Aadil Mamujee

I left my job at Pocket Gems in 2015 to figure out what I should do next with my life. I had always wanted to work on technology in emerging markets (particularly sub-saharan Africa) and did not really know the best way to start doing that. I’m Kenyan, born in Mombasa, but have spent the majority of my adult life in the UK and USA. I decided to move to Kenya temporarily to figure out the best way for me to work on emerging market problems. 

I met over 50 startups, investors and technologists, spent a few months working at M-Kopa and learned a lot from my time in Nairobi.  I realised how much my eyes opened up by just spending time physically in the country and interacting with like-minded people on a day to day basis. I spent around a year learning, thinking and considering what to do next and it was one of the most rewarding years I’ve had in a long time. 

I ultimately decided to work at Segovia Technology, based out of NYC, which is a financial services company focused on sub-saharan Africa. I chose to do this over moving back to Kenya for a variety of personal and professional reasons and I’m excited for this next phase of my career. 

Segovia has a mission that appeals to me (using technology to aid poverty alleviation), has an excellent team who is hungry and focused on succeeding, and is primarily focused on Africa. In the best case, we will be able to reach hundreds of millions of people and in our fail case we help a few thousand people receive aid. 

I’d like to spend the next phase of my career building products for sub-saharan Africa and supporting amazing entrepreneurs who are focused on the region through angel investing (e.g. OKHI, M-Kopa, BRCK). I feel like technology is the path to economic development and poverty alleviation in countries like Kenya and I’m excited to be a part of the journey.