Starta owner, Dotun Olowoporoku, has joined venture catalyst firm, Novastar Ventures. He is an Associate Investment Director.
Dotun revealed this in a blog post where he outlined journey over the last couple of years after his PhD program. He talked about his first venture into entrepreneurship with meals.co.uk, an online food delivery platform that allowed users to order food from top quality restaurants for delivery within 40 minutes.
He also talked about his journey with Doug Scott of PotentialVC and much more.
Novastar Ventures invests in transformational early-stage businesses that enable market access and provide economic opportunities for low-income, mass market populations in Africa. Novastar recently raised $72.5 million as the first close for its second fund, targeting $120 million in total commitments. This new fund enables Novastar to continue its work in East Africa, and expand its reach to West Africa. Dotun will be spearheading the work in West Africa.
According to Dotun, “I’ve always wanted to be an investor in an institutional VC firm with significant capital to back entrepreneurs that are building the African future. Novastar gives me the opportunity to do this.”
Due to his new role, Dotun says he will be transitioning out of Starta to focus on this. He will also be pausing Building the Future Podcast for a few months in order to immerse himself into his new role and accelerate the initial learning curve. He will be working from Nairobi in the next few months to learn with the team. And ultimately, he will be moving to Lagos.
For Dotun’s full blog post, click here
