Mélanie Keïta Mariam

Co-Founder & CEO at Melanin Kapital

Named by Forbes in the 2021’s 30 under 30 list, Melanie is the CEO and co-founder of Melanin Kapital, the 1st digital investment bank helping African founders to access and grow capital, based in Kenya, France and Germany. With her team, she provides social impact entrepreneurs with access to online banking, financing and investment services. As a French-Malian private equity professional, Mélanie has always endeavoured to leverage on her inter-cultural perspective and her financial expertise to contribute to the efforts of economic development on the African continent. She has worked in the impact investment field for the past six years in Africa and in the Middle East, supporting due diligence processes aiming at investing in SMEs, start ups and financial institutions. 

Over the years working in different impact ventures such as Investisseurs et Partenaire and Finance in Motion, she has particularly developed a deeper knowledge in corporate finance, fundraising and impact assessment. Besides her investment activities, she teaches in business schools and universities. Currently in ESCP Europe she delivers an elective class on impact investing in emerging markets. She offers similar lectures for entrepreneurs in accelerator programs like Bridge for Billions or GIZ-SAIS program. Mélanie holds a Master' s in Corporate Finance from ESSCA business school, MSc International Sustainability from ESCP Europe and is certified as a Microfinance expert from Frankfurt School of Finance Management.