About Us

Our Story

Venia Group is a leading venture creation and development firm, oiling the wheels of Africa’s innovation ecosystem. With over a decade of pioneering innovative businesses (coworking, insurtech) and providing platforms for businesses to thrive, Venia has become synonymous with business excellence in Africa.

Our business interests cut across sectors, with a focus on market-creating innovations that leverage technology, design and service to enable consumption and create shared prosperity.

We specialize in creating mutually beneficial partnerships and empowering businesses and innovators to thrive, creating new markets and jobs in the process.

At Venia, the essence of work is people-oriented and reflects our name, which is Latin for Grace. Everything we do is with one goal in mind enabling businesses, and transforming lives.

Our Vision

Create economic opportunities for every African through value Innovation and execution.

Our Mission

Leverage digital to accelerate growth and productivity, build capacity, and scale African businesses.

We play across the ecosystem, helping spin the wheels of innovation

Government, NGOs & Development Agencies

Work with key stakeholders to create an enabling environment for the ecosystem, with an emphasis on innovation policy design and implementation and agenda shaping research.

Investors

Facilitate effective disbursement of capital to high-impact, growth-oriented businesses and support portfolio companies to drive value creation.

SMEs/Entrepreneurs

Provide community and business development services that enable SMEs/Entrepreneurs launch, grow and scale.

Talent

Build the talent pipeline for the next generation of innovators and a hiring pool for SMEs. Focus on equipping clusters at the University level to develop innovative solutions to local problems.

Corporates

Play an intermediary role between Corporates and innovators, building a path for mutually beneficial collaboration (corporate venture funds, business model innovation, strategic partnerships).

Our Advisory Board

Our advisors have extensive experience across Africa’s digital ecosystem, with hands on experience in business building, investments, policy and execution.

Kola Oyeneyin

Founder

Topsy KolaOyeneyin

Partner, Augmentum Advisory

Leonard Mungarulire

Associate Partner, Dalberg

Yvonne Johnson

MD/Co founder Indicina

Founder

Kola Oyeneyin

Kola Oyeneyin is the founder of Venia Group. He sits at the intersection of Technology, Economic Development, and Public Policy, as an experienced entrepreneur, investor and people leader. A serial entrepreneur, he is respected for his ability to spot trends early and create structures to enable them. He is passionate about people and has created multiple empowerment platforms to support Africa’s youth. Kola is currently the CEO of Opportunik Global Fund(OGF), a global fund for Africans by Africans. He is an alumnus of Harvard Kennedy School and a Tutu Fellow.

Partner, Augmentum Advisory

Topsy KolaOyeneyin

Topsy is a transformation expert with more than 20 years of global experience, working with financial institutions, regulators, and investors across Africa to develop ambitious growth programs and execute large scale transformations. She led the successful design and implementation of Nigeria’s payments transformation program ‘’cashless Lagos’ and has been featured in the Financial Times as a thought leader on digital financial services innovation in Africa. She is an alumnus of Stanford University and also sits on the Advisory Board for Endeavor.

Associate Partner, Dalberg

Leonard Mungarulire

Leonard has over 18 years’ experience at the intersection of trade policy, regional integration, technology policy formulation/implementation, strategy and private sector development. He is passionate about Africa’s transformation through digital inclusion, regional integration and systems change. He is a founding Board member of the Centre for the Fourth Industrial Revolution (C4IR Rwanda)and also serves on the board of the Kenya Climate Innovation Centre (KCIC) and the Truss fund, a US based social enterprise and impact investment fund. He is an alumnus of Harvard University and an Eisenhower Fellow.

MD/Co founder Indicina

Yvonne Johnson

Yvonne Johnson is a strategic thinker with a demonstrated ability to influence change by leveraging innovative solutions. She has played a critical role providing support and capital to multiple African fintech startups, leveraging her experience in setting up the first ever digital innovation hub for a leading Tier 1 banking group. An influential angel investor, she is known for spotting winners and taking early bets on Unicorns such as Andela and Flutterwave. She is an alumnus of the Kellogg School and currently the CEO of Indicina, a digital credit infrastructure company.