By 
By Eric Osiakwan
Following the successful 12th Angel Fair Africa (aka AFA@12) in New York[1], Chanzo Capital was invited to stage the first Angel Fair Africa speed dating for African entrepreneurs and investors as part of San Francisco Tech Week (#SFTechWeek) on October 7 2025[2]. Tech Week is the largest decentralized conference put together by Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), bringing together the top founders, funds and companies around the globe.
The 2025 edition was in New York from June 2-8, San Francisco from October 6-12 and Los Angeles from October 13-19 with activities ranging from hackathons to panel events, community meetups and more. Each event was independently organized by startups, companies and VCs[3].
Chanzo Capital staged its first speed dating for African entrepreneurs and investors as part of the event bringing together 62 investors and 34 founders plus 26 independents to the RM212 Cocktail Bar & Lounge in the San Francisco Financial District.
The event started with a keynote fireside chat involving Marsha Wulff, founding partner of LoftyInc Capital and author of African Ngenuity, and me as the host. Marsha’s involvement in African affairs dates back to 1997 during the Mandela presidency in South Africa, where she was part of a US energy corporate joint venture.
Africans innovate global solutions
There, she discovered that Africans innovate global solutions, offering US seed-stage investors high-potential investment options. Over the years, she built deep relationships with the African diaspora who returned home to build economic viability.
Though she was trained as an investment portfolio manager in San Francisco, she set her eyes outside the US into Africa and started investing her own capital as an angel, leveraging the relationships she had built, from Southern Africa to Eastern Africa to Nigeria and Ghana in West Africa.
Afropreneurs – African entrepreneurs building digital startups
Marsha backed a mentee, Teddy Ruge, a US-educated African entrepreneur who returned to his native Uganda to launch an agriculture enterprise. In Kampala, Teddy also cofounded Hive Colab, among the first tech innovation hubs that became a fountain of tech innovations in the East African capital.
Marsha Wulff in a fireside chat with Eric Osiakwan
While they were students in the US, Marsha encouraged LoftyInc cofounders Idris Bello and Michael Oluwagbemi to establish the Wennovation Hub in 2010, one of the first innovation hotspots in the Republic of Nigeria. Wennovation became the birthplace for what they called Afropreneurs – African entrepreneurs building digital startups for profit and purpose.
In rapid succession, the LoftyInc teamco-established the Lagos Angels and Afropreneur Angel groups, the African Business Angel Network (ABAN), and AfriLabs.In 2017, Marsha helped birth LoftyInc Capital – one of the first US-registered venture capital firms focused on African-ledstartups. LoftyInc Capital was an early investor in four of Africa’s nine unicorns.
Night of speed dating sessions
During the fireside chat, we discussed her amazing book – African Ngenuity, which reveals what is working for Africa’s tech ecosystem, what is not, and what might come next.
Eric holds out “African Ngenuity” as Marsha speaks to it
After the fireside set the tone for the night[4], Tyler Clemons the MC for the night, ushered in the speed dating sessions, setting a timer for 5-minute sessions. Participants with green labelled badges were investors whilst blue designated entrepreneurs, and pink was for the independents.
Tyler Clemons starting the speed dating session
The speed dating went on for ten rounds of 5 minutes each totaling 50 minutes with a 10-minute break.
Speed dating in full swing with a full house
Afterward there was a networking session over drinks and food during which additional 22 people joined which we accommodated with an overflow outside the lounge – a spectacular end to our first speed dating event.
[1] https://techlabari.com/angel-fair-africas-successful-outcomes-evident-at-nyc-event/
