QED an investment firm based in Alexandra, Virginia in the United States of America announced that it has recruited two Nigerians, Gbenga Ajayi as Partner in charge of African investments and Chidinma Iwueke as principal to support International and domestic investments.
The Investment firm for its upcoming seventh fund has announced that it would be releasing $1 billion to back selected fintech companies from all over the world including Africa.
Prior to joining the team at QED, Gbenga Ajayi worked at various tech companies in Africa. He was product director for SMB growth at Wise a cross border remittance fintech company. He was also head of strategic partnerships at Revolut, a Neobank based in Europe and worked for six years at Google where he went from managing telecom industry partnerships with clients in Nigeria, Kenya and South Africa to being product partnerships lead in Europe and Africa. In this role, he launched google events in Germany, U.K, Spain and France.
Chidinma worked as a partner at Microtraction, an investment firm with its headquarters in Lagos. she was integral in supporting several startups and structuring support for portfolio companies. She also worked as an equity research associate at Bank of America Merrill Lynch.
One thing they both have in common is that they were both co-founders. Chidinma was a founding member and head of business development in a healthcare startup. Gbenga was the co-founder of Kanza Ventures a boutique seed investment firm focused on Fintech In Africa.
Similarly, Chidinma has an MBA from Colombia business school and Gbenga is currently getting his MBA from London Business School.
What you should know about QED
QED was founded by Nigel Morris and Frank Rotman in 2007. The investment company is focused on investing in disruptive financial services companies in the U.S., the U.K. and Europe, Latin America, Southeast Asia and very recently Africa.
The investment firm has more than $4.6 billion under its management. Since it’s inception in 2007 it has invested in more than 160 companies with about 21 of them being Unicorns. Some of those companies include Credit Karma, Kavak, Klarna, Konfio, Loft, Nubank, QuintoAndar, Remitly.
