Team
InReturn Capital is currently led by a team of eight investment professionals, of which six based in East Africa, who bring complementary backgrounds in private equity, entrepreneurship, corporate finance, accounting and consultancy. The team will grow to 9 professionals on the ground with a EUR 20 million fund..
InReturn has formed a fund management partnership with Jacana, a group of UK private equity experts. Jacana invests in and supports new and emerging SME fund managers in Sub-Saharan Africa. Jacana selected InReturn in January 2010 after reviewing over 60 potential fund managers and works hands on in the team.
InReturn has a fund raising partnership with PYMWYMIC (Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is Company) to assist in promoting the impact investment opportunity of InReturn East Africa Fund amongst the growing base of impact investors.
InReturn East Africa Team
Steven Otto, Managing Partner and CEO
Steven is an entrepreneur with deep experience in trade, retail and production. In the 1990s, he served as CEO of a medium-sized Dutch flooring materials company, which he grew to become the industry’s market leader. In 2002, he began investing in and advising SMEs in emerging markets. In 2005, he served as the director of operations for an NGO with many projects in East Africa. He co-founded InReturn in 2007, setting up the Fund and inaugurating operations in Kenya. Steven lives in Nairobi, where he heads up InReturn’s East Africa team.
Anthony Gichini, Managing Partner
Anthony is a Kenyan national who gained considerable experience as a financial analyst at leading professional services firms and the International Finance Corporation (IFC). At IFC, he served on the team that spearheaded the pilot phase of IFC-SME Solutions Centre (IFC-SSC), a model for providing integrated risk capital and technical assistance solutions to SMEs in Kenya. As a Managing Partner at InReturn, Anthony works with other team members to identify attractive investment opportunities for the Fund and to develop appropriate financing structures.
Bart Meijs, Managing Partner and CFO
Bart brings extensive financial management expertise to his role as founder, CFO and Managing Partner at InReturn. He performed value-based management and project finance for public-private partnerships at PricewaterhouseCoopers. At DSM, a large chemical company, he was involved in two take-overs, a business process redesign, and the restructuring and sale of a production centre. He then joined RebelGroup Advisory, where he focused on due diligence processes and valuation, including investment transactions in East Africa. Raised in Rwanda and Burkina Faso, Bart holds an Executive Master of Finance and Controls and a Master of Science in Financial Business Economics from the Erasmus University of Rotterdam in the Netherlands.
Ezra Musoke, Managing Partner
Ezra Musoke has an outstanding track record of investing in SMEs in East Africa, having invested in SMEs in Uganda and Tanzania for GroFin. In Uganda Ezra was involved in the GroFin operations from the early start and in Tanzania he set up their office. He has closed 25 deals in Uganda and Tanzania and already exited deals successfully over the past 5 years. As member of the GroFin finance commitee he was involved in 13 deals in Nigeria, Ghana, South Africa, Kenya and Uganda. He joined the InReturn team in 2010.
Eelco Benink, Investment Manager
Eelco has gained international experience in consultancy for RebelGroup in the Netherlands, where he specialized in the infrastructure and utilities sectors, and in investment banking at the mergers and acquisitions department of NIBC in the Netherlands. He has worked on a large number of mandates in the infrastructure, energy, waste, food processing, construction and financial sectors for listed and private companies, private equity and infrastructure funds, governments and branch organizations. An active musician in his free time, Eelco studied Economics and Laws at the Erasmus University of Rotterdam.
Njeri Ngaruiya, Investment Analyst
Njeri is a Kenyan investment analyst who previously worked as an associate at investment bank Societe Generale, London, and with the private equity firm East African Capital Partners in Nairobi. She holds a bachelors degree in Business Management from the University of Surrey in the United Kingdom and a Masters in Finance from Cass Business School, London.
InReturn Europe Team
Stephen Dawson
Stephen, one of the UK’s first venture capitalists 30 years ago, is non-executive Chairman of ECI Partners. He is a co-founder of Impetus Trust, the UK pioneer of venture philanthropy. As Chairman and co-founder of Jacana Venture Partnership, he focuses on marketing, fundraising and serving as an Expert Mentor for InReturn Capital.
Robert Jenkins
One of the three founding partners of Phildrew Ventures (1985), Robert has 25 years of SME board level experience. He holds a Master of Science in Development Economics and, since 2004, has invested as a business angel in a portfolio of SMEs. He has also worked with Africa Now, an NGO focusing on alleviating poverty through trade. Robert is an Expert Mentor for InReturn Capital.
Simon Merchant
Simon is an entrepreneur with a background in finance, IT and venture capital. He headed up Morgan Stanley’s technology M&A business for Europe, and co-founded and lead the development of StreamVPN (sold to a US public company in 2005). Since 2006, as a co-founder of New Street Capital, Simon has been focusing on venture capital and has built a portfolio of high-growth technology and media investments across Europe. Chair of Trustees of Theatre for a Change, an HIV education charity active in Ghana and Malawi, Simon is the CEO and a co-founding shareholder of Jacana.
Frank van Beuningen, Advisor
Frank is founder and director of PYMWYMIC – "Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is Company" – a private equity advisor to impact investors in Benelux. A pioneer in the impact investing field, his first PYMWYMIC fund was formed in 1995 and provided seed funding for new industries like solar energy, lithium batteries and recyclable plastic. Frank is co-founder of SoCap Europe, founding member of SVN-Europe, a long-term member of Investor’s Circle, and serves on the boards of OIKO Credit, NESsT, and several international companies and family foundations. He is a fundraising advisor to InReturn Capital.
