Team

Olivia is a finance professional with over 15 years’ experience in various advisory and analytical roles across the financial services industry, including investment banking and corporate strategy.

She is frequently advising a diverse range of clients including Development Finance Institutions, such as the World Bank as well as early stage technology start-ups, on capital raising, scaling operations and turn around strategies. Olivia is also a member of the investment committee at United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF), where she evaluates potential investments  and votes on the fund’s investment decisions into early-stage business models in financial inclusion, energy, technology and other impact verticals. 

As an entrepreneur, Olivia co-founded Olivia Knox Inc., a luxury goods social enterprise featured in Fast Company, Inc and CNN. She is also an advisor to startups through the Shona network in Uganda as well   as the Columbia Entrepreneurship, Innovation and Design initiative and is a frequent speaker at events focused on entrepreneurship in Africa.

She holds an MBA from Columbia Business School, an MA Quantitative Methods in the Social Sciences from Columbia University and a BSc. in Quantitative Economics from Makerere University.

International digital technology professional and business executive with more than 16 years of experience successfully advancing the growth and adoption of digital technology across the African continent. Currently working in the technology and startup space leading teams focusing on research, development and commercialization of digital platforms focusing on addressing scalable challenges in the financial services, SME, agriculture, healthcare and education space. Oswald has worked across a number of corporate organisations at junior and executive level which include Econet Wireless, Liquid Telecommunications, Naspers, Vital Wave and Mercy Corps. Oswald holds a Master in Engineering from the University of Cape Town and a previous research scholar at the University of Michigan and INRIA in France. Oswald has a deep passion for startups and is involved in building the startup ecosystem across the continent.

Born in Thies, Senegal, Moussa Bathily is an entrepreneur, creative visionary and Head of Marketing at Unilever’s Sundial Brands with over 20 years of experience. Before that he spent over 10 years building and growing one of the largest beauty retailers (Rickys) in North America.   Bathily’s passion for Africa, storytelling and creating memorable and meaningful experiences led him to found House of Bacoro, a beauty concept store in Dakar that aims to bridge the gap between Africa and the diaspora through beauty, art and cultural dialogue. Bathily holds degrees in Business Administration and Marketing from Baruch College. A father of three, he has called Brooklyn home for the last 20 years, where he lives with his wife, Adia, and their daughters. 

Kwaku has been working across the Access to Energy and Sustainable Mobility portfolios for the last 7 years focused on East and West Africa. He has suppo a range of partners in various aspects of their business and has been key in scaling a number of these businesses across Africa.

Kwaku started his career in the asset management industry working with Fidelity Investments. He spent five years in Shell Group Trading working in global crude and products trading across market risk, FX and credit risk. Kwaku has a BA in Finance, Accounting and Management from the University of Nottingham and is a Charted Financial Analyst (CFA) level 2 candidate.

An expert  in Market expansion and technology innovation. 

Mr. Lwanga is currently working on helping land the Emerging Markets strategy for his division at Microsoft; as well as leading a team that engages with partners and customers in emerging markets like Africa and South East Asia.  In addition, he previously led a team focused on helping his engineering colleagues build next generation innovation in conjunction with customers and partners.  Before that he headed up a team that worked with startups and ISV partners in the Cloud and Enterprise Division – ISVs that innovated on Windows Server, System Center and Azure.  Prior to that he was responsible for the relationship between Microsoft and a few key partners for Microsoft’s Cloud and Enterprise division (IBM, Cisco, Citrix and Ncomputing).  In this capacity he was focused on delivering strategic technology collaboration between these partners and Microsoft.  Prior to joining the Cloud and Enterprise Division, he was a Director in Microsoft’s Unlimited Potential Group (UPG), where he was tasked with delivering mobile solutions to partners in emerging markets; in this capacity he also served on the board of Oxigen Services in India and handled another major partnership in sub-Saharan Africa with the Blue-Label investment group.  Before joining UPG he was focused on delivering Windows Mobile solutions to 125 Mobile Operators around the world for Microsoft’s Windows Phone Business.  Mr. Lwanga has over 26 years of experience primarily in the Startup, Government, Communications and Media & Entertainment areas. He started out his career working for the African Development Bank and has been at Microsoft for the last 18 years. He holds an MBA in International Management from the University of Dallas, a BS in Computer Engineering and a BS in Business Administration from LeTourneau University.  He is fluent in French and English.