OUR TEAM
We are a team of tech founders, fintech experts and venture capitalists, passionate about creating positive change with tech.
Selma is the Co-Founder and Managing Partner of First Circle Capital. Selma combines a powerful mix of entrepreneurial, investment and corporate experience and is recognized as veteran of the African fintech industry. She has been in African fintech since 2012, first as an M-Pesa executive, then as an entrepreneur where she founded, scaled and sold a fintech business, and since 2015 she has been investing in fintech. Notable investments include Qonto, Expensya, Dash, Bamboo, THNDR. INSEAD Alumna now based in Casablanca Morocco.
Agnes is the Co-Founder and Managing Partner of First Circle Capital. Agnes has legal training by background, and has led a life of a serial entrepreneur in emerging markets, seed investor and a super networker. Before settling in Uganda four years ago with her tech business, Agnes built businesses in Jordan and the Ukraine, focused on employing local women. Agnes is a WEF Global Shaper and was selected for Forbes 30 under 30 outstanding individuals in 2022.
Ming heads Portfolio Management and is part of the investment team at First Circle Capital. She has 15 years of experience in the tech industry, notably spending 7 years at Lazada, from its earliest days all the way to exit to Alibaba for $3.5bn. Ming is a very strong operator, having built and scaled the operations internally for this complex marketplace in Southeast Asia. Upon moving to Morocco she was a CEO of one of the first fintechs in the country. INSEAD alumna, Ming is based in First Circle's Casablanca office.
Rob supports across dealflow, investments, fund operations and reporting at First Circle Capital. Rob started his career in strategy consulting in London, before working in strategy and operations roles at an agriculture lender in Kenya. He has an MBA and an MSc from LSE.
Lilian is a qualified lawyer and accountant with a professional background in law and impact investing in East Africa. She began her career in corporate law in Nairobi before moving to investment roles in impact investing and venture capital. Lilian is keen on channeling capital to support innovation and entrepreneurship in Africa. She holds an LLM from the University of London and is pursuing an MBA at London Business School.
Prosper supports the senior members of the investment team at First Circle Capital. Prosper began his career in risk advisory in Kampala, Uganda, before working in management consulting and transaction advisory. He has a keen interest in channeling capital into businesses with the potential to scale and have a significant impact in Africa.
Martin has a professional background in accounting and finance. Starting his career in accounting, Martin transitioned to banking before venturing into entrepreneurship, amassing 4+ years of diverse work experience. He is very passionate about startups and helping them thrive.
Ziad Mokhtar is a Founding Partner of Algebra Ventures and CEO of Expeditions.tech. He is a the leading Venture Capital investors who has shaped tech investment in Egypt over the last 13 years. He started at Ideavelopers in 2010, where his investments included fawry (acquired), siware, and vezeeta (exited) among others. He then cofounded and led Algebra Ventures, where Investments include MNT-Halan, Dsquares, elmenus, Khazna, trella, Yodawy, Lucky, Eventtus (acquired), Posrocket (acquired), and Shift EV. Ziad has recently established his own technology company, Expeditions.tech a venture studio launching innovative tech products. He is a McKinsey and Stanford MBA alumni.
Jack is a seasoned entrepreneur and investor who has spent two decades building conscious companies. He currently serves as an Advisor to Capria, a global venture capital firm specialized in emerging markets, where he was previously a co-founder and Partner. Jack’s efforts led to the growth of Capria’s active fund manager network from $0 AUM to over $1B AUM with direct and indirect investments spanning more than 40 countries. Currently he serves as President of Revoluity LLC, a boutique advisory firm he recently founded that works with emerging managers and early-stage entrepreneurs. He started his career as a software engineer and graduated with honors from Miami University with a degree in Computer Science.
Samantha brings a mix of corporate, start up and academic experience, and is a recognised thought-leader in the fintech industry. She spent 10 years as Partner at Anthemis, a leading fintech VC investor in USA and Europe. In 2019, she became Co-CEO of SingLife, the leading insurtech in South east Asia. She led the company to an exit through a trade sale in Dec 2020. The $3.2B transaction is one of the largest in the insurtech industry. Most recently she founded Habitto, an insurtech business in Japan.
Paola has spent 25+ years in fund-of-funds investment, including 24 years at the European Investment Bank, where she developed initiatives like Boost Africa (a joint initiative between the European Investment Bank, the African for Development Bank and the European Commission focusing on supporting the nascent African Venture Capital industry through fund of funds investments and capacity building programmes for first time fund managers) and retired as a Senior Investment Officer. Post-retirement, she advises global fund managers and works with the International Climate Finance Accelerator, ANAVA, the IFC, and Avanz Capital Egypt.
Philip has 15 years experience investing in Private Equity and Venture Capital Funds in emerging markets. Previously Partner and Co-Head of Private Equity and Venture Capital at Obviam, Philip was initially member of and later oversaw the Team that was responsible for building the funds portfolio of the Swiss Development Finance Institution, SIFEM, in the Global South. Previously, as a member of the UN Secretariat that developed and launched the United Nations Principles for Responsible Investment, Philip helped spark a global responsible investment movement with 4000 signatories representing over USD 120 trillion igniting a shift towards closer alignment between investors and sustainable development.
Our venture partners are ecosystem insiders, experienced entrepreneurs and investors.
VPs source early investment opportunities and provide valuable input in DD process.
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