Anthea Hartzenberg is a senior growth, communications, and community strategist with 10 years of experience in the African & European startup and tech ecosystems. She formerly headed Engagement at OfferZen, Africa’s largest developer talent marketplace. Anthea scaled OfferZen’s B2B and B2C community strategy and branded merchandise operations from 100,000 developers in South Africa to six additional European markets, including Germany, the Netherlands, the UK, and Spain. Prior to OfferZen, she worked as Strategic Communications and Media Relations Manager at JUMO, the leading fintech in Africa at the time, valued at over $400 million.

An avid advocate for empowering African women to enter the startup space, Anthea is the founder and co-lead of Women Leads – an online community for women tech leaders in Africa. She has used her platform to become a foremost thought leader for curating diverse communities in the African startup ecosystem. As part of this, Anthea has been invited to speak on cultivating collaborative communities on the biggest of stages, including CMX, RISE Africa, and Juno Live. Her strategic communications work has also been featured in leading global and African tech publications, including Techcrunch, Business Insider, Tech Cabal, ITWeb, and Disrupt Africa.

She is a former board member of Brightest Young Minds, an NPO in South Africa developing a generation of proactive young leaders equipped with the skills, mindset, and network needed to address present and future challenges in Africa.

Born in Cape Town, South Africa, and educated at Stellenbosch University, she holds additional qualifications from the University of Marburg (DE), GIBS Business School (ZA) and Stellenbosch Business School (ZA). Born into Apartheid South Africa, and entering the labor force in her mid-teens as a newsreader, Anthea has proven that resilience is the key to her career success. Her journey is a testament to the determination of women of color in leadership and she’s navigated multiple industries, and diverse roles to break barriers. A ‘full-time’ African digital nomad, Anthea has lived in 7 countries across the African continent.

Anthea Hartzenberg is a senior growth, communications, and community strategist with 10 years of experience in the African & European startup and tech ecosystems. She formerly headed Engagement at OfferZen, Africa’s largest developer talent marketplace. Anthea scaled OfferZen’s B2B and B2C community strategy and branded merchandise operations from 100,000 developers in South Africa to six additional European markets, including Germany, the Netherlands, the UK, and Spain. Prior to OfferZen, she worked as Strategic Communications and Media Relations Manager at JUMO, the leading fintech in Africa at the time, valued at over $400 million.

An avid advocate for empowering African women to enter the startup space, Anthea is the founder and co-lead of Women Leads – an online community for women tech leaders in Africa. She has used her platform to become a foremost thought leader for curating diverse communities in the African startup ecosystem. As part of this, Anthea has been invited to speak on cultivating collaborative communities on the biggest of stages, including CMX, RISE Africa, and Juno Live. Her strategic communications work has also been featured in leading global and African tech publications, including Techcrunch, Business Insider, Tech Cabal, ITWeb, and Disrupt Africa.

She is a former board member of Brightest Young Minds, an NPO in South Africa developing a generation of proactive young leaders equipped with the skills, mindset, and network needed to address present and future challenges in Africa.

Born in Cape Town, South Africa, and educated at Stellenbosch University, she holds additional qualifications from the University of Marburg (DE), GIBS Business School (ZA) and Stellenbosch Business School (ZA). Born into Apartheid South Africa, and entering the labor force in her mid-teens as a newsreader, Anthea has proven that resilience is the key to her career success. Her journey is a testament to the determination of women of color in leadership and she’s navigated multiple industries, and diverse roles to break barriers. A ‘full-time’ African digital nomad, Anthea has lived in 7 countries across the African continent.

Mia von Koschitzky-Kimani is passionate about helping African startups realize their potential, and leverages precise strategic acumen mixed with a healthy dose of empathy.

She learned that both are essential to a company’s success as an operator, venture capitalist, angel investor, and entrepreneur who co-founded and navigated her own startup through an exit.

Born in Germany, Mia attended Harvard Business School, where she earned her MBA, before moving to Africa in 2009 and adopting the continent as her own. After helping start the Johannesburg and Nairobi offices of the Boston Consulting Group, she co-founded the startup DukaConnect in the retail and AI space, which she later exited to Mastercard.

Prior to joining Pan-African VC firm, Future Africa as Managing Partner, Mia was a Partner at climate focused firm, Persistent Energy Capital, as well as an active angel investor and advisor across the continent. She lives in Kenya with her husband and four children.

Dhanyal kicked off his career with Deloitte as a chartered accountant, worked in front and back offices of listed asset managers, and co-founded a media startup prior to entering the venture capital space. This kick-off at Goodwell Investments, an impact-focused venture capital firm with €350 million AUM, where Dhanyal swiftly rose to Associate Partner over his three year tenure. Post Goodwell, Dhanyal helped ideate and launch Next176, a corporate Venture Capital Fund within Pan-African and JSE Listed, financial services giant, Old Mutual, where he currently serves as Chief Investment Officer. Dhanyal holds an undergraduate in finance, a postgraduate in accounting, and a masters degree in finance, all from the University of Cape Town.

Benjamin has experience in both venture building and entrepreneurship, having worked as a program manager and managing partner at an incubator firm as well as startup consultant for multiple ventures across Africa. As a result, he has developed a variety of skills and expertise, including the ability to recognize very successful tech businesses even in their early stages and stakeholder management skills that have been demonstrated through collaboration with a diverse range of startups, industry experts, and ESO’s. Over the past 4 years, these experiences have given him the opportunity to identify some of Sub-Saharan Africa’s most promising tech startups and assist several to successful venture raises.

Rob currently leads Tencent’s investment activities in European growth-stage technology companies, as well as supporting the execution of Tencent’s strategic M&A globally. Prior to Tencent, Rob was a Vice President – in the TMT Investment Banking division at Rothschild & Co.

Rob holds a ‘Double Starred First’ M.A. in East Asian Studies from the University of Cambridge, in addition to this, he holds a Masters in Management (MiM) from Tsinghua University, China’s top university.

Quite uniquely Rob speaks 8 languages, with Chinese (Mandarin), English, German, French, and Japanese at a professional proficiency. YAC’s leadership believes Rob’s extensive work in China can serve as a natural link for YAC into the Chinese market, which has been expanding into Africa at a prolific rate over the last decade.