About Us
Our experience as investors and operators gives us a bird's eye view and local knowledge about the African startup ecosystem. Our goal is to ensure investors are protected and provided with the insights, intelligence and diligence required to make investment decisions into startup opportunities. Our executive management team of partners and advisors have over 75 years of combined experience working and leading venture firms, financial organizations, legal firms and technology companies. We pride ourselves as being the best team for the tasks.
Damilola Thompson, Partner
Damilola Thompson is an experienced investment professional with a proven track record of success in building and executing effective investment strategies for a diverse range of clients. With over a decade of experience in the field, Damilola has honed her skill and has core competencies in investments, legal, compliance functions, developing and implementing strategic growth & market entry plans, and in corporate development.
Prior to this, she was VP, Global Head of Emerging Markets and VP, Global Markets Expansion of TradeX, a Series B marketplace startup where she successfully led and drove global and emerging markets expansion to Africa, Middle East, Japan, and Latin America. Dami also served as Vice President & Associate General Counsel at EchoVC Partners (TPG’s small cheque growth stage platform for Africa) and has over a decade of experience investing in and supporting entrepreneurs improving quality of life and solving friction across Emerging Markets. At EchoVC, Dami managed a portfolio of over 40 tech and tech-enabled companies across Africa, USA, India, and Latin America, and sat on the boards of several portfolio companies. In her years of experience, she sourced, drove, and conducted extensive due diligence in early-stage and early-growth technology startups in the Automotive, Mobility, Financial services, SaaS, Marketplace platforms, Logistics, Healthcare, API economy & infrastructure sectors etc. Dami is also an angel investor in 25 startups across the US and Emerging Markets.
Dami has graduate degrees in law from the University of Lagos, Nigeria, a Master’s in Business law and Technology from University of California, Berkeley and a Masters of Business Administration degree from William Jessup University, San Jose. She has also completed various post-graduate courses including the Kauffman Fellows Academy course on Venture Capital and is an Associate Arbitrator with the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators, United Kingdom.
Angela Koki, Partner, East Africa
Patricia Koki is a seasoned finance and investment professional with over nine years of experience in the field. She is a Partner at Diligence Africa, where she oversees due diligence for investors investing in African and Africa-focused opportunities and provides advisory services to startups seeking venture capital in East Africa. She excels in investor relations, venture capital, financial reporting, audit assurance, and risk management and is proficient in Swahili, Spanish, Kikuyu, English, and Kamba.
Patricia holds several certifications, including IFRS 9 Expected Credit Losses and Excel for Corporate Finance Professionals. Her dedication to finance is evidenced by honors such as the 2018 CFA® Program Women's Scholarship and the 2023 CFA® Program Access Scholarship. She has published works on topics like asset returns at the Nairobi Securities Exchange. Patricia's career highlights include roles at Onafriq as a Commercial Finance Consultant. She also founded PoW Consulting Africa, a social enterprise empowering African women with financial literacy. Her previous positions include Chief Operations Officer at FinAccess Limited and Senior Associate in Audit & Assurance at Deloitte East Africa.
Patricia holds a CFA designation, has completed a VC Advanced Fellowship with CatalyzU, and is pursuing a Master's degree in Finance and Financial Law from the University of London.
Alma Karibo, Partner
Alma Karibo is an accomplished professional with profound expertise in compliance and data privacy, passionately dedicated to driving business growth and enhancing consumer confidence.
In her capacity as Partner, she collaborates with investors to provide comprehensive due diligence on startups across Africa, ensuring that potential investments are thoroughly vetted for legal, financial, data privacy, compliance, and operational soundness. Her work at Diligence Africa is instrumental in building a pipeline of diligence-ready startups, showcasing her commitment to fostering a robust venture capital ecosystem on the continent.
Previously, Alma served as the Chief Operations Officer at 54gene, a leading genomics research, services, and development company. During her tenure, she managed operational strategies and processes, ensuring the company's efficient functioning and growth. She also held the roles of General Counsel and Chief of Staff, Associate General Counsel and Data Protection Officer, and Compliance and Data Protection Officer at 54gene. In these roles, she was responsible for overseeing legal affairs, ensuring compliance with data protection regulations, and supporting the company's strategic initiatives.
Alma's educational background is equally impressive. She earned a Master of Laws (LLM) from the University of California, Berkeley, specializing in Business Law and IP & Technology Law. She also completed executive legal education in Corporate Counsel at Harvard University and holds a Bachelor of Laws (LLB) from the Nigerian Law School.
Alma's diverse experience, combined with her unwavering commitment to excellence, makes her a pivotal figure in the fields of compliance, data privacy, and legal affairs.
Olaide Olusoji-Oke, Partner
Olaide Olusoji-Oke is a seasoned finance strategist with over 20 years of experience and a proven track record of excellence in auditing, business assurance, strategy, planning, treasury management, venture capital, liquidity management, fundraising, investors’ relationship, IFRS financial reporting across several verticals including oil and gas, technology, healthcare and investment.
She is the go-to person for financial strategy and management, investor relations, treasury management, business and audit assurance, compliance, taxation, data and process control, general finance, and reporting with a keen eye for numbers and their interpretation for better business decision making.
Olaide has extensive experience working with Asset & Resource Management (ARM) Company Limited where she served as Assistant Vice President, Financial Reporting and subsequently as the Chief Financial Officer of ARM Investment Managers Limited, one of the largest non-financial institutions in Nigeria with funds under management of ~USD$1.1 billion (as of December 2018). Olaide also served as General Manager, Finance & Operations at EchoVC Partners, a venture capital firm investing out of Africa across emerging markets and the US. She drove fund operations and led portfolio operations for over 40 startups. She subsequently worked at Hygeia Nigeria Limited (Lagoon Hospitals), a Healthcare provider where she served as the Chief Financial Officer and implemented operational and financial processes.
She works alongside the client’s team at all levels of the organization to develop practical solutions that deliver repeatable and sustainable results across the African Market with a collaborative spirit to every engagement.
Olaide is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN) and holds an MBA from the Business School Netherlands. She currently serves as a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN) Corporate Finance Management Faculty Programs Subcommittee.
Dr. Keita Broadwater, Partner, Technology
Dr. Keita Broadwater is a seasoned leader who has effectively bridged the gap between technology innovation and operational excellence. His extensive experience includes implementing value-added engineering innovation as a consultant and researcher at Cloudera, Oxygen AI, and Hewani Data.
Alongside managing strategic and tactical operations at Hewlett Packard, Intel, and Lenovo, he led a pivotal turnaround at Jabil Circuit, transforming a $30M manufacturing unit from struggling to profitable through strategic leadership and operational improvements.
In his consulting roles, Keita has delivered impactful engineering solutions that blend data science and machine learning that have profoundly benefited Fortune 500 companies, nonprofits, and SMEs. His applied innovations have focused on deploying practical and effective data science and machine learning strategies, which have consistently led to significant business advancements.
A recognized author, Keita penned Graph Neural Networks in Action, offering practical insights into cutting-edge AI technologies. His dual expertise as a technologist and business operator uniquely positions him to transform organizational capabilities and drive substantial growth through strategic data utilization.
Keita holds a bachelors in Physics from Florida A&M University, a masters and doctorate in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Maryland, College Park, and an MBA from Cornell University.