Lwazi Wali

Lwazi is the Head of Venture at Founders Factory Africa, based in Johannesburg, South Africa.

A 2019 Obama Africa Leader, Lwazi is passionate about leveraging the power of innovative finance, disruptive tech and entrepreneurship to curate the type of leapfrog industries Africa needs.

In addition to her role as Head of Venture with Founders Factory Africa, Lwazi is the female Founder of @HerQuarters (HQ), pioneering Africa's first social, capital market for pan-African women founders of colour. She is also the SA Chapter Founder of the Impact Investment Exchange (IIX), pioneering Africa's first Women's Livelihood Income Bond - a $10m fixed-income security with a duel focus on social and financial returns, aimed at mobilizing private capital towards pan-African female entrepreneurs addressing one or more of the UN SDGs across the continent.

Prior to FFA, Lwazi was the lead investment officer at one of South Africa's largest investment holdings firms, and spent over seven years in aerospace and energy finance, business development and future tech at one of the world's leading aerospace and energy manufacturers in the US and UK, managing a portfolio size of $3bn.