Shifting Capital with Jessica Espinoza

Amaka Okechukwu Opara is Founding Partner of the Women’s Enterprise Acceleration Vehicle (WEAV), bringing decades of experience in development finance, ecosystem building, and private sector investment. Having managed over $1.4 billion in financing projects across continents, Amaka has worked with governments, high-growth SMEs, and global multinationals to catalyze business-enabling reforms and su...

Seema Chaturvedi is Founder & Managing Partner of Achieving Women Equity (AWE) Funds, an early growth venture fund platform investing in innovation and deeptech to unlock superior financial returns and impact returns by promoting gender equity and climate action.  Tune in and hear from Seema about innovative finance initiatives to drive equitable economic value creation and women’s empowerment...

Jodi Smith, founder of Matanataki in Fiji, is transforming climate resilience by investing in SMEs rooted in coastal communities with deep, multi-generational knowledge of local ecosystems. With a trailblazing approach that blends climate action and gender equality, Matanataki demonstrates the powerful impact of investing at the intersection of gender and climate finance. In this episode, discover...

Nonkululeko Komanyane and Thandeka Xaba launched Digital Africa Ventures to bridge the funding and support gap for early stage tech entrepreneurs. In this episode, they speak about their journey with Digital Africa Ventures as one of the very few black women managed venture capital funds in South Africa. Tune in and listen to the inspiring story of two female tech investors on fire to serve the un...

Jenny Atout Ahlzén is a Co-Founder and Partner at Amam Ventures in Jordan, an impact fund investing with a gender lens in businesses that are committed to diversity and inclusion. In this episode, Jenny talks about what inspired her to co-establish an investment firm and shares insights on the entrepreneurship ecosystem in Jordan as well as the global Zebra movement. With Amam Ventures, she is spe...

Evelyne Dioh Simpa is Managing Director of WIC Capital, the first investment fund to exclusively target women-led early stage businesses in West Africa. The fund was set up in 2019 by the Women’s Investment Club Senegal, a group of more than 80 Senegalese businesswomen. In this episode, Evelyne talks about her innovative evergreen fund structure tailored to the specific needs of entrepreneurs in t...

This episode takes us to the Venture Capital space in Latin America & the Caribbean. Anna Raptis is Founder & Managing Partner of Amplifica Capital, a VC fund with the goal of diversifying the investor base by actively increasing the participation of women investors in private capital. Anna’s guiding principle is invest in the change you want to see . Amplifica Capital invests in companies...

Samantha Pokroy is Founder & CEO of Sanari Capital in South Africa, a private equity firm investing in growth companies emanating from Africa with regional and global scalability and exposure. Sanari Capital is majority women-led, and majority black- and women-owned. In this episode, Sam talks about her journey building her own investment firm, how Sanari transforms investment culture with a g...

Andia Chakava is a global thought leader in gender lens investing and Investment Director at the Graça Machel Trust. She was one of the first female fund managers on the continent and the youngest woman in Kenya to rise to the top of a multinational company, making Managing Director at age 30. In this episode, Andia shares novel insights into her journey, the challenges she faced along the way and...

Cathy Goddard is the CEO and Founding Partner of FyreFem, a South African-based women-owned private equity and debt fund. FyreFem is currently fundraising for Firebird Revitalisation Fund, an SME focused fund with a unique gender lens strategy. Cathy is combining her longstanding track record as a business rescue practitioner with her passion for gender equality to bring women into corporate owner...

Kalsoom Lakhani and Misbah Naqvi are Co-Founders and General Partners at i2i Ventures, a venture capital firm that invests in early-stage technology-enabled startups solving big problems in Pakistan. Both have worked with startups in Pakistan for over a decade – and are excited by dynamic and audacious founders. Their sister company Invest2Innovate's flagship program, the i2i Accelerator, has...

Season 1 kicks off with Adesuwa Okunbo Rhodes, Founder and Managing Partner of Aruwa Capital in Nigeria, celebrated as one of the Top 35 Women Moving Africa Forward for her commitment to advancing gender equality in private equity. As one of the pioneer women-owned and -led growth equity and gender lens funds on the African continent, Adesuwa shares novel insights and success stories from the Aruw...