Marieme Diop
SENIOR INVESTMENT OFFICER IFC
Marieme currently leads VC direct and funds’ investments in Africa at the International Finance Corporation (World Bank Group). She is serving as a primary architect in roll-out of “Africa MCAP” Platform and supervising the monitoring of a USD $150 million envelope dedicated to VC funds and technology startups across Africa. Prior to that, she built out and led Orange Early stage 50m€ VC fund (“Orange Ventures Africa”), backed by the leading telecoms company Orange and dedicated to African startups. Through this role, she was actively involved in launching and scaling two investment vehicles (Early stage 50m€ fund, and Seed stage 5m€) and direct investments targeted at technology startups across Africa. Marieme, as one of the Senior female VC pioneers in Africa, has also managed a portfolio of 13 investments (led or co-led) out of a portfolio of 20+ companies from Seed to series B, across 10 countries in Africa including: Nigeria, Egypt, South Africa, Kenya, Senegal, Tunisia, Morocco, Ivory Coast, Cameroon and Ethiopia. Marieme is also the co-founder of the first regional Angel Network in francophone Africa – Dakar Network Angels – that invests and assists high-growth Pre-Seed and Seed stage companies in the region to get the fundamentals in place to become scalable and fundable. Marieme plays an instrumental role in the francophone ecosystem where she advises several startups. Marieme is passionate about supporting founder teams of early-stage technology companies in building Africa’s next business champions. She works out of a strong belief that technology is both an enabler and an accelerator of Africa’s development. Hence, her focus over fifteen years has been technology and innovation and she has occupied different roles of responsibility with a team leadership role (BearingPoint, Orange, Senegal’s Presidency …) and an international exposure. Marieme is also a Fellow of the President’s Obama flagship program ‘Young African Leaders Initiative‘, World Economic Forum Global Shaper, and a Choiseul Africa nominee; she also sits on board of several VC funds and companies. Marieme graduated from one of France’s top engineering schools, Telecom ParisTech, with an intensive master’s degree in data analysis and computing.
