Our experts
Rebecca EnonchongTwitter account
Appstech
Cameroon
Rebecca is the CEO of AppsTech, global provider of enterprise applications with offices in Washington, D.C., Paris and Douala. She sits on the board of the Salesforce Foundation and ActivSpaces and was recognized as one of the 100 New Global Leaders for Tomorrow by the World Economic Forum.
Tomi DaviesTwitter account
Lagos Angel Network, ABAN
Nigeria
Tomi is entrepreneur, writer, speaker, mentor, investor and advocate of technology, education, mobile and Africa. He is CEO of TVCLabs, a Technology Business Accelerator based in Lagos and also sits on the boards of Sproxil, Strika Entertainment, TechnoVision Communications and PeoplePrime. Tomi is co-founder of the Lagos Angel Network and President of the African Business Angel Network (ABAN).
Joel Patenaude
Investor & Coach at J2 Partners
United States
Joel has 20 years of experience in a diverse set of business roles. He is a founder of J2 Partners, Inc., a business consultancy, and acts as representative to a growing number of African SMEs. ?He has served as a VC4Africa Officer since the spring of 2009 and is involved in the mentoring program.
Greg Snyders
Global Consultant Dalberg
Unites States
Greg manages relationships with partners based in the US and helps lead both product and business development at VC4Africa. Greg is a development expert and has worked for Dalberg Global Development Advisors, served as an economic policy advisor to the Government of South Sudan, and led business development opportunities for a mobile health technology startup in Rwanda.
David van DijkTwitter account
Director General of ABAN
Netherlands
David is co-founder and Director General of ABAN, the African Business Angel Network and member of the Impact Investment Committee of EBAN, the European Trade Association for Business Angels. David is also the Managing Director of Stichting IGNITE, a nonprofit supporting entrepreneurs in conflict-affected countries and he is part of the Investment Committee of the IGNITE Fund. David also coordinates a network of industry professionals that volunteer their expertise and network to participating entrepreneurs.
Our team
Boyewa Abiodun-Adepoju
Marketing Lead
Nigeria
Boye is the gear that connects marketing efforts to community, programs and communications at VC4A. For nearly a decade, she’s worked with several startups ranging from food & beverage to fintech, building and growing their message and brand at scale across three markets in SSA. She is excited to use this insight to support an ecosystem that is suitable for these startups to succeed.
Hendrik Admiraal
Lead Developer
Netherlands
Hendrik is a web developer, designer, former label manager and event organizer from The Netherlands. Previously he launched event organizations and has worked for 10+ years as a freelance web developer. After exiting his own company he joined several tech start-ups where he gained valuable insights into their growth and the problems they can encounter.
Frederique Bisserier
Consultant
Netherlands, France
Frederique designs and implements startup support programs by VC4A as part of larger donor-funded initiatives. She worked with a variety of Francophone African partners through different projects, such as the World Bank funded L’Afrique Excelle. Prior to VC4A, Frederique held senior marketing management roles with big corporates such as Philips, Danone & TNS Kantar, managing innovation projects.
Daniela Bolivar
ES2 Latam Management
Bolivia
Daniela is VC4A’s focal point for Latin America. After studying Visual Communication and Education at the Catholic University of Bolivia and being an entrepreneur in the recycling business for many years herself, her career is now completely focus on strengthening the social entrepreneurship ecosystem in Latin America, working on research and educational programs, as well as on outreach and documentary projects.
David Coleman
Growth Lead
Netherlands
David is a multi-disciplined marketer. He is passionate about customer needs, data-driven consumer insights and value creation. With over a decade of technology industry experience, David has helped organizations re-engineer, build and execute their commercial strategies. He has been a mentor, consultant and advisor to numerous African based startups and scale-ups. As the Growth Lead at VC4A David is responsible for improving the product-market fit of our platform and other commercial offerings.
Akram Eladwy
Community Platform Associate
Egypt
Akram worked across ecosystems on a mission to develop and guide entrepreneurs. He joined VC4A on the quest to support startups, entrepreneurs and programs. He has engaged with over 100 startups in different sectors providing mentorship, accessibility, and training. Akram also worked with Flat6labs, one of MENA’s leading accelerators.
Matthew Foster
Software Developer
Netherlands
Matt is a WordPress and Frontend Developer from England. He lives in the Netherlands with his partner and his dog. He has a background in Art, Design and sarcastic responses.
Lucía Hernández
Community Platform Associate
Bolivia
After working as a software developer, founding 4 companies, and volunteering in several non-profit organizations in Uruguay and Bolivia, today, Lucía supports the development of the entrepreneurial ecosystem in Latin America leading projects with various organizations.
Arnout Kroezen
Director of Finance
Netherlands
Arnout heads the financial management of VC4A. Arnout is a financial expert by training, an entrepreneur and manager. He has run his own trading business on the Dutch stock exchange and acts as a financial controller for his company. He has a keen interest in emerging markets and the African investment opportunity.
Ahmed Nour
Mentorship & Community Support
Egypt
Ahmed is supporting the connection between entrepreneurs and mentors through the VC4A Mentorship Marketplace. He has 9+ years of experience in innovation, technology, entrepreneurship, and social development and has held multiple roles supporting the growth and expansion of innovative startups.
Bolade Oye
Front-end Developer
Nigeria
Bolade is a self-taught front-end developer and a product designer with over 5 years of experience in both fields. He enjoys building and designing interfaces that make solving complex problems easy and intuitive. He also dabbles in music production and loves gaming.
Femi Oye
Front-end Developer
Nigeria
Femi is a digital product designer and front-end developer with years of experience in building world-class digital products that help people and businesses succeed. He enjoys the process of transforming ideas into meaningful digital experiences, and He constantly learns new and better ways of designing products. Outside of work you’ll catch him watching a show on Netflix, reading a book, listening to music or a podcast, and visiting new places.
Iris Parra
Latin America Lead
Peru
Iris leads the Venture Showcase and Mentorship marketplace for VC4A in Latin America. She is a social entrepreneur and digital nomad with a passion for travel, languages, and sustainability. Gaining experience in management and consulting roles, in the past 10 years she has been connecting leaders with purpose-driven organizations to contribute to the development of emerging markets.
Mathilde Schmidt-Rhen
Community & Programs Management
Netherlands
Mathilde supports diverse partner programs, conducting online promotional campaigns and manages the VC4A community platform. She is excited about entrepreneurship and particularly the immense potential of smart technology innovations to impact the diverse social and economic environments across Africa (and the rest of the world). Prior to joining VC4A, Mathilde studied Business Psychology (B.S.) and gained experience within business development, consulting, and content marketing during internships, as a freelancer and within student initiatives, in Germany, South Africa, Australia and beyond.
Niek van Dijk
Program Lead
Netherlands
Niek develops and manages startup support programs run by VC4A. He gets his energy from working on entrepreneurship that is focused on tackling societal challenges. Prior to joining VC4A, Niek worked for 10+ years with social enterprises, NGOs and government to develop and lead a variety of projects focused on advancing entrepreneurship in Sub-Sahara Africa and South- and South-East Asia.
Thomas van Halen
Pro Services
Netherlands
Entrepreneurship, being part of an inspiring community and driven to make a difference: this explains the match between VC4Africa and Thomas best. Linking people with the right opportunities is where Thomas gets his energy from. His focus has always been on entrepreneurship and Africa. As member of the board he manages the Twiga Foundation supporting bright students in Kenya. On a commercial level he invented, established and managed two companies.
Bertil van VugtTwitter account
Business Development Lead
Netherlands
Bertil is responsible for business development at VC4Africa, working with partners to promote their initiatives to the African startup community via the VC4A.com platform. Bertil studied journalism (Ba) and Political Science (Ma) and gained content and technical experience while working in the African startup and media space since 2006 in Kenya, South Africa, Ghana and other countries across the continent.
Alina Vinogradova
Programmes & Partnerships Lead
Netherlands
Alina develops and manages startup support programs run by VC4A as part of larger donor-funded initiatives, such as Work in Progress! Project and World Bank’s Pan-African Accelerator. She builds out VC4A’s network of strategic partnerships with various startup ecosystem players and is constantly looking for fit between organizations, their objectives, and the goals of the VC4A community. MSc in Business Economics, MBA from Amsterdam Business School (UvA). In her corporate past she spent over 10 years working in various marketing, sales and business development roles.
Ion Vrinceanu
Software Developer
Romania
Ion is a self-taught web developer that started as a freelancer 10 years ago and discovered the WordPress community 5 years ago. Since then, he build WordPress plugins and themes with more than 35.000 downloads. There’s no new day without learning something new and his motto is “If you have to explain your product, it’s not as good as you think”.
Ben WhiteTwitter account
CoFounder & Community Evangelist
Netherlands, United States
Ben has been venturing in the African technology and media space since 2003. He has done ethnographic research on the emergence of software cultures in Kampala, Uganda, established the ICT Entrepreneurship program at Hivos, and later taught classes at the University of Amsterdam. Involved in multiple startups, Ben is also the cofounder of AfriLabs, a pan-African network of innovation hubs, and the African Business Angel Network (ABAN). Ben is on the board of ActivSpaces and in 2007 he founded Venture Capital for Africa (VC4A).