For years, venture capitalists have faced mounting pressure to diversify their portfolio companies and investment teams with women and underestimated people of color.
In the past decade, just 0.24% of funding in the UK has gone towards Black founders. The numbers are bleak. The lack of diversity in early-stage investors affects everyone because it determines who receives investment and, therefore, what products and services we use.
Despite this lack, more underrepresented black investors are emerging and ensuring that black founders on the European continent have a seat at the venture capital table.
These Black investors exist and deserve recognition for the work they do. They are actively using their success to improve the outlook for the next generation, whether by offering capital to Black-owned businesses or creating platforms to connect these founders to the right network.
Here’s our list of 10 Black London Investors who are helping to reshape the world of venture capital:
June Angelides
Born in London and raised in Lagos, June joined Samos Investments in 2018, investing in high-growth European businesses. Prior to this, she started the first child-friendly coding school in the UK, Mums in Tech, which taught over 250 women to code in 3 years. She also held roles on the Venture Debt Team and Early Stage Banking Team at Silicon Valley Bank.
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She founded Levare Ventures, an angel syndicate co-investing in African Startups via Odin. The cheque size is between $25k and $100k for founders working in e-commerce, fintech, health tech, B2B SaaS, and the future of work.
Chenelle Ansah
Chenelle Ansah is an early-stage investor focused on climate tech and fintech in Europe, Africa, and the United States of America. A former partner at Cornerstone Partners (the UK’s first black-owned investment firm), current Chairwoman of the Investment Committee and Board Advisor at Crisis Venture Studio, and Board Advisory member for Village Capital’s Greenwich female program.
She is the managing partner of LightPace VC, an early-stage Venture Capital Fund focused on advancing People and the Planet. Chenelle has a large investment portfolio spanning 30+ equity investments in tech companies.
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As an individual angel investor, her ticket size is between £5,000 and £20,000 per deal. However, LightPace VC is currently raising funds, and once they are done, their ticket size will be £250k—£750k for pre-seed and seed, respectively.
Maria Rotilu is the founding partner at Openseed. Before Openseed, she was an operator turned investor for most of her over 10-year career. She scaled international technology startups to millions of users in leadership roles such as Uber Nigeria’s country manager and West Africa’s general manager at Branch.co.
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Maria was previously the MD of the Oxford Seed Fund, a student-led VC (Venture Capital) body that invests £50,000 in Oxford-affiliated startups annually. Openseed is an early-stage fund investing in operators turned founders. Their cheque size is up to $150k in startups focused on B2B software, AI, Fintech, and the future of health and work.
Eric D. Collins
Eric D. Collins is an American businessman, serial entrepreneur, technology expert, and former President Obama appointee. He has served on President Obama’s Small Business Administration’s Council on Underserved Communities. He has also worked with numerous technology companies and invested in new businesses that help Black and female entrepreneurs.
Eric Collins is the co-founder and CEO of Impact X Capital, a venture capital firm raising £100m to invest in underrepresented entrepreneurs across Europe and the United States. The firm invests in three categories: digital and technology, health and lifestyle, and media and entertainment.
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Gbite Oduneye
Gbite Oduneye is the Founder and Managing Partner of ODBA, an early-stage VC firm that backs innovative founders who use technology to create improbable stories. He’s also the Co-Founder and CEO of Eagle Global Markets, a multi-asset derivative trading provider in Lagos, Nigeria.
ODBA’s dynamic portfolio encompasses startups in Edtech, Finance, Healthtech, and Logistics, and it has made 17 investments to date. They invest from seed capital to Series A investments and follow-on funding rounds.
Karl Lokko
Karl, a former gang leader turned activist, campaigner, and entrepreneur, has spent the past decade advocating for a fairer and more inclusive business ecosystem. He is the Co-founder of DBK Studios, which creates film and television content led by Black producers.
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He is also the co-founder and chairman of Black Seed, an initiative he started to find VC funding and investment solely for black entrepreneurs. The venture capital firm, which supports British tech and tech-enabled businesses, raised £5m in 2023 and intends to make 30 investments over the next three years. Black Seed’s ticket size falls within the £200,000 to £400,000 range.
Izzy Obeng
Izzy Obeng is the managing director of Foundervine, a non-profit training consultancy, and a non-executive director of Capital Enterprise. Foundervine partners with world-leading companies, governments, and educational institutions to help diverse founders grow.
Obeng is an angel investor at Ada Ventures, an inclusive venture firm that finds and funds extraordinary talent-building breakthrough ideas for the hardest problems we face. The firm seeks technology companies in health, consumer tech, and sustainability and invests at the pre-seed and seed stages. Ada’s ticket size is £250k to £750K (pre-seed) or £1mn to £1.5mn (seed).
Rodney Appiah is an early-stage investor, board member, and former investment banker. He was a Non-Executive Director of the UK Business Angels Association (UKBAA), the UK trade body for angel and early-stage investing.
Appiah is also the Founder and Managing Partner at Cornerstone VC, an early-stage fund focused on a ‘people first’ investment strategy. It invests from pre-seed to pre-series A in UK technology businesses led by diverse founding teams.
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Charmaine Hayden
Charmaine Hayden is the visionary fund manager behind Goodsoil VC, an Africa-focused fund that invests in early-stage startups with exceptional founders. Before her journey with Goodsoil VC, she led Face2music, an award-winning agency, setting a benchmark for representing minority groups within global brands.
GoodSoil is an early-stage venture capital firm that funds pre-seed and seed-stage technology companies. The company averages around £250,000 to £1.2M ticket sizes. The Africa-focused fund invests in startups across Agri-tech, Fin-tech, Green Energy and Access.
Yvonne Bajela
Yvonne Bajela is a venture capitalist who invests in companies led by underrepresented entrepreneurs. She is a founding member and principal at Impact X Capital, and to date, she has invested over £170m in various start-ups across Europe, the Middle East, and Africa.
Yvonne is a Partner at LocalGlobe VC, an early-stage startup investor investing primarily in technology businesses headquartered in London and the UK. The venture firm invests across multiple sectors, including HealthTech, PropTech, FinTech, and Artificial Intelligence. LocalGlobe prefers startups at the pre-seed and seed stages, and their ticket size is between $200K and $2m.
