Lewam Kefela

Lewam is an Investment Officer for the Partech Africa Fund based in Nairobi.

She began her career at a US fintech startup, Workiva, in finance and operations, and subsequently joined the Carlyle Group as an analyst focused on emerging markets. Prior to joining Partech, Lewam was an Investment Director at Village Capital, where she led the investment team, and invested in startups in the US, India, Latin America and Africa. Lewam also co-founded The Africa Playbook, a series of newsletters and conversations focused on telling Africa’s growth story.

She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from William & Mary in Virginia, USA, where she majored in Finance and Development Economics. She spent time at Tsinghua University in Beijing where she studied Mandarin and completed a research project focused on fragmented social networks in China and the rise of WeChat. Lewam also speaks English, Swahili and Tigrinya.