Ayodele Olajiga

🌍 Africa is taking centre stage at Oxford. From 1–5 September 2025, over 40 leading African venture capital fund managers will converge at the University of Oxford’s Saïd Business School. 💡 What makes this moment historic? Nearly 50% of participants are women, shaping the future of Africa’s venture ecosystem. Backed by EIB Global and AfricaGrow, the programme is dedicated to early- and growth-stage investors fuelling tech and tech-enabled ventures across the continent. This is more than just an executive programme. It’s a bold statement: Africa is not waiting for the future—it is building it now, with the capital, talent, and leadership to scale globally. 🚀 Africa’s innovation story is being written in real time. The world is watching.

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Corporate venture capital (CVC) is still rare in Africa, with many large companies opting to remain distant from the local startup ecosystem, instead preferring to focus on their core operations. Outside Africa, the story is much different, with corporate venture capital investors accounting for about 36% of total VC deal value globally. However, a few companies like Orange, Standard Bank, Safaricom, and GB Corp have been defying this worrying trend in Africa. GB Corp, Egypt’s 26th largest public company, has backed five early-stage startups in the past four years, positioning itself as both a capital provider and a strategic partner in Egypt’s startup ecosystem. Through GB Ventures, its corporate venture capital firm led by Nada Shaheen, the company is investing at least $500,000 in Egyptian startups, which can eventually reach $5 million in follow-up rounds. For this week’s Ask an Investor, we spoke to Shaheen, the managing director of GB Ventures, about how her firm invests in startups, what a corporate venture should look like, her firm’s thesis and support, how her firm invests, and why corporates will die if they ignore startups. 🔗 Read the conversation at the link below 👉 https://lnkd.in/gts_mUVx

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"𝐆𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐚 𝐢𝐬 𝐜𝐚𝐥𝐦, 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐛𝐥𝐞—𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐛𝐚𝐜𝐤 𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐨𝐧𝐠.” During our latest Market Trends Report Call, Maya broke down why Ghana is quickly becoming one of the continent’s most attractive investment destinations: 📈 Renewed investor confidence driven by smart, reform-oriented policies 🌍 A stable macroeconomic environment with improving GDP growth 💵 Strong performance of the cedi against the dollar in recent years 🏡 Rising interest from global investors, diaspora returnees, and second-base relocations 👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 And yes—population growth often precedes economic expansion, not the other way around 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐭𝐚𝐤𝐞𝐚𝐰𝐚𝐲? 𝐆𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐚 𝐢𝐬𝐧’𝐭 𝐣𝐮𝐬𝐭 𝐠𝐫𝐨𝐰𝐢𝐧𝐠—𝐢𝐭’𝐬 𝐛𝐞𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐢𝐞𝐫 𝐭𝐨 𝐧𝐚𝐯𝐢𝐠𝐚𝐭𝐞, 𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐝𝐢𝐜𝐭𝐚𝐛𝐥𝐞, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐝𝐞𝐫 𝐭𝐨 𝐢𝐠𝐧𝐨𝐫𝐞.⁣ 🎥 Missed the call? Catch this quick snippet from the session. #VentureCapital #EmergingMarkets #AfricanTech #GhanaInvestment #IngressiveCapital #MarketTrends #StartupFunding #FounderInsights

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From music charts to boardrooms, Mr Eazi is making big moves. His company, Choplife Gaming, has paid RWF 17 billion ($11.7 million) in taxes to Rwanda since 2022, a milestone that highlights his growing footprint beyond music. The Nigerian star said the payments show Choplife’s commitment to Rwanda’s strict regulatory environment, even as the country recently raised gambling taxes. Despite the tougher rules, Choplife continues to expand, proving gaming is becoming a serious business across Africa. Beyond gaming, Mr Eazi is building a diverse empire through ventures like emPawa Africa (supporting young music talent) and Zagadat Capital (investing in African startups). His business bets are reshaping how African entrepreneurs navigate music, tech, and gaming.

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