Jarl Heijstee

Managing Partner at XSML Capital

Speaker

Jarl Heijstee, CFA, is Co-Founder and Managing Partner of XSML Capital, an impact investment firm that provides growth capital to small and medium-sized enterprises in frontier markets in Sub-Saharan Africa. He co-manages the firm’s funds and oversees investments and operations in Uganda, Kenya, and Zambia.

Based in Nairobi, he has helped XSML raise over US $275 million across four SME funds, backing more than 100 companies that have created thousands of jobs and expanded access to goods and services in the DRC, Uganda, Angola, Zambia, and Kenya.

Jarl has over 25 years’ experience building and managing investment funds in emerging markets. Before founding XSML, he worked at FMO, structuring private equity and mezzanine deals in Africa and Latin America. In Bolivia, he launched a local-currency microfinance fund for Latin America and the Caribbean.

Earlier, he managed ABN Amro’s Global Emerging Market Equity Fund. He holds an MA in Business Administration from the University of Groningen and is a Chartered Financial Analyst.