fitness sector.

Sakhile Tembe is a Venture Scout at LvlUp Ventures with a decade of experience building strategic and creative infrastructure across African venture capital, fintech, digital humanities, fashion, and governance sectors. He works at the intersection of brand strategy, content direction, and ecosystem engagement, designing systems and narratives to move ideas toward market awareness and impact. His focus is on African market dynamics, building communications and engagement strategies informed by how capital, culture, and community operate on the continent.

Sam Sturm is an operating partner at Interplay's Studio with over 15 years of experience in venture building and investing. He has co-founded two venture funds and a venture studio, and backed more than 160 founders across Africa, Asia, Europe, and the United States. His work encompasses launching ventures, pre-seed investing, scaling organizations, and building go-to-market and partnerships functions.

Sona Mahendra is a Product Manager at The Benefit Counsellor. She focuses on tech and tech-enabled businesses in South Africa, with an interest in African early-stage startups and entrepreneurship ecosystems.

Steve Waidelich is the founder of Polarix and a growth and go-to-market specialist serving US-based technology companies. He previously built and led Lighthouse Digital, Africa's largest performance marketing agency, which was acquired by Publicis. His background includes early-stage marketing technology work in San Francisco and advisory roles focused on growth and product strategy.

Thando Sibanda is a lawyer with experience in corporate and finance law, including banking, acquisitions, and cross-border transactions. At Sanlam Investments, he serves as Legal Advisor for Alternative Investments, advising institutional clients on private equity fund formations, private credit, venture capital financing, and structured debt and equity investments across multiple jurisdictions. He holds an LLM in Tax Law.

Tshegofatso Mashabela serves as Deputy Secretary at Jozi Jeepers NPC, where he focuses on strategic operations and business management. His background includes experience in executive leadership support, finance, organizational operations, and process optimization, with particular expertise in cross-functional initiative management and workflow improvement.

Wangui Kahumbi is a member of WOMENCHOICE.ORG with expertise in strategic partnerships and customer relationship management. She has experience building stakeholder relationships across diverse industries and has contributed to customer portfolio expansion through relationship-building and market analysis.

Zinhle Phakathi is a Marketing Manager at Columbia Lake Partners who specializes in community engagement strategies connecting founders and investors. Her experience includes designing partnership initiatives, managing marketing and communications, curating events, and supporting startup acceleration programs across African ecosystems. She has worked with founders and investors to develop networking opportunities, branding initiatives, and storytelling platforms for ventures.