In this edition of the Melanin Rich Fireside Chat, we sit down with one of the most dynamic women reshaping Africa’s investment and innovation landscape, Maya Horgan Famodu, founder and managing director of Ingressive Capital.

This is not your typical talk. It’s a deep, unfiltered conversation about power, ownership, and the business of building Africa’s next generation of market leaders.

Maya is more than an investor; she’s an ecosystem architect. Through Ingressive Capital, she has backed some of Africa’s most successful startups, including Paystack, acquired by Stripe for over $200 million, and Carry1st, backed by global investors like Andreessen Horowitz, Sony, and Google. Her approach to venture capital is rooted in discipline, vision, and impact, not hype.

What sets Maya apart is her intentionality.

• 100% of her portfolio companies have indigenous equity owners, ensuring that African founders don’t just participate in success,  they own it.

• 40% of her founders are female-led, proving that inclusion is not a checkbox; it’s a competitive advantage.

• And through Ingressive for Good, she’s provided training and technical opportunities to hundreds of thousands of young Africans, demonstrating that access to skills is access to power.

Maya’s story isn’t one of waiting for validation; it’s one of building without permission. She didn’t ask if African founders were ready for global investment; she proved they were. She didn’t wait for the world to discover Africa’s potential; she showed them what they were missing.

This Fireside Chat explores the realities behind her success and the lessons every founder, investor, and changemaker can draw from her journey:

• What it takes to build sustainable, scalable African businesses with global relevance

• How to attract and manage capital with discipline and integrity

• Why ownership and representation are the foundation of true wealth creation

• What’s next for women leading Africa’s entrepreneurial transformation

At Melanin Rich, we believe entrepreneurship is not just about business; it’s about power, purpose, and progress. This conversation with Maya Horgan Famodu captures that belief in motion, real strategies, real insight, and real talk from one of the continent’s boldest voices in venture capital.

Because Africa’s story is no longer about potential, it’s about performance. And this is where we learn how to lead it.