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 non profit supporting entrepreneurs in conflict affected countries and he is part of the Investment Committee of the IGNITE Fund. David also manages the VC4A mentorship program and coordinates a network of Industry professionals that volunteer their expertise and network to participating entrepreneurs.
Our team
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).
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.
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.
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.
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.
Mathilde Schmidt-Rhen
Community & Campaigns 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.
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.
Melissa Ruggles
Program Manager
Netherlands
Melissa is an all-around Program Manager at VC4A. Over the last 13 years, Melissa has worked for a variety of international organizations and companies in diverse communications, strategy and program implementation roles both in-house and as a consultant. She uses this breadth of experience to sharpen VC4A’s own program design & implementation, to increase acquisition, and to improve the services VC4A offers to its partners and end-users. Melissa gets energy and inspiration from working alongside change-making women and men entrepreneurs across the world.
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.