New Partner of QED Investors for Investments in Africa
In a pass hardly ever made via Western venture capitalists, QED Investors introduced today that it has employed an African accomplice, Gbenga Ajayi. He will take care of Africa investments as a part of QED’s worldwide team.
Last September, the fintech-targeted mission capital corporation introduced closing $1.05 billion for its oversubscribed 7th fund.
QED co-founder and coping with accomplice Nigel Morris stated that including Africa is the last jigsaw puzzle that makes QED Investors an international fintech-expert corporation.
Preparations for QED to get into Africa began a few 18 months in the past when the corporation started out seeing numerous inbounds and pitches from the region. This period — especially at some stage in 2021, in which five unicorns have minted — noticed an explosion in mission capital by no means earlier than as pro founders emerged with inclined neighborhood and worldwide VCs to lower back them.
With a lot of demand for capital on a continent with greater than 1 thousand million people however low monetary inclusivity, including Africa as QED’s subsequent frontier, changed into a no-brainer.
Before QED Investors, Ajayi labored in unique roles throughout Africa and international fintech/tech. He labored at Google as product partnerships lead in Europe and Africa along with coping with telecom enterprise partnerships and main components of the networking giant’s cell app commercial enterprise in sub-Saharan Africa.
“Being capable of being a part of the fintech and tech growth that we’ve got today & assisting big tech businesses which have now emerged as family names take off means that I’ve had the possibility and the privilege to take a seat down on the very forefront,” Ajayi stated.