Amar is an investor, scientist and entrepreneur from East Africa. He brings over 25 years private sector experience of building markets and businesses in emerging economies. He is the Managing Director of KawiSafi Ventures – a private investment fund that is focused on energy access in Africa. He is an active Board representative on a diverse portfolio of technology-driven companies. Prior to leading KawiSafi, he managed a global investment portfolio of high-risk, high-impact projects for 10 years at the International Finance Corporation and the World Bank before joining the new business team at Royal Dutch Shell to drive growth in domestic African energy markets. He graduated from the University of Oxford and has a PhD from the University of Cambridge. A TED speaker with over 1.6M views, his work on sustainable investing has been featured in Forbes, Bloomberg, and Fast Company.

Michelle Haigh Osorio is Investment Director at KawiSafi, driving investments in off-grid renewable energy and related technologies in East Africa. Michelle has worked in emerging markets private equity since 2007, investing in renewable power projects in Latin America while at Conduit Capital Partners and the Carlyle Group. She previously worked in the Public Sector & Infrastructure Banking group at Goldman, Sachs & Co. and at SJF Ventures, a venture capital fund focused on strong financial growth and positive community impact. She holds an MBA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and a BS in Economics from the University of Pittsburgh.

Marcus is Investment Director at KawiSafi where he leads the team across investments, operations, and portfolio management. He has extensive experience in renewable energy across the region, having for the past decade advised governments, regulators, corporations, and private equity funds on policy and investments in the sector. Prior to KawiSafi, he was a Partner in Dalberg Advisors’ Nairobi office where he spearheaded Dalberg’s Africa energy & infrastructure practice. He has advised on $500 million in transactions and fund formations in the African off-grid energy sector. Previously, he also worked at IFC as a corporate attorney where he advised on M&A and private equity fund formation. He has a BA from Trinity College Dublin, a LLM from College of Law London, an MA in International Development and Economics from Johns Hopkins University SAIS, and is a qualified attorney in England & Wales.

Chad Larson has served as a Senior Advisor to KawiSafi Ventures since 2018. Since 2019, Chad has served as CEO of Kopo Kopo Inc, a leading fintech based in Nairobi, providing payment and credit services for over 20,000 Kenyan businesses. Prior to joining Kopo Kopo, Chad founded and served as CFO of M-KOPA Solar, the award winning pioneer of pay-as-you-go solar in Africa, currently serving over one million rural households. He began work on M-KOPA with the two other founders during its pre-launch piloting in 2010, and has lived in Nairobi with his wife and three boys since the company launch in 2011.

Chad began his career in structured finance at Bank of America, where he worked in various senior positions for ten years, in New York, Sydney and San Francisco. He went on to become Chief Financial Officer of the Africap Microfinance Investment Fund in Johannesburg, and eventually of Signal Point Partners, an incubation and advisory group for mobile payments and mobile services ventures. He serves on the boards of several businesses focused on rural distribution and finance. A Chartered Financial Analyst, Chad holds a Bachelor of Business Administration degree in finance from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and an MBA with distinction from Oxford University.

Angela is an Investment Manager at KawiSafi Ventures, where she supports investments, portfolio management and the Technical Assistance Facility. She brings over eleven years’ experience supporting the investment ecosystem across Sub Saharan Africa. She was previously a Program Manager at Gatsby Foundation where she supported the development of a new initiative, Msingi and led the team identifying high potential industries for investment across Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania and Rwanda. She started her career as a corporate finance consultant at Deloitte providing M&A deal advisory for organizations across agribusiness, manufacturing, financial services and TMT (Technology, Media and Telecom) across Eastern Africa. Angela holds an MA with distinction in International Development from the University of Warwick and a BCOM from Strathmore University. She is a Certified Public Accountant and a CFA Level II candidate

Collins is an Investment Associate at KawiSafi Ventures where he works closely with the mission-driven companies in the KawiSafi portfolio, while supporting investments, pipeline and conducting diligence on potential investment opportunities for the fund. He brings over 5 years’ experience supporting the investment ecosystem. He was previously a Management Consultant at Open Capital, where he worked on multiple projects across Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, building experience in multiple sectors; Financial services (Fintech), Renewable energy, Agriculture, Manufacturing, Consumer goods, and water, sanitation & hygiene (WASH), with much of the work focused on transaction advisory & investor readiness support, creditworthiness assessment, strategy, and the identification of pre- & post-investment support opportunities to ensure effective deployment of capital and resource mobilization. Prior to joining Open Capital, Collins was Audit Senior Associate for Deloitte East Africa where he performed statutory and “agreed-upon procedures” audits on large corporates, multinational and not-for profit organizations within Eastern Africa. Collins holds a Bachelors in Financial Economics, from Strathmore University. He is an ACCA Affiliate and a CFA Level II candidate.

Mary manages the operations for KawiSafi Ventures. She brings over 7 years’ experience supporting fast growing businesses in operations. She has previously held roles Operations and Data at M-KOPA Solar, Bridge International Academies and Africa Leadership University.

Prior to joining KawiSafi, Mary worked as an independent consultant, supporting businesses in revising their operations strategy. Mary holds an MBA from Saïd Business School, University of Oxford and a bachelor’s degree in Actuarial Science from the University of Nairobi.

Jackline is focused on ensuring the smooth and professional functioning of the office and team, our social media presence and co-ordinating our HR functions. She is the EA to KawiSafi’s Managing Director. Prior to joining the team, she worked with Rwanda’s national carrier as part of an amazing team that led to the successful presence of the airline in the market by being the direct contact between the airline and corporate clients/travel agencies. She holds a B.A in International Business Management which has spanned 12+ years in Sales and Marketing professional experience in media and travel industry. She also led a team under Sabre Travel Network, to provide the travel market with the leading global distribution systems and deploy innovative technology.