Sewu-steve Tawia
President at French Tech Nairobi
San Francisco, California
Overview
Work Experience
Managing Partner, Chief Investment Officer
2022 - Current
"Whether at home or in office or in transit, we strive to bring healthcare to people...and people to healthcare when it's needed" - Our vision. Jaza Rift Group covers: > Jaza Rift Ventures: Investment Management, Impact Management & Training > Jaza Rift Advisory: Transaction Advisory, Independent Valuation, Strategic Asset Allocation etc. > Jaza Rift Innovation Lab: Venture Studio, Growth & Scaling Advisory, Corporate VC as a Service etc. Jaza Rift I invests $50k-$2M in the most disruptive, impactful and resilient seed-stage founders in digital health, medtech and biotech in Africa. We also invest in Assistive Technologies in Africa. Our aim is to help Founders scale their healthcare innovations and inventions 10x over the next 5-7 years. In partnership with Villgro Africa and other incubators, accelerators and co-investors in Africa and beyond, we want to demonstrate that alpha returns can go hand in hand with real impact at scale. Better healthcare for Africa - www.jazarift.com #healthtech, #medtech, #assistivetech, #biotech, #digitalhealth
General Partner
2015
Unleashing Africa's Potential. Africa-focused alternative investment fund manager. Africa Market Entry Strategist. Family Office Manager. We are committed to driving positive financial, social and economic change. We develop responsible and impactful investment strategies that help promote youth,women and underrepresented people (people with disability,rural and displaced).We work at the nexus Climate,Gender,AI/ML and Accessibility to create jobs for all. Venture Capital | Private Equity | Private Credit | Co-Investments | Corporate Venture Capital
TOAC - Tales of an African CEO - Host
2024
Tales of an African CEO - TOAC #TOACShow #TalesAfricaCEO https://www.youtube.com/@toac_show https://www.instagram.com/toac_show https://www.tiktok.com/@toac_show • Explores the tales of founders, CEO and captains of industry in Africa; from the successes, failures, challenges to their simple journey to where they are. • New long form episodes once a month • We cover all sectors of the economy, with a bias to deep tech, inventions and innovations in Africa Guests include: • Angel investors, Venture Capital, Private Equity, Private Credit, Pension fund managers and the like • Engineers, Lawyers, Doctors and anything names profession • Tech & Non-Tech / SME founders and C-suites • Creative and Cultural industry • AI & Machine learning leaders etc. Please send us a message at toac2024@gmail.com if you're interested in appearing on the podcast! https://www.linkedin.com/company/toac-show
Angel Investor
2015
If you’re looking for funding: www.asimeventures.com/apply www.asimeventures.com > Appruve (exited/acquired by Smile Identity), Moja Ride, ThankUCash, > Zuri Health, Ilara Health, Superfluid Labs, > Bamboo, Send, Tendo, mPost, KudiGo, Digitech > Sayna, eCampus etc.
Various Consulting & Board Roles
2014
- French Tech Nairobi (Jan 2024-Jan 2025): ex Co-Président de la French Tech Nairobi. Nous avons mené des initiatives pour connecter les écosystèmes Français et Kényans, notamment en partenariat avec la Chambre, l’Ambassade et l’Alliance Française Nairobi. - Innohub Growth Center: World Bank funded Ghana Climate Ventures Fund - GCVF SteerCo - Wangara Green Ventures: impact investment company that invests between $50k to $500k in equity and quasi-equity in climate-friendly and Green SGBs. - ATscale, the Global Partnership for Assistive Technology: affordable and high-quality assistive products and services - Villgro Africa (March 2021-July 2022): Fundraising & Fund Structuring Consultant - Water and Energy for Food Grand Challenge (Jan 2021-Aug 2022): NIRAS Team Leader for the Water and Energy for Food Program - East Africa, an Innovation Call focused on supporing 14 innovators with €50k-500k in capital and technical support to scale up climate-friendly, energy and/or water-efficient innovations across Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda, Ethiopia, Somalia and Malawi. www.eastafrica.we4f.org - African Development Bank (2015): Private Equity and Venture Capital Advisory on eFront and portfolio management - IBC Equity Partners: Partner & CIO (Jan 2014- March 2015) - not raised - Capco, BearingPoint: Principal Consultant on Strategy, Operations and Technology consulting for the financial services: Credit derivatives, Equity derivatives, Post merger integration, New Product Innovation, Front, Middle and Back office and Risk Management.
Director, Investment & Portfolio Management
2017 - 2019
- Chief Investment Officer of the $360m+ challenge fund investing in early to growth stage via grants and repayable grants (zero loans), supported by technical assistance, into more than 260 sub-Saharan Africa Agribusiness and Renewable Energy SMEs/SGBs. - Led the restructuring and merger of a team of 25 sector team leads, portfolio managers and impact analysts - Delivered dramatic 2.5x increase in debt repayments from $1.5m in 2016 to $5m+ in 2018 while increasing impact - Led Francophone West Africa expansion (CI, BF, Mali, Senegal, Niger etc.), based out of Abidjan, CI The AECF is a multi-donor funded development institution that strives to reduce poverty in sub-Saharan Africa by unlocking the power of the private sector to impact rural and marginalised communities. AECF effectively creates a strong pipeline of investment ready African companies for DFI, impact investors, private equity and venture capital funds.
Senior Investment Director
2016 - 2017
AV Ventures LLC is a for-profit subsidiary of ACDI/VOCA, focused on agribusiness investments in Ghana.
Senior Risk Manager - Equity Risk and Portfolio Management
2009 - 2014
EIB Group - The European Investment Fund (EIF) is Europe's main risk capital investor in Venture Capital and Private Equity funds with EUR 50bn AuM. As a Fund-of-Funds, it has invested in 2,000 +funds covering seed, early stage, later stage, growth, mezzanine and buyout stages in the EU. Now global companies it indirectly funded include: Skype, Zinga (Angry birds), Wix, Panthera, etc. Worked with @Uli Grabenwarter, @Pierre-Yves Mathonet and @Federico Galizia.
Equity Derivatives Sales-Trader
2001 - 2003
Equity derivatives and structured products sales and trading Delta one hedging Guaranteed products structuring
Education
Executive Program in Social Entrepreneurship
2015 - 2015
Certified Digital Finance Practitioner
2020 - 2023
Masters in Finance
2008 - 2009
Master (Grande Ecole)
1997 - 2001
Exchange
2000 - 2000
Classes préparatoires HEC
1995 - 1997