About the role

Factor[e] Ventures is seeking an Associate to add to our global team.  The position will be based in Nairobi. The successful candidate will have a strong finance and early-stage investment background and solid academic qualifications in a relevant business or finance, social science, engineering, or scientific field. In addition, candidates with technology or innovation and start-up company experience are preferred.  The Associate position is expected to require 25% travel to other emerging markets and the United States for evaluation of venture opportunities, venture support, and working in-person with Factor[e] global team members.

The Associate will be a key member of our team in Africa. The Associate will work to further Factor[e]’s mission to improve lives in the developing world through increased access to sustainable energy and related services. He/she/they will support Factor[e]’s overall investment strategy and process, including deal sourcing, pipeline generation, and investment thesis development.  He/she/they will also support multiple portfolio companies, providing active and frequent guidance in relation to product development, technology de-risking, team buildout, and execution of co-developed plans. 

This position reports to a Director at Factor[e] Ventures.

Roles and Responsibilities

Position will: 

• – Support deal sourcing, working up of investment opportunities, and presentation of deals to Factor[e]’s Investment Committee.
• – Build financial and investment models for deals and inform financial/commercial investment strategy.
• – Support portfolio companies by advancing strategic planning for company growth, and engaging in business model and operational design.
• – Develop an actionable network of entrepreneurs, technologists, investors, and sector leaders to advance Factor[e]’s work across its portfolio and geographies.  As part of this work, the Associate will work to deepen Factor[e]’s network of African entrepreneurs and sourcing nodes of entrepreneurs from the continent.

Required Qualifications:

• – 5+ years of direct experience working in finance or investment, ideally venture capital.
• – Minimum Bachelor’s Degree in business, finance, or a related field.
• – Demonstrated financial or other investment modeling skills.
• – Ability to build and maintain strong working relationships with a variety of stakeholders, including the global Factor[e] team and Board of Directors, portfolio company executives, external partners, and other collaborators.
• – Comfortable switching between working autonomously and in groups depending on the task
• – Positive, encouraging, collaborative attitude .
• – Eagerness to spend time in the field in the developing economies to build an understanding of how a technology or business can impact customers and end-users.
• – Ability to prioritize and complete multiple tasks efficiently, without sacrificing work quality.
• – Strong written and verbal English and strong presentation skills.

Desired Qualifications:

• – MBA or similar advanced degree.
• – Prior experience in technology or innovation roles and demonstrated technical literacy.
• – Experience in ag, energy, mobility or fintech sectors.

To Apply: Please submit your resume, cover letter explaining your interest in the position and in joining the Factor[e] team to 
william.mccaw@big5search.com with the subject line “Last Name – Investment Associate”.

Factor[e] Ventures is seeking an accountant to add to our global team.  The position will be based in Colorado with the ability to meet with team members in Fort Collins as needed. This role will give someone hands on experience and broad exposure.  The best candidate will be an experienced accounting professional that has the ability to work independently, is proactive, and has strong attention to detail.

Management: This position reports to the CFO at Factor[e] Ventures

Roles and Responsibilities

Position will:

• Maintain general ledger books and records; prepare and process transactions and exercise sound judgement regarding the proper application of accounting principles to complex transactions and various ad hoc deliverables
• Analyze and reconcile bank statements, investment activity, income and expense accruals, and general ledgers
• Prepare detailed general ledger reporting for various funders for grants and other income received
• Oversee use of technology solutions to streamline company accounting activities
• Close the books monthly and prepare balance sheet reconciliations
• Support both recurring and ad hoc investor requests and other requests from internal and external parties
• Special projects

Required Qualifications:

• 2-3+ years of relevant accounting experience
• Bachelor’s degree in accounting, finance, business administration, or equivalent work experience
• Highly proficient in MS Office (Word, Excel, Outlook, and PowerPoint) and technically savvy
• Strong attention to detail and analytical mindset
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills
• Superior organizational skills, ability to prioritize and multi-task; sound judgement
• Ability to adapt to change
• Positive attitude
• Comfortable working primarily remote

Desired Qualifications:

• Experience with small business accounting software (i.e. Xero, Quickbooks)
• CPA is a plus

To Apply: Please submit your resume, cover letter explaining your interest in the position and in joining the Factor[e] team to talent_finance@factore.com with the subject line “Last Name – Accountant”.

Factor(e) Ventures does not discriminate on the basis of race, age, color, religion, national origin or ancestry, sex, gender, disability, veteran status, genetic information, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression.

Factor(e) Ventures is committed to providing a safe and productive learning and living community. To achieve that goal, we may conduct background investigations for all final candidates being considered for employment. Background checks may include, but are not limited to, excluded parties checks, criminal history, national sex offender search, and motor vehicle history.­­

About Factor[e] Ventures

Factor[e] identifies, validates, de-risks, builds, and invests in scalable, high impact technology ventures that can help drive development through access to energy, agriculture, mobility, and smart infrastructure. We’re very engaged post-investment, helping our ventures develop the strategies, hone the technologies, build the teams, and raise the funds they need to achieve impact at scale.

To this end, Factor[e] is building a new venture studio in Africa. The mission of the venture studio is to increase incomes and reduce climate challenges in Sub-Saharan Africa by building high impact commercially viable ventures in Energy, Agriculture, Mobility and Waste.

About the Role

We are looking for a highly skilled Portfolio Director to join our team and work closely with leadership to build and execute the venture studio strategy. The Portfolio Director will report to an assigned founder of a venture build that is happening within the studio and will work closely with the venture founder to help them and their team go through the venture building process. The Portfolio Director will support the founder in venture strategy, human centered design, field research, and in project managing the venture creation process. The Portfolio Director will play an instrumental role in helping new founders utilize all of the resources that the Factor[e] Venture studio makes available to them.

A strong Portfolio Director will use rigorous, data driven insights to support venture builders and move at a fast pace to make progress towards pre-set targets and timelines, managing the studio led pilots and pushing them along & working with the co-founder to do the sprints. To succeed in this role, the ideal candidate will have experience working in an entrepreneurial environment in Africa, strong project management and business analysis skills, excellent communication skills, and the ability to execute and manage multiple competing priorities. All venture studio team members must also be committed to a mission-driven, collaborative, open and high performing team culture within the studio.

This position will be based in the Factor[e] office in Nairobi, Kenya, and will work closely with our team and partners across Africa. Some domestic and pan-African travel may be required.

This is a unique opportunity to learn from new company founders and to live the process of building new ventures from the ground up multiple times in a short time span.

Responsibilities

As the Factor[e] Venture Studio is new, this role may change as the needs of the organization change. To begin, the Venture Designer will have the following responsibilities:

• ● Venture Ideation & Pilot Leadership
  • o Portfolio Directors will provide leadership to multiple venture ideas as they go through the venture ideation and pilot phases in the studio.
  • o Initially, Portfolio Directors will focus on one of our core sectors – energy, agriculture or mobility – and will lead or support all ventures in this space while they are in the studio.
  • o Design & run Co-Founder Cohorts.
  • o Manage studio-led venture ideas and pilots until a Co-Founder has been recruited and onboarded (e.g. a 12 month seed technology pilot).
  • o For venture ideas that are Co-Founder led or Co-Created with Co-Founders, the Portfolio Director will be a partner to Co-Founders in the ideation and pilot phases.
  • o Conduct Co-Founder onboarding.
  • o Help make decisions about which venture ideas to invest in and which ones to kill.
  • o Help prepare IC materials and make recommendations to IC for the studio or in partnership with Co-Founders.

• ● Venture Building Support – Support venture co-founders as they go through the venture creation process: 
  • o When a Venture enters the Build Phase, it will always have a Co-Founder or Co-Founders leading the venture, but a Portfolio Director will continue to support the venture in multiple ways as it goes through the studio.
  • o Become an expert in the Factor[e] Venture Studio Human Centered Design and venture building practices and tools and train Co-Founders and their teams on them.
  • o Be a primary support person to new company founders by supporting them on their venture creation journey, taking them through the Venture Studio process, and enabling them to succeed by matching them with resources within the Factor[e] ecosystem.
  • o Ensure Co-Founders are maintaining high velocity and learnings throughout the process, as this is key to company and studio success.
  • o Support founders in the creation of venture updates, project plans and IC materials. Drive rigorous, high velocity project decisions with appropriate team members/stakeholders as needed. Conduct analysis of different strategic decisions or pathways and present to founders with recommendations
  • o Support venture founders in data analysis, business analysis, and in the creation of presentations.
  • o Fill in to missing roles on venture build teams by providing dynamic and nimble support in sales, marketing, strategy, or other departments.

• ● Help Design & Continuously Improve the Studio Venture Building Process – Provide ongoing strategic support to founders and their teams:
  • o Consolidate learnings from the venture design process and incorporate learnings into the core venture studio materials.
  • o Create new venture building best practices and tools.
  • o Conduct webinars and training to Co-Founders and companies in and out of the venture studio.
  • o Conduct analysis on the venture building process in order to identify opportunities to improve.

Required Qualifications

• ● Demonstrated passion for our mission to build high impact, commercially scalable ventures in Energy, Agriculture and Mobility in Sub-Saharan Africa to address some of Africa’s greatest income inequality and climate issues.
• ● 5+ years of experience building a fast-growing venture and/or product design and management experience in Africa.
• ● Experience working in an entrepreneurial environment in Africa. Experience with venture studios is a plus.
• ● Leadership experience in a professional, educational or community setting (experience managing another employee, starting a new company or organization, leading a volunteer project, captain of sports team, etc)
• ● Strong professional verbal, written, visual communication and presentation skills
• ● Experience analyzing qualitative and quantitative data to inform strategy and decision making
• ● Demonstrated ability to contribute to a strong team culture and build and maintain strong working relationships with a variety of stakeholders
• ● Must be comfortable self-managing multiple priorities and partners concurrently, thrive in the face of change and uncertainty, and be motivated to drive projects forward
• ● Positive, encouraging, collaborative attitude
• ● Bachelor’s degree or equivalent

Preferred Qualifications

• ● Experience in the energy, agriculture or mobility sectors

To Apply: Please submit your resume to talent@factore.com with the subject line “Last Name – Portfolio Director”. Please include a brief cover letter explaining your interest in the position and in joining the Factor[e] team.

We are building a diverse and inclusive leadership team. Candidates from African countries and women are particularly encouraged to apply for this role. But Factor(e) Ventures does not discriminate on the basis of race, age, color, religion, national origin or ancestry, sex, gender, disability, veteran status, genetic information, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression.

Factor(e) Ventures is committed to providing a safe and productive learning and living community. To achieve that goal, we may conduct background investigations for all final candidates being considered for employment. Background checks may include, but are not limited to, criminal history, national sex offender search and motor vehicle history.

About the Factor[e] Venture Studio
Factor[e] Ventures is a global impact investment group with offices in Kenya, USA and UK, whose mission is to increase incomes and reduce the impact of climate change in Sub-Saharan Africa by building high-impact energy, agriculture, water, and mobility ventures. Over the next 10 years, we aim to build and invest in 100 new ventures with over $2B in follow-on investment to impact over 100M lives and to reduce carbon emissions by 1Gt.

The Factor[e] Venture Studio will build new companies from scratch and provide post-investment support to our growing portfolio. We ideate, launch, and scale new ventures from idea to exit, providing hands-on strategy and back office support to our venture teams as they scale.

Opportunity to build companies from idea to exit in new start-up studio in Africa About the Factor[e] Venture Studio

Our mission is to build high-impact energy, agriculture and mobility ventures that are addressing some of Sub-Saharan Africa’s greatest income inequality and climate challenges. We ideate, launch, and scale new ventures from idea to exit with exceptional co-founders, intrapreneurs, business leaders and operators close to the customer on the ground in Africa. A dedicated venture studio team provides hands-on strategy and back-office support to our venture teams as they scale. The Studio will not incubate or accelerate existing companies, but rather will use a unique venture-building process to identify business opportunities internally, test solutions in the market with real customers, and build diverse teams of co-founders to take the most promising ventures from ideas to exit.

The Factor[e] Venture Studio is based in Kenya and we will open a second office in West Africa soon so we can be close to the customers, companies, and markets we serve across Africa. We are currently building our first two ventures and we are recruiting new co-Founders to build our next energy and agriculture ventures.

We believe that diverse teams will build more scalable ventures and thus we aim to build teams with >60% African and >50% female leaders, so entrepreneurs, intrapreneurs, leaders, and operators of all backgrounds are encouraged to apply. Co-Founders will have access to 1 to 2 years of seed capital investment, studio support and other benefits to build a company. If successful, venture teams will receive support to raise growth capital to spin out their ventures and scale.

To date, Factor[e] has built a portfolio of 23 scalable, high-impact technology ventures in these sectors in Africa and India and these companies have gone on to raise more than $300M in capital. We aim to build and invest in 100 new ventures with over $2B in follow-on investment that together impact over 100M lives and reduce emissions by 1Gt in the next 10 years.

The Opportunity to Co-Found a Venture

Are you passionate about building new and exciting ventures that solve Africa’s greatest income inequality and climate challenges? Do you thrive in a fast-paced environment, where you gain a tremendous amount of responsibility and accountability? Do you want to be part of an exceptional entrepreneurial team with highly motivated and driven people? If so, you may be a great Venture Co-Founder in our new start-up studio.

The Co-Founder will co-found businesses within the Venture Studio by taking venture ideas and technologies through a human-centered design and lean startup process to iteratively validate and grow the best new business opportunities. Successful Venture Co-Founders will have the opportunity to lead and grow ventures that spin out of the studio.

This opportunity will be initially based in the Factor[e] Venture Studio in Nairobi, Kenya. Some domestic and international travel may be required and re-location may be required in the future if your venture expands to other markets in Africa.

Traits of Ideal Co-Founders

• Approx 10+ years of work experience and 5+ years of leadership experience including budget ownership
• Demonstrated entrepreneurial or intrapreneurial experience building something significant from scratch
• Willingness and ability to live and work close to the customer in Kenya

How We will Support You

We know that many exceptional entrepreneurs, intrapreneurs, leaders and operators in Africa want to build new ventures from the ground up. But many lack access to venture capital, talent or the support they need to do this successfully at scale. We also know that many great leaders like to build new things in a team-based environment with mentors, peers and back office support.

To overcome these challenges, the Factor[e] Venture Studio supports Co-founders including the below:

• 1-2 years of seed capital and hands-on venture-building support
• Operational support to spin out your company and raise growth capital
• Performance-based incentives such as equity in the company you build and participation in the venture studio ESOP
• Base compensation to cover basic living expenses and benefits such as comprehensive medical insurance for you and your family
• Experienced leaders & entrepreneurs as mentors, peers and collaborators

How to Join us: Send us an email explaining your interest in the opportunity to talent@factore.com with the subject line “Name – Venture Co-Founder”. Please tell us about something you have built from idea to impact in your cover letter or supporting materials and include a link to your LinkedIn profile or CV. You can share a venture idea you have today, but this is not required.

About the Factor[e] Venture Studio

Factor[e] Ventures is a global impact investment firm with offices in Nairobi, Kenya, Fort Collins, Colorado, and London, UK. Factor[e] identifies, validates, de-risks, builds, and invests in scalable, high impact technology ventures that can help drive development through access to energy, agriculture, transportation, and smart infrastructure. We’re very engaged post-investment, helping our ventures develop the strategies, hone the technologies, build the teams, and raise the funds they need to achieve impact at scale.

To this end, Factor[e] is building a new venture studio in Africa. The mission of the venture studio is to build high impact, commercially viable ventures in Energy, Agriculture, Mobility and Waste that are addressing some of SubSaharan Africa’s greatest income inequality and climate challenges.

About the Role

We are looking for a highly skilled Business Strategy Associate (BSA) to join our team and work closely with leadership to build and execute the venture studio strategy. The Business Strategy Associate will report to the Partner and Chief Venture Builder and will have the opportunity to work with different teams within the platform. More specifically, BSAs will conduct research to inform strategic decisions, scope and execute strategic initiatives/projects, advance key partnerships and support leadership. Business Strategy Associates will use rigorous, data driven insights to make project recommendations and will own projects through the entire process from project scoping and execution to post project reflection. 

To succeed in this role, the ideal BSA candidate will have experience working in an entrepreneurial environment in Africa, strong project management and business analysis skills, excellent communication skills, and ability to execute and manage multiple competing priorities. All venture studio team members must also be committed to a missiondriven, collaborative, open and high performing team culture within the studio.

This position will be based in the Factor[e] office in Nairobi, Kenya, and will work closely with our team and partners across Africa. Some domestic and pan-African travel may be required.

For successful Business Strategy Associates candidates, this opportunity provides a unique ability to create impact, work closely with Factor[e] leadership, be an early member of an entrepreneurial start up team in Africa and work on a diverse range of mission-critical projects within the venture studio. In the future, high performing BSAs will have access to professional development and career growth opportunities within Factor[e] or the broader ecosystem. 

Responsibilities

● Research & Business Analysis

Conduct business relevant research and provide quantitative analysis on data sets to inform strategic decisions within the studio:

• o Support with the development of the overall venture studio strategy
• o Conduct rigorous, but efficient primary and secondary research on topics strategically relevant to the venture studio
• o Provide quantitative and qualitative analysis
• o Synthesize and communicate insights to inform strategy
• o Write white papers, summaries and reports, as needed

● Strategic Project Management

Scope and execute strategic projects to support and accelerate the development, growth and impact of the venture studio, including:

• o Scope projects with input from key stakeholders
• o Create project plans and budgets
• o Lead and/or oversee execution of project plan and measure progress towards goals
• o Drive rigorous, high velocity project decisions with appropriate team members/stakeholders as needed. Conduct analysis of different strategic decisions or pathways and present to leadership with recommendations
• o Document project progress and learnings through retrospectives to evaluate impact
• o Ensure ongoing execution of project or initiative at end of contract

● Leadership and Stakeholder Support

Provide ongoing strategic support to leadership, key partners, and stakeholders:

• o Join meetings, document and send follow up as appropriate with key partners
• o Create content for key partners and stakeholders as needed to raise capital, increase awareness about the venture studio and deepen relationships with investors, partners and potential employees
• o Support the development of external venture studio materials and communication strategy
• o Admin support as needed and appropriate based on candidate and team priorities

Note: All Business Strategy Associates will align on specific strategic projects and goals at the beginning of their engagement. BSAs will review progress towards their goals and adapt their priorities through bi-weekly 1-1s with a Partner and quarterly team strategy sessions. Also, all BSAs will have the opportunity to define and work on personal professional development goals.

Required Qualifications

• ● Demonstrated passion for our mission to build high impact, commercially scalable ventures in Energy, Agriculture and Mobility in Sub-Saharan Africa to address some of Africa’s greatest income inequality and climate issues
• ● Leadership experience in a professional, educational or community setting (experience managing another employee, starting a new company or organization, leading a volunteer project, captain of sports team, etc)
• ● 2-3+ years of business research, business analysis, project management, or management consulting experience
• ● Strong professional verbal, written, visual communication and presentation skills
• ● Experience analyzing qualitative and quantitative data to inform strategy and decision making
• ● Demonstrated ability to contribute to a strong team culture and build and maintain strong working relationships with a variety of stakeholders
• ● Must be comfortable self-managing multiple priorities and partners concurrently, thrive in the face of change and uncertainty, and be motivated to drive projects forward
• ● Positive, encouraging, collaborative attitude.
• ● Strong references and demonstration of high performance and reliability
• ● Bachelor’s degree or equivalent

Required Qualifications

• ● Experience in the energy, agriculture or mobility sectors
• ● Experience working in an entrepreneurial environment in Africas

If you are passionate about our mission and joining the team, but don’t see a role that is a perfect fit, send us an email with your resume and a cover letter explaining how you can contribute to our mission at talent@factore.com.