Grace Legodi

Managing Partner at Untapped Southern Africa

Moderator

Grace is an all-round investment professional with over 15 years experience working with global financial institutions and start-ups/SMEs in Southern Africa and the United States. She is the GP Managing Partner of Untapped Southern Africa: A South African female owned/-led emerging fund manager focused on a data-driven alternative financing model for early stage green economy and asset-backed businesses in Southern Africa. They use IoT to track the productivity and revenue data streams coming off of the asset in real time, to better assess the health and scalability of the business. A founder friendly model that provides investors with a transparent and commercial solution for early stage investing in Southern Africa.

The majority of her work experience to-date is in Investment Banking. This experience was gained over 10 years, 5 years of which was spent working in M&A at Goldman Sachs based in New York and Johannesburg. She was also on the Ambassador Board of Launch with GS, Goldman Sachs’ first for-profit initiative to invest in diverse, women-founded, owned and/or -led businesses in the U.S.

She transitioned from investment banking to venture capital in 2020 in various roles whilst completing a Masters in Innovation & Entrepreneurship at HEC Paris. Undergrad was a Bachelor Business Science, Finance (Honours) from University of Cape Town.

Grace also serves on the investment committee/board of directors of various ventures focused on green economy, financial services and property sectors.