Looking at your background, I was quite surprised by how much work experience you’ve accumulated for someone in their mid-twenties. How is that possible?

It’s because of the Swiss system. There are two paths you can take for a career in finance, the academic or the practical one. If you choose the practical route, you can do a corporate apprenticeship as of 15-16 years old. This means that by the time others finish university, you already have over 5 years of working experience. That’s the path I took. I began an apprenticeship at 15 at Credit Suisse and was able to gather work experience while also completing my studies in parallel.

How does a 15-year old decide they want to pursue a career in banking? 

In my case, my father was a banker so of course I was going to be a banker myself (laughs). Once enrolled in the apprenticeship, for three or four years, you go to work three days per week, while visiting business school during the other two. You get to see a lot of different departments like e.g., compliance, wealth management or investment banking in a short period of time. It gives you great insight into many different branches of finance and then you can decide what you’re most interested in.

What made you decide to switch to venture capital?

While I was working at Credit Suisse, the teams and departments I found most interesting were investment oriented. That interest has always been there because I find capital markets fascinating. However, at some point I started feeling like I was missing something. At the time, I became very interested in sustainability and how capital can be leveraged to create impact and I decided to pursue a master’s in sustainable finance. While digging more into this topic, I realized venture capital is where you can have a very direct economic impact. I find it exciting because it’s not a trivial industry. It’s not just about crunching numbers, but rather “soft” factors like the solidity of a concept, market timing, or the willpower of entrepreneurs. These are things that fascinate me.   

Before you joined Verve, you briefly worked in a private equity company in Lagos, Nigeria. Why did you decide to go there?

I’m Nigerian from my Father’s side so I was familiar with the culture from a young age. I became interested in the history of how emerging countries came to be, their enormous potential and how to unlock it, which is why I chose my major in development finance. I had the privilege of growing  up in Switzerland, but always wanted to have an experience on the ground, in Nigeria. Which is why I wanted to gather some work experience and not just go on vacation. I therefore did an internship in an agritech oriented private equity fund which was quite early stage. It didn’t have a lot of deal flow, but still gave me interesting insights into the Nigerian market and working culture. 

What is the VC scene like in Nigeria from your experience?

There’s definitely a huge boom in fintech. It makes a lot of sense if you think about the fact that Nigeria has a population of over 200 million, of whom many are still unbanked and don’t have a postal address. However, everyone has a mobile phone. These emerging technologies and business models, if scaled correctly, have the potential of leapfrogging conventional banking and becoming a very attractive business model even with low margins due to the sheer size of the population. Invested volumes in Nigeria and Africa in general are currently a fraction of what we see in Europe. On the other hand it is striking that numbers didn’t plunge as dramatically as in Europe or the US during the 2022 cooldown. In my opinion it remains one of the most interesting markets to watch in the years to come.

Why did you choose Verve Ventures?

Due to its reputation and strong branding in Switzerland, Verve was one of the first companies I came across when I decided to actively look for a role in venture capital. What I really liked about it was the platform approach that makes this asset class available to qualified private investors. I also liked the company’s deep tech focus and the diverse backgrounds of the people working for it.   

You’ve recently been promoted to Portfolio Manager at Verve Ventures. What are your main responsibilities?

I am at the intersection of different teams. I work very closely with the investment team, especially on follow-on rounds of existing portfolio companies which I manage so they can focus on sourcing new deals. Because I manage these rounds, I’m also in close contact with entrepreneurs. My main focus when it comes to the startups though is to closely follow their development through reporting, but also frequent check-ins to ensure we can spot early where we can support or where there might be some issues. On the investor relations side, I support the team closely by providing them with the data they need and the insights they can share with investors. Other responsibilities include financial analysis across the portfolio and internal process improvements.

What is the difference in the reporting quality of startups? 

There are huge differences. On the one hand, our startups come from different industries. In some industries, you have more key performance indicators (KPIs)  on the revenue side that they can report on whereas in others like the health and biotech sectors, it’s more about research, or clinical studies progress. The content of the reporting can therefore differ a lot depending on the industry, but also on the stage level. You don’t get the same insights, granularity and detail you get from a series B startup from a seed stage company. I feel like reporting is one of the biggest challenges in early-stage investing, as startups often lack the resources or know-how for data gathering. Investors don’t make it easy for startups either as there is no industry standard on which KPIs need to be reported and what format is to be used. 

What is it like to work at Verve Ventures?

The first word that comes to my mind is fun. I enjoy talking to everyone at work, which is not something you can say in every company. It’s also challenging. After one and a half years of working here, I still feel challenged. And it’s not just from a work point of view, but also intellectually, at a conversational level when talking to my colleagues. We all come from very diverse backgrounds not only in terms of nationalities, but also academically and in regard to work experience. I think this is a mix that works very well and is one of the things that define Verve.