Kanini Mutooni

As a Senior Managing Director of the Foundation, Kanini Mutooni plays a lead role in sourcing new investments and working with the leadership of those organizations, primarily in Europe, Africa, and India, as an operating partner and board member as they grow to build capacity and to achieve their maximum impact. As a member of the Foundation’s senior leadership team, she also helps execute the Foundation’s strategy and goals and contributes to its thought leadership and external outreach for the African continent from the DRK office in Nairobi. Kanini currently serves on the board of DRK grantees Edulution, Emata, and eWAKA. She previously served on the boards of DRK grantees Brastorne Enterprises, Friendship Bench, Imagine Worldwide, Keep IT Cool, Kwangu Kwako, People’s Pension Trust, VIA Global Health, and Vula Medical.

Kanini Mutooni was previously MD for Toniic, the global action network for impact investors. Before this, Kanini was the Director for Investment at the USAID-funded East Africa Trade and Investment Hub, a $65M, 8-country initiative to attract investment and increase trade in the East Africa region. Kanini is a UK Chartered Accountant with a record of exceptional leadership gained in East Africa, Europe, and the United States. She is currently the immediate former Board Chair of The Global Innovation Fund, a $250M investment vehicle that has 4 of the G7 countries as permanent shareholders. She also serves as a Board member at MCE Social Capital, a US non-profit that uses a pioneering loan guarantee model for early-stage organizations in emerging economies. She has also recently been appointed as Board advisor for the United Nations Capital Development Fund, the UN’s capital investment agency for the world’s 48 Least Developed countries.

Kanini has worked at the Board level in leadership positions at investment banks in London and the US, such as Bank of America-Merrill Lynch and Dresdner Kleinwort Benson. In 2014She continues to provide strategic advisory support to a number of Africa-focused impact funds, such as the $100m African Agriculture SME Fund, the $30M AHL Venture Fund, and the $175M Africa Food Security Fund, the immediate former Board Chair of The Global Innovation Fund, a $250M investment vehicle with 4 of Investment at the USAID-funded East Africa Trade and Investment Hub, a $65M, 8-country initiative to attract investment and increase trade in East Africaof MCE Social Capital, a US non-profit that uses a pioneering loan-guarantee, she was recognized by the World Economic Forum as a Young Global Leader for her exceptional leadership in business, the health sector, and global entrepreneurship. She continues to provide strategic advisory support to a number of Africa focused impact funds such as the $100m African Agriculture SME Fund and the $30M AHL Venture Fund, and the $175M Africa Food Security Fund. She is a visiting lecturer at the University of Cape Town’s Bertha Center for Social Innovation.