Startup Battlefield Africa 2018
December 11, 2018 — Lagos
Speakers
Kwame Acheampong
CEO Africa MallforAfrica
Titi Odunfa Adeoye
Managing Director & Founder Sankore Global Investments
Olugbenga Agboola
Co-Founder & Chief Executive Officer Flutterwave
Kola Aina
Partner Ventures Platform
Temi Marcella Awogboro
Co-founder Kairos Angels
Omolara Awoyemi
Managing Director SureGroup
Wale Ayeni
Regional Head Africa Venture Capital International Finance Corporation
Kofi Dadzie
Co-founder & CEO Rancard Inc.
Sangu Delle
Chairman & CEO Golden Palm Investments
Marieme Diop
Investment Manager Orange Ventures
Tahira Dosani
Managing Director Accion Venture Lab
Gaurav Dosi
Product Manager, Jobs Facebook
Olufunbi Falayi
Aaron Fu
Head of Growth Catalyst Fund
Sam Gichuru
CEO & Founder Nailab Accelerator
Minette Havemann
Strategy Director Naspers Ventures Prosus & Naspers
Erik Hersman
Founder BRCK
Barbara Iyayi
Chief Executive Officer & Founding Partner Unicorn Growth Capital
Jason Njoku
Founder and CEO iROKOtv
Lexi Novitske
Principal Singularity Investments
Dapo Olagunju
Managing Director & Head of West Africa JP Morgan Chase
Funke Opeke
CEO & Founder MainOne
Konstantinos Papamiltiadis
Vice President, Platform Partnerships Facebook
Bosun Tijani
Co-Founder and CEO Co-Creation Hub Nigeria
Nichole Yembra
Chief Financial Officer Venture Garden Group
Kwame Acheampong (www.kacheampong.com) is an experienced technologist and entrepreneur, with over 20 years of experience in transactional systems across several sectors primarily in investment banking and internet. He currently is the Head of Africa for MallforAfrica a Helios backed ecommerce & fulfilment platform serving Africa & Middle East. Prior to that Kwame has held senior positions at Google and DoubleClick where he was at the forefront of monetisation technologies that have shaped the landscape to date. In 2011 he branched out and founded ProfPAy, an online payment and fulfilment gateway addressing the ecommerce and fintech needs in Africa. Before branching out into technology, Kwame worked as a Sound Engineer, which presented him with the unique opportunity to work with some of the world’s top artists and numerous music and sound projects. His experience in the music and art industry cultivated his creative flair, and his tenacity to think out of the box.
Titi Odunfa Adeoye is the Founder and Managing Director of Sankore Investments, an investment platform that deploys capital across a range of asset classes on behalf of individuals and institutions. Sankore also runs an innovation arm that focuses on building new ventures and enabling early stage enterprises in areas that are strategically important to the firm. Prior to founding Sankore Investments, Titi was Head of Investment Strategy at Zenith Capital, the investment banking subsidiary of Zenith Bank Nigeria. In her role, she led teams responsible for investment management, research, and new product development within the asset management business. At Goldman Sachs in New York, Titi worked as a member of a team responsible for investment strategy, tactical asset allocation and portfolio advisory services for private funds. In this capacity, she developed research and investment expertise across a range of geographies and asset classes. Her experience also covers restructuring, consulting, accounting and auditing with KPMG Consulting and PricewaterhouseCoopers in Washington DC. She holds a Master degree in Business Administration (MBA) from Harvard Business School, a Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA) in Accounting (summa cum laude) from Howard University and is a Certified Public Accountant.
Olugbenga Agboola is the co-founder and CEO of Flutterwave. Prior to co-founding Flutterwave, Olugbenga contributed to the development of fintech solutions at several tech companies and financial institutions such as PayPal, Standard Bank, among others. He is a serial entrepreneur with two successful exits under his belt. He is a software engineer with a master’s degree in information technology security and behavioral engineering and an MBA.
Kola Aina is an entrepreneur, technology operator and investor with vast experience working in Africa’s largest economic market. His prior entrepreneurial experience spans several sectors including venture capital, technology, media, agriculture, infrastructure, publishing and real estate. As an angel investor and while leading the early stage African VC firm Ventures Platform. Venture Platform is a leading early stage African VC fund that provides founder friendly capital and support to early stage companies in a framework that is buoyed by corporate governance and hands-on support. Kola has lead investment in about 28 companies including Payments company; Paystack, Connectivity company; Tizeti, Healthcare company; MDaaS and the Agric-tech company; Thrive Agric. Kola, founded the enterprise technology company Emerging Platforms Limited, 9 years ago, quickly growing it to become one of the leading technology service delivery companies and leaders in the e-learning space in West Africa providing services to over 100,000 students. Emerging Platforms Limited is a software and technology firm that specializes in developing innovative technology solutions in education, national security and enterprise sectors. Prior to focusing on full time entrepreneurship, Kola worked in corporate finance, administration, corporate turn-around and strategy. He led strategy and finance for one of the largest publishing companies in Nigeria up till 2009. Before that he worked in corporate finance proving financial analysis at Fifth Third Bank in the USA. Kola is a leader in the African startup and investing ecosystem, a Ted speaker and volunteers his time advising founders, speaking at events and serves on the Presidential Committee for Job Creation and Youth Employment as well as the Private Sector Advisory Group to the Presidency on Creativity and Technology. Kola studied Electrical Engineering and then secured a Master in Business Administration degree with a specialization in Finance from Bowling Green State University, Ohio. He has received further education from Berkley University, Harvard University and the Lagos Business School.
Temi Marcella Awogboro is a Co-Founder of Kairos Angels. Temi has more than a decade of experience in finance across developed and growth markets. As an investment professional, Temi has committed nearly one billion in private capital across strategic sectors in a bid to tackle some of the world’s most pressing challenges. Temi has extensive experience in building and cultivating disruptive, transformative institutions that will emerge initially as regional champions and go on to be tomorrow’s global challengers. She looks for investments with visionary entrepreneurs to build scalable businesses and sustainable innovation ecosystems. Temi started her career at Goldman Sachs International, where she was honoured as a Goldman Sachs Global Leaders Scholar and received the Goldman Sachs and Institute of International Education’s Global Leaders Award. Temi holds a Master of Business Administration (MBA) degree from Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business and Master of Arts (MA) degree with First Class Honors in Economics from Christ’s College, the University of Cambridge, where she was a matriculation scholar. Temi is a Kauffman Venture Capital Fellow, an African Leadership Institute Tutu Fellow, a World Economic Forum Global Shaper and Alumni Ambassador. She is the recipient of the Future Awards Africa Prize for Professional Service, M&A Advisor’s European Emerging Leaders Award and has been recognized as the Female Lead’s Top 20 Women under 20; and, Management Today and The Telegraph’s 35 Women Under 35 in the UK.
Omolara Awoyemi is a technology professional with years of experience in the ecommerce and fintech sectors. She currently serves as the Managing Director of SureGroup, a group of leading global platforms for non-cash value transfer. SureGroup has 3 business in its portfolio – SureGifts, SureRemit and SureCredit. SureGifts is the leading provider of retail and corporate gift cards in Nigeria and Kenya with clientele such as Airtel, Oando, Dangote, Diamond Bank and others. SureRemit is a blockchain enabled global remittance platforms that allows people buy vouchers for their relatives in more than 23 countries – the company became the first Nigerian company to float an ICO raising $7m in the process. SureCredit is a corporate short term loan solution being used by corporates in Nigeria. She previously served as Country Manager of JumiaPay – Jumia’s payments, financial services and financial inclusion company, and the Head of Partnerships for the Jumia Group. Lara serves on the advisory board of Nigerian Women Techsters and is an associate member of Women in Management, Business and Public Service (WIMBIZ) and Women-In-Tech Africa. She is an Obama Foundation African Leader (the inaugural class of 2018). She is very passionate about building tech for women and supporting women in tech and as a result founded GIrls In Technology, an initiative where girls are funded to get trained in web design and software engineering. Fund sources include personal funds, friends, and corporate organisations who desire to support females in tech as part of their CSR. After training, they are mentored and placed in supporting organisations for hands-on experience. Omolara has a BSc. degree in Computer Science from the Federal University of Technology, Akure, Nigeria, a Harvard Business School Online Certificate in Business Readiness and attended executive education for CIOs at UC Berkeley, California, USA. Prior to SureGroup and Jumia, Omolara worked at leading African technology companies such as Iroko TV and MTech Communications
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.
Kofi is the CEO and co-founder of Rancard, connecting global brands to relevant mobile audiences with AI-enabled conversational commerce. Currently with a business footprint spanning Accra, Lagos, San Francisco and Port Louis, Kofi begun his technology career re-programming manufacturing assembly lines at Whirlpool, building online underwriting software for insurance giant Unum Provident, and Internet payment portals for the movie industry at Radiant Systems in the US. He studied computer engineering at Vanderbilt University in the USA and eventually joined Dell where he earned an engineering patent. Kofi is a fellow of the Aspen Global Leadership Network, a board member of Genius Hive (a music academy), board member of IC Asset Management, and previously on Ashesi University’s Corporate Advisory Council.
Sangu Delle is an entrepreneur, investor, activist and lawyer. Born in Ghana, Sangu’s childhood home was a refuge for victims of torture and violence from Liberia and Sierra Leone. Sangu is the Co-Founder and Managing Director of Africa Health Holdings, an innovative company based in West Africa, focused on “building Africa’s healthcare future.” He also serves as Chairman of Golden Palm Investments Corporation (“GPI”); a holding company focused on investing in world class technology companies in Africa. GPI has backed technology startups such as Andela, mPharma and Flutterwave and GPI portfolio companies have raised over $300 million in venture financing. Sangu is the co-founder of Cleanacwa, a nonprofit working in underdeveloped communities in Ghana to make sure that water and sanitation, basic human rights, are provided. Sangu is a member of the Board of Directors of Ashesi University, a Trustee of the Peddie School in New Jersey, an Advisory Board member of Harvard University’s Center for African Studies, a member of Harvard Medical School’s Global Health and Service Advisory Council, an Elected Director of Harvard University’s Alumni Association, a member of the Africa Advisory Board of the Rhodes Scholarship at Oxford University, and a member of the Stakeholder Advisory Panel for AXA. Sangu graduated with a Bachelor of Arts (Highest Honors) in African Studies and Economics from Harvard College, a Doctor of Law from Harvard Law School, and a Masters in Business Administration from Harvard Business School. Sangu has received several international accolades including being named Africa’s “Young Person of the Year” , a TEDGlobal Fellow, one of Forbes’ top 30 most promising entrepreneurs in Africa and Euromoney’s “Africa’s Rising Stars” award for “outstanding individuals who are changing the financial, investment and business landscape in Africa.” Sangu is admitted to practice law in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and the District of Columbia. He is the author of “Seeding Growth: How Young Entrepreneurs are Creating Africa’s New Economy in a Digital Age” slated for print in 2019.
Marième Diop currently serves as an Investment Manager at Orange Digital Ventures Africa – Orange Group’s 50m€ VC fund dedicated to African startups. Through this role, she’s actively involved in launching and scaling investment vehicles and direct investments targeted at technology startups across Africa. In 2018, Marieme also founded an angel network for francophone Africa startups called the Dakar Network Angels (DNA). Marieme is passionate about supporting founder teams of early stage technology companies in building Africa’s next business champions. Her focus over 9 years has been technology and innovation and she has occupied different roles of responsibility with a team leadership role and an international exposure. Marieme is a Fellow of the President’s Obama flagship program ‘Young African Leaders Initiative‘, World Economic Forum Global Shaper, and member of the GSMA Programme Leadership Group “PLG”. Marieme graduated from one of France’s top engineering schools, Telecom ParisTech, with an intensive master’s degree in data analysis and computing.
Tahira Dosani is the Managing Director of Accion Venture Lab, a seed-stage impact investing initiative focused on financial inclusion. Venture Lab provides capital and support to early-stage startups that leverage innovation to increase access to and quality of financial services for underserved consumers globally. Tahira works with the fund’s portfolio companies to provide strategic and operational expertise that accelerates their growth trajectories and enables stronger performance. Tahira previously led strategic projects at LeapFrog Investments, a specialist emerging market PE fund focused on financial services. Prior to that, she worked as Director of Strategy at the Aga Khan Fund for Economic Development. Based in Dubai, she drove strategic initiatives for portfolio companies and led new investments in telecoms, technology and infrastructure in South and Central Asia. She also worked at Roshan, Afghanistan’s leading telecommunications operator, where she was Head of Corporate Strategy and launched the country’s first mobile money platform. Tahira began her career as a management consultant with Bain & Company in Boston. Tahira holds an MBA from INSEAD and BAs in International Relations, Computer Science, and Education from Brown University.
Gaurav leads product management for Jobs on Facebook. Most recently, he was listed as the top 10 most important people in HRTech in 2017 by ERE Media. Prior to Facebook, Gaurav co-founded a ride sharing company in New Delhi, which was acquired by Carzonrent. He started his career as a consultant at Boston Consulting Group. Gaurav graduated with an MBA from Stanford. He is also a guest lecturer at the business school. Gaurav is an engineer by training. He was All India Rank 1 for IIT-JEE and graduated from Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Delhi. He lives with his wife, who’s an education investor, in San Francisco.
Olufunbi Falayi is a Partner at Passion Incubator; an early stage technology incubator and accelerator that invests in early-stage startups. He co-led investment in 12 startups including Riby, BeatDrone, AdsDirect, TradeBuza and Waracake. Olufunbi also a Principal at Savannah Fund, driving investment in West Africa.
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.
Sam Gichuru is Founder & CEO of Nailab, one of Kenya’ s leading business incubators. His contribution in establishing the startup business ecosystem in Kenya, through Nailab, has been significant and as a result was invited as a key speaker during the 2015 Global Entrepreneurship Summit (GES), held in Nairobi and officiated by the then President of The United States, Barack Obama. Sam has been instrumental in propagating the set up of strong and vibrant entrepreneurship ecosystem and its through this engagement that he was most recently selected by Jack Ma to lead, through Nailab, the Africa Netpreneur Prize Initiative, a $10M Initiative that seeks to discover, spotlight and support 10 African entrepreneurs every year for the next 10 years
Minette Havemann is Strategy Director at Naspers Ventures, which finds and backs promising technology startups across the world, and represents the team in Africa. Before this, Minette worked as General Manager of Strategy and Research at Media24.
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).
Barbara Iyayi is an experienced growth equity investor and entrepreneur with over 16 years’ experience in financial services, spanning venture capital, private equity, investment banking and technology. Barbara has founded, invested in, scaled and advised fintech-enabled and financial services companies globally. She is the CEO & Founding Partner of Unicorn Growth Capital, which is launching a financial innovation fund to invest in a synergistic and diversified portfolio of high-growth fintech-enabled companies providing critical components of financial infrastructure across the financial services stack. Unicorn Growth Capital aims to catalyze financial innovation to drive financial services across mobile payment-based digital economies. Barbara is currently focused on venture capital and growth equity investments. She is the Chair of the Board of Appzone, a FinTech SAAS platform that automates banking services and enables the delivery of digital financial services in Africa. She is an Advisor and was formerly the Chief Growth Officer and Managing Director for Africa of Element, Inc – a pioneer of mobile deep learning (AI) operating in NYC, Africa and Southeast Asia and co-founded by Yann LeCun, Chief AI Scientist at Facebook and Turing Award Laureate; she scaled Element’s AI-powered digital identity software (Enterprise Software) into Africa, partnering with financial service providers and payment companies. Previously, Barbara was part of the founding team of Atlas Mara, an LSE listed financial services platform co-founded by Bob Diamond, ex-CEO of Barclays Bank, which was the first ever entity to raise over $1bn to invest in, operate and manage financial institutions in Sub-Saharan Africa. As the Regional Head for M&A & Investments, Barbara led acquisitions and investments in banks in 7 countries in Africa. She also led and pioneered the banking platform’s FinTech strategy and partnerships. Prior to Atlas Mara, Barbara worked on global transactions of over $15bn at various financial institutions, including as Vice President, Investment Banking at JPMorgan, New York, where amongst other transactions, she led IPOs for Delphi Automative and Nord Anglia Education.
Jason Njoku is Founder and CEO of Iroko, the home of Nollywood content. He has pioneered the African digital content market by bringing Nollywood (Nigerian cinema) to a global audience, and in the process has raised over $40m in investment from international VCs, including Tiger Global, Kinnevik, RISE Capital and Canal+. Launched in 2010, IROKO has aggregated the world’s largest online Nollywood content catalogue and is one of Africa’s largest internet TV providers, with a dedicated mobile app, IROKOtv, as well as ROK TV channels on Sky in the UK and DStv across Africa. In 2013, Njoku was crowned as the CNBC Africa West Africa Young Business Leader and in 2014, he was recognized as one of Fast Company’s Top 1000 most Creative People in Business.
n 2012 Lexi moved to Nigeria, from The United States, believing that the country held immense untapped potential. In 2014, Lexi launched Singularity Investments, a venture capital vehicle backed by the Darwish family office. Singularity lends its relationships and expertise to source extraordinary investment opportunities, while supplying the skills, resources, and capital to grow portfolio companies into industry leaders across Africa. Lexi previously managed investments at Nigerian private equity firm Verod Capital Management. Prior to joining Verod, she was focused on Africa investments at Small Enterprise Assistance funds and in financial services at New York-based Sandler O’Neill Asset Management. Lexi is a board member and advisor to several companies and faculty member and mentor to several accelerators and startup academies. Lexi is a CFA Charterholder and Kauffman Fellow.
Dapo Olagunju is head of West Africa at JP Morgan. In this capacity, he represents J.P. Morgan’s global platform to clients, regulators and other stakeholders in the region. Prior to joining J.P. Morgan, he was a General Manager at Access Bank Plc where he oversaw the Financial Markets Division of the bank. He was a member of the bank’s Digital Council which had overall responsibility for the bank’s digital strategy, approved partnership with fintech companies and monitored the implementation of digital initiatives He was, at different times, a consultant on peacekeeping financing at the United Nations in New York and Chief Dealer at Investment Banking & Trust Company Limited (now Stanbic IBTC Bank Plc, a member of the Standard Bank Group). He was also co-founder of 234Give.com – an online fundraising platform. A fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria and an Honorary Senior Member of the Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria, Dapo received his MBA from the University of Oxford. As part of its commitment to helping people across the globe better manage their financial lives and become financially healthy, JPMorgan Chase supports the Catalyst Fund, an initiative that brings together impact investors, including Accion, Grey Ghost, Omidyar Network and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, to promote breakthrough innovations that can advance financial health globally. Catalyst offers funding and mentorship to pre-investable financial inclusion social entrepreneurs in emerging global markets.
Ms. Funke Opeke, is founder and CEO of MainOne. MainOne is a broadband infrastructure services provider that built West Africa’s first privately owned, open-access submarine cable system interconnecting Lagos, Nigeria; Accra, Ghana; and Seixal, Portugal in 2010. In January 2015, the company launched operations of MDXi – West Africa’s largest commercial Tier III data center, and in Nov 2015, it launched a submarine cable extension from Lagos into Kribi, Cameroon. The company recently announced plans for expansion into Cote D’ Ivoire and Senegal. MainOne has grown to become the leading provider of Wholesale and Enterprise connectivity and data center services across the West African region and the company partners with major global technology companies to deliver services to its customers. The company continues to grow its footprint with major network interconnection facilities, extensive terrestrial fiber build out, regional Points of presence, and delivery of services into 10 countries in West Africa.
Bosun Tijani is an innovation expert and researcher with a keen interest in knowledge application for economic and enterprise competitiveness. He is the co-founder and CEO of Co-Creation Hub; Nigeria’s foremost social innovation centre dedicated to accelerating the application of social capital and technology for economic prosperity. In pursuit of an active lifestyle, he also founded and serves as the CEO and Founder of Truppr, an emerging fitness brand in Africa that connects users to fitness events across the world. In addition, he is the Partner at Growth Capital, Nigeria’s first social innovation fund for high potential, early-stage businesses. He has over 15 years experience across public and private corporations including Pera Innovation Network (UK), Hewlett Packard (EMEA) and International Trade Centre (UNCTAD/WTO) both in Geneva, Switzerland. ‘Bosun holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Economics, a Masters’ degree in Information System and Management from Warwick Business School, UK and is currently a PhD Candidate at the University of Leicester. He is a fellow of the Centre on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law. He is also a Desmond Tutu Fellow and a member of the Presidential Advisory Group on Technology and Creativity.
Nichole Yembra is the Chief Financial Officer at Venture Garden Group (VGG) and Managing Partner at GreenHouse Capital, the VGG investment arm. At VGG, she is responsible for investor relations and the financial strategy of the 7 technology companies under its umbrella as they serve public and private clients across the aviation, power, education, financial services, and social investment sectors. At GreenHouse, she fosters the growth of companies at the forefront of using technology to solve real African problems. She brings experience from working in private and Fortune 500 companies to guide the 14 and counting portfolio companies through seed and series stages. Nichole began her career at Ernst & Young LLP, Atlanta where she specialized in risk and process transformation across several sectors including oil and gas, consumer products, manufacturing, quick service restaurants, and financial services. Nichole is a member of the Inaugural Obama Foundation Leaders: Africa Class and serves as both Council of 8 Member and Non Executive Board Member for the Shared Value Africa Initiative. She also serves as a mentor for Google Launchpad Africa and an Advisor to The Cortex Hub, a South African incubator. As a champion for women in leadership and technology, she founded the Garden Women’s Network which promotes the recruitment, retention, and advancement of women in the VGG ecosystem and GreenHouse Lab which is Nigeria’s first female-focused tech accelerator and the first and only “Powered by Google” accelerator in Africa. In 2017, she was named by Forbes Africa as one of the Most Promising Entrepreneurs under 30. In 2018, Most Influential People of African Descent under 40 (MIPAD 100), a global civil society initiative whose efforts are in recognition of the UN-backed International Decade for People of African Descent, named Nichole amongst its 2018 honorees for business and entrepreneurship inside Africa. Nichole also serves with Big Brothers/Big Sisters and was the Program Director for College MAP, a program providing underserved youth with tools to access university. She is an alumna of the Kenan Flagler Business School at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, a graduate from the Masters in Accounting program at Wake Forest University, and a licensed CPA. Nichole enjoys weight lifting, yoga, and barre and balances that with her love for cooking and baking and exploring different countries through food.