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Barbara Iyayi is the Managing Director of Unicorn Africa Investments, a private investment firm established to develop scalable and innovative industry platforms in Africa and the Co-founder of WiseHub, an AI-driven data analytics platform for financial services. She is also a Venture Partner at Lateral Capital, a venture capital fund that invests in early-stage technology enabled businesses in various sectors in Sub-Saharan Africa.

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Barbara is part of the founding investments team of Atlas Mara, an LSE listed company co-founded by Bob Diamond, ex-CEO of Barclays Bank, which raised over $1bn to invest in, operate and manage financial institutions in Sub-Saharan Africa.  As the Regional Lead for M&A and Investments, she developed the banking platform’s entry into 7 countries in Africa.

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Iyayi introduced and led the fintech committee that developed the digital banking growth strategy, established partnerships with Fintech companies and evaluated Fintech investment opportunities for Atlas Mara. Prior to Atlas Mara, Barbara worked on global transactions of over $15bn at various financial institutions, including as Vice President, Investment Banking at JPMorgan, New York.

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She received a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at Columbia University; and an MBA at Harvard Business School.

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