Brian Waswani Odhiambo

Brian is a Partner at Novastar Ventures, one of the biggest and most experienced global VC fund managers in Africa. The firm has nearly a decade’s track record of investing on the continent, over US$200m of funds under management and 24 portfolio companies. With offices in Lagos, London and Nairobi, Novastar partners with transformative businesses that create lasting financial, social and environmental value for the many, not just the few, for people and planet – for good. Novastar portfolio companies have, to date, directly benefitted more than 23m customers, employees and suppliers. As one of the first institutional VCs in Africa, Novastar helped to create the venture asset class in Africa and continues to promote it globally.

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Prior to venture capital, Brian was an entrepreneur across multiple African markets including: being part of the founding team that started Jumia, a listed and award-winning e-commerce platform in Africa; co-founding Zamsolar, a last-mile renewable energy company in Zambia, and leading operations at Livelyhoods (now Solar Sister Kenya), a last mile, clean products distribution startup in Kenya. Brian led Novastar’s investments in Moniepoint (formerly TeamApt), TradeDepot, MAX.AI (formerly MAX.ng) and Ignitia and is a Board Director on all of these companies. Brian joined Novastar in 2015 and leads its activities in West Africa.

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Brian graduated with honors from Yale University.

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