Norrsken 22 - Venture capital firm
Norrsken 22
Norrsken22 is a tech growth fund, backed by an international network of tech founders, partnering with exceptional entrepreneurs in scaling disruptive businesses We provide growth capital and deep strategic value to founders in Africa, while positioning them for international expansion and impact We believe every investment is a partnership and value-creation goes far beyond just capital
Norrsken22 is managed by a team of general partners deeply ingrained in the African tech ecosystem, with decades of experience supporting African entrepreneurs, based in Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa Our founding partners are Norrsken Foundation and investors who have built and backed some of the world's most successful tech companies The fund is backed by a unicorn board of founders who have built companies like Flutterwave, DeliveryHero, Klarna, Skype, Mojang, Izettle and King, bringing a wealth of hands-on experience to the teams we partner with Our Advisory Council comprises business leaders from across the African continent, providing deep industry insight, local knowledge as well as global perspectives
Norrsken Foundation, founded in 2016, is a non-profit dedicated to helping entrepreneurs solve the world’s greatest challenges It runs Norrsken House in Stockholm, Sweden, Europe’s largest hub for impact tech, and Norrsken House in Kigali, Rwanda, East Africa’s biggest hub for entrepreneurship It has previously incubated Norrsken VC, a US$ 130 million European impact VC fund
Norrsken Foundation was created by Niklas Adalberth, co-founder of decacorn Klarna in 2005, today Europe’s largest online payment service company
Hans Otterling has been a partner of Northzone since 2006, one of Europe’s top-ranked venture capital funds with $1 5B under management and a portfolio of more than 60 tech companies Northzone's track record includes 2 Decacorns, Spotify and Klarna, and 14 Unicorns Before moving into venture capital, Hans was a successful serial entrepreneur, founding, scaling, and exiting three market-leading media and tech businesses
Natalie is the Managing Partner of Norrsken22, responsible for the overall management of the Fund, based in Johannesburg, South Africa Natalie brings a wealth of private equity and growth investing experience to Norrsken22, having spent 18 years at Actis – one of the leading private equity firms focused on the Emerging Markets At Actis, Natalie was Global Head of Private Equity, responsible for the day-to-day management of the global PE business, spanning 8 funds across Africa, Latin America, India, China and SE Asia, with circa USD $2 5 billion in assets under management Natalie was also part of the team that assessed and onboarded the Abraaj Africa, Middle East and South East Asia PE funds and team ($2 5bn portfolio) She is an experienced board member having held board seats on multiple companies across Africa and Europe and has been instrumental in numerous restructurings and successful exits Natalie instilled and operated under world-class governance and ESG standards at Actis and brings this depth of knowledge with her to Norrsken22
Natalie holds a BComm from the University of Witwatersrand, an MBA (Cum Laude) from Wits Business School and is a CFA Charterholder
Ngetha is General Partner of Norrsken22 based in Nairobi, Kenya Ngetha joined Actis in 2011 and has 10+ years of investing experience on the African continent with investments primarily in the financial services and consumer sectors spanning Kenya, South Africa, Nigeria and Egypt Notably, he played a pivotal role in Actis's investment in Fawry, the leading payments enablement company in Egypt, where Actis anchored a $100m secondary sale and subsequent IPO He was also an integral deal team member in Actis's investment in Credit Services Holdings (CSH) to establish the leading independent credit services business in Africa Ngetha brings significant experience developing and implementing value creation and operational improvement strategies within his portfolio companies Prior to Actis, Ngetha worked with PCG Capital Partners, a growth stage private equity firm in California, USA investing non-control equity in mid-market companies He started his career within the Investment Banking division of Credit Suisse in New York
Ngetha holds a BA from Middlebury College and an MBA from the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania
Lexi is General Partner of Norrsken22 based in Lagos, Nigeria Lexi has more than 10 years of investment banking, emerging market private equity and venture capital experience In 2012, Lexi moved to Nigeria, originally supporting growth-stage businesses in Nigeria at Verod Capital In 2014, Lexi launched Singularity Investments, a private capital-backed venture investment firm, and invested in market champions across fintech and enterprise platforms including Paystack, Flutterwave, mPharma, SmileID and Migo In 2019, Lexi acquired the firm’s portfolio and launched Acuity Venture Partners Acuity’s two funds have invested in over 20 African tech companies, with the first fund returning 10 9 times invested capital Prior to joining Verod, Lexi was focused on investments in Africa at the Small Enterprise Assistance Fund in Washington DC and covered financial services at New York-based hedge fund Sandler O’Neill Asset Management Lexi is a faculty member and mentor to several accelerators and start-up academies
Lexi holds a BBA from the University of Hawaii, is a CFA Charterholder and Kauffman Fellow
Bernard is an Investment Manager at Norrsken22, based in Accra, Ghana He has extensive experience in investing across sub-Saharan Africa Most recently, Bernard was Head of Investments at Acuity, focusing on early-stage technology businesses in West Africa He brings deep experience in investment banking, having executed mandates in excess of $150m for blue chip companies across the continent and has held key roles in the telecoms industry in Ghana Bernard has spent part of his career in Kenya where he held advisory roles helping East African companies scale and access growth funding
Bernard holds a BSc from the Ashesi University in Accra, Ghana
Maina is an Investment Manager at Norrsken22, based in Nairobi, Kenya He has previously been focused on the East African market in his previous role at DOB Equity In his previous role, he focused on Seed to Series-A tech businesses across all sectors He worked on the investments in Kwara, Cinch markets and Kwanza Tukule as well as leading DOB's EdTech investing efforts He brings with him relationships with incubators, accelerators and early stage start-up networks in the region
Maina holds a BCom from Strathmore University with a double major in Finance and Management Science Nivesh is an Investment Manager at Norrsken22, based in Johannesburg, South Africa He has extensive early stage experience in investing across Africa across pre-seed, seed and Series A rounds Most recently, Nivesh was Principal at Newtown Partners, focusing on early-stage technology businesses within healthcare, insurance, logistics and supply chain across the globe He has 9 years of financial services experience across venture capital, cross border M&A, financial valuation, financial services advisory and audit
Nivesh holds a BAccSci from the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa, and is a Chartered Accountant and CFA Charterholder
Stine Foss is CFO of Norrsken22 and her responsibilities include finance, fund compliance and administration Stine will be the primary interface between the Investment Team and the Fund administrator Stine was CFO of Northzone between 2001 and 2019 During her tenure the franchise expanded to become one of Europe’s largest venture capital funds with €1 5 billion undermanagement and returns in the top quartile (globally) Today the franchise has a portfolio of more than 50 tech companies Stine was instrumental in building critical processes such as fund raising, external reporting and governance, expanding the franchise
In addition, Stine has been actively involved in establishing the partnership’s Stockholm, UK and US offices
Stine holds an MBA in Finance from the Norwegian School of Economics and Business Administration (NHH) in Bergen, Norway
Olamide is Norrsken22’s Finance & Admin Assistant based in Lagos, Nigeria She joins from Acuity Ventures, where she worked with Lexi and Bernard as Executive Assistant and Finance Manager At Norrsken22, Olamide is responsible for assisting the team with Administration, Operational and Finance functionality to ensure the smooth running of the team
Olamide holds a BSc in Accounting from the University of Lagos, Nigeria
Amanda is Norrsken22’s Executive and Admin Assistant, based in Johannesburg, South Africa
Amanda brings a wealth of experience to Norrsken22, having spent over 16 years at Actis – one of the leading private equity firms focused on the Emerging Markets At Actis, Amanda was the Executive Assistant to Natalie Kolbe who was the Global Head of Private Equity and Ngetha Waithaka who was a Director Amanda was also responsible for supporting the HR team across all key regions with particular focus on liaising between the team in London and the team in Africa and Mauritius In her role she handled several administrative tasks and day-to-day incoming requests In addition, Amanda was responsible for key events for the Private Equity team and she also co-ordinated the Actis Investment Essentials onboarding programme and the IC Secondment program At Norrsken22 Amanda is responsible for general administration, human resources, executive assistance and assisting the ESG, Impact and Compliance manager in their role
Ofure is Norrsken22’s ESG & Compliance Officer Ofure specializes in Environmental and Social assessment, impact management & monitoring and has worked with clients across a range of sectors across Sub-Saharan Africa to effectively manage risk, realize opportunity and drive holistic impact Ofure works across the investment lifecycle from investment screening through to ESG due diligence and monitoring She also brings relevant expertise across modern-day social issues including labour & working conditions, community development and social investment, resettlement, community health, safety and stakeholder engagement planning Much of this work has involved helping Africa focused funds, and their respective portfolio companies, implement systems and processes to meet DFI investor requirements and adhere to the IFC Performance Standards and the Equator Principles She also has extensive experience in Environmental, Health and Safety Impact Assessments and the development and implementation of Environmental and Social Management Plans
Ofure has a Bachelor of Science degree in Biochemistry, from the University of Benin, Nigeria and a Master of Science degree in sustainability and environmental studies from the University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, Scotland
Nonkululeko Nyembezi is a South African business executive who has been active in steel, coal, telecommunications and finance She is the former chief strategist for the Vodacom Group and the former non-executive Chairman of Alexander Forbes, and is now the CEO of the Johannesburg Stock Exchange
Phuthuma Nhleko is a South African business executive, formerly chief executive and executive chairman of MTN Group, a South African multinational mobile telecommunications company primarily focused on Africa Phuthuma has also been appointed as the new Chair of the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE)
Shingai Mutasa is the Zimbabwean founder and chairman of the Masawara Group, which invests in and operates financial services, insurance, hospitality and industrial/chemical companies in the COMESA region
Arnold Ekpe is a Nigerian banker and businessman who was the group chief executive of Ecobank, the pan-African bank with operations from Togo to Nigeria to the DRC from 2005 to 2012 He is senior adviser to Dangote Group and Equator Capital Partners (US), chairman of Micro Cred France, non-executive director of Crown Agents Bank (UK), AVMS India, and Dangote Flour Mills Ltd
We invest across Africa, but focus on the main tech hubs in Nigeria, Kenya, South Africa and Ghana Our teams are fully ingrained in these markets and our local presence is crucial in understanding opportunities and identifying the best solutions
We back relevant, disruptive, scalable and tech-enabled business models, focused on these four sectors:
Norrsken22 works closely with our founding partner the Norrsken Foundation The Norrsken ecosystem is a global non-profit dedicated to helping entrepreneurs solve the world’s greatest challenges Norrsken22 is an independent and for-profit growth fund, but shares the same values as the Norrsken Foundation In 2021, Norrsken opened Norrsken House in Kigali, Rwanda, the largest hub for entrepreneurs in East Africa Norrsken Foundation will re-invest its 22% carry from the fund back into the African startup ecosystem, to further promote entrepreneurship and support a new generation of founders
