On Tuesday 3rd December, 2013, Mbwana and Malaika from Savannah fund hosted office hours to interact with resident teams at Outbox.The purpose of the office hours was for the residents to get an understanding on how Savannah fund works and deepen their understanding of the private venture capital area in East Africa. More to that, it would enable Savannah fund learn about what we are working on.Savannah Fund is a seed capital fund specializing in US$25,000-US$500,000 investments in early stage high growth technology (web and mobile) startups in sub-Saharan Africa. Initially focused on East Africa, the fund aims to bridge the early stage/angel and venture capital investment gap that currently exists in Africa. The Fund expects to achieve this objective by combining capital with mentor networks both in the region and from Silicon Valley via an accelerator program and a follow-on independent seed fund.Mbwana has worked in a variety of roles in Silicon Valley, UK and Africa from startups to corporations. Most recently as a Entrepreneur in Residence EIR at i/o ventures where he founded Savannah Fund. Mbwana has worked as an aerospace systems engineer & software developer at QinetiQ (formerly the UK’s Defense Evaluation Research Agency) in flight testing with clients such as Airbus. He has also served a Product Manager in the Microsoft Office and Business Intelligence Group responsible for Excel and Access product line. He has since worked and advised at 2 US startups in social networking & gaming (AppPrizes and PixPulse) and worked as a founder of the first East Africa online travel portal, Yellowmasai.Malaika has lived in the USA, UK, France, Holland, and Kenya and finds energy in discovering new cultures, business environments, startups, and hubs. Malaika volunteered as a live-in Fellow for an Emmaus-France Halfway House, gained extensive corporate experience at TomTom as a Brand Manager, and discovered the startup scene in Africa as a Consultant for Mobius Motors.At Savannah Fund, Malaika manages and mentors the Accelerator startups. Her personal interests and expertise are in Transportation and Entertainment.
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