Barbara Iyayi is a Venture Partner at Lateral Capital, a venture capital fund that invests in early-stage technology enabled businesses in various sectors in Sub-Saharan Africa. Within Lateral Capital, she leads their fintech investments across Africa.
Recently, Barbara was part of the founding investments team of Atlas Mara, an LSE listed company co-founded by Bob Diamond, ex-CEO of Barclays Bank, which raised over $1bn to invest in operate and manage financial institution in Sub-Saharan Africa. As the Regional lead for M&A and investments, she developed the banking platform's entry into 7 countries in Africa. Barbara Iyayi introduced and led the Fintech committee that developed the digital banking growth strategy, established partnerships with Fintech companies and evaluated Fintech investment opportunities for Atlas Mara.
Prior to that, she worked in the global industries and business services investment banking group as a Vice president at JPMorgan, in principal investments at Centerboard Group, a New York based merchant bank, and in the leveraged finance and technology investment banking groups at UBS. She was also a technology project manager at JPMorgan Private Bank. She received a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at Columbia University and an MBA at Harvard Business School.