What makes Mbwana Alliy a Global Shaker?
Mbwana Alliy is the founder and managing partner of Savannah Group, a seed capital fund specialising in early stage high growth technology startups in sub-Saharan Africa. Initially focused on East Africa, the firm aims to bridge the gap between early stage/angel investment and venture capital in Africa.
Through the Savannah Group, he also founded a startup accelerator programme.
“The question that was in my mind, and to some degree still is, is how is the investment model that has worked in Silicon Valley going to work here,” he told Bloomberg.
He an as early stage investor in 26 technology companies throughout Kenya (Eneza Education, Sendy, Copia Global, Paykind, Forex and Djuaji), Tanzania (Smile Identity), South Africa (BabyGroup, Aerobotics and Wyzetalk), Uganda, (Kola Studios), Ghana (Ahonya, Zished and BigxMedia), Nigeria (Africa Courier Express, Supermarket, Podozi, Lidya and StudySearch) and Zimbabwe (Bitfinance).
“We were among the first venture capitalist investors in places like India, Eastern Europe and China,” he said. “This kind of early fund can have an enormous impact in a region. Entrepreneurship spreads, and wealth and jobs follow.”
Mbwana has also worked as a social entrepreneur, a systems engineering consultant and a VP of sales/business development. Prior to his foray into travel and venture capital, he served as a product manager with Microsoft.
He earned a bachelor’s in electronic and communications engineering at the University of Bristol and an MBA at the Stanford University Graduate School of Business.
Tags: Africa, Entrepreneurship, Investment and Funding, Tanzania, VCLast updated: May 25, 2020
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