My year in review 2022

It is time to reflect on this phenomenal year as it draws to a close. What a year 2022 was! Although I initially trained as a medical doctor and even founded a healthtech company. I currently work in financial services full time as the Founding Partner of HealthCap Africa (formerly Flying Doctors Investment Company); an investment company that invests in both venture capital and infrastructure asset classes.

Our infrastructure arm invests in healthcare infrastructure, clean water and clean energy particularly gas with close to $1bn in our pipeline of projects whilst our venture capital arm invests in early stage fintech and healthtech, we have nearly 30 portfolio companies with a total value of over $300m.

I previously founded a tech enabled urgent care market place called Flying Doctors Nigeria , which I stopped running a few years ago, but sit on its board. The company remains profitable, with strong dollar denominated growth having served 47 of 54 countries in Africa and over 100 cities around the world. The company is led by an exemplary team of executives who I am immensely proud of.

• Extremely humbled & honored to have received a National Honor (Member of the Federal Republic/MFR), conferred by H.E. President of Nigeria, Muhammadu Buhari. I was one of the youngest honorees and also one of the few women that made the list. Read about it here .
• I was appointed as the YPO Learning Officer for YPO Lagos Chapter.
• I was appointed to the Executive of Committee of Women In Finance Nigeria; the leading industry group for women that work in financial services
• I was recognized as one of the 40 under 40 Black Women in Asset Management. Read more about it here
• We signed an MoU for a healthcare project with a country in East Africa worth $30m
• We expanded our investment mandate on the infrastructure arm to include the social determinants of health like clean water and clean air (clean energy) through our rebrand to HealthCap Africa
• Greentree Investment Company was the first fund which I co-founded and help run alongside partners and our Chairman Mr Bode Agusto. Our Annual General Meeting number 5 took place at the end of the year, we announced a 25% IRR to our limited partners positioning Greentree amongst the top performing quartile of global venture capital funds. It is notable to state that the average S&P?return?for the past 10 years was 9.9%.
• Launched Healthtech Unicorns report which focused on the sub-sectors that the first African healthtech unicorn would emerge from as well as the challenges/opportunities for healthtech on the continent. Download it here

The year in Venture Capital/Portfolio Wins

• Invested in 7 new companies , 4 in Health tech and 3 in Fintech
• Emergency response Africa; which is one of our portfolio companies signed a partnership with the Ekiti state government providing emergency?services for the state which will impact their revenue.
• ReelFruit founder; Affiong Williams emerged as the winner of Veuveclicquot bold woman awards out of a pool of 250 businesswomen.
• BeaconHealth /Mdass Global; a diagnostics company in our portfolio, reached a milestone of 100,000 patients visits, out of which 50,000 patient visits were achieved in 11 months.
• Lifestores Healthcare , a pharmaceutical market place raised $3million in a pre series A. Read my article about the raise here.
• Instantrad; a teleradiology company, partnered with NVIDIA AI to enhance their software with artificial intelligence that can help doctors diagnose patients more easily. Read more here .
• Payhippo; a fintech portfolio company acquired a bank! Read more here .
• Even in this years difficult fundraising environment our portfolio companies raised almost $30m in new funding

This year in learning

• I continued to teach economics and finance at the school of politics, policy and governance in Nigeria. My classes at SPPG are only for students, but I have over 200 hours of FREE lectures in finance & economic on my youtube channel here .
• I completed a great executive course on Mergers and Acquisitions at Imperial College Business School.
• Graduated (after COVID delays) from the University of London with my Msc in Finance and Economic Policy (Major) focused on macroeconomics, microeconomics, banking, capital markets, corporate governance, bank regulation, financial crises and IMF/economic policy.
• Will be starting my Phd in Economics/Finance shortly

Speaking Engagements

?I spoke at AfricArena summits both in Tunisia and Cape Town about venture capital. I was honored to speak at the Nigerian Investment Summit on the sidelines of UNGA 2022 in New York on Healthcare infrastructure investing .?I enjoyed speaking at the Afreximbank AGM in Cairo. The panel was on venture capital & technology in Africa.

?I also spoke during the Investment Banking Awards Dinner, which held at Civic Centre in Lagos State, where panel discussion was on the topic, ‘The Future of Money: Prospects for Equity Capital Raising in Nigeria,’ Learn more on this here.

The future of health conference was also a great event that I thoroughly enjoyed.

My year in relationships

This year celebrated another wonderful wedding anniversary. Grateful that our marriage remains strong and healthy as we grow in love and life.

My year in diet and exercise

In 2020 and 2021, I practiced yoga for an hour almost every single day. 2022 I wasn't as strict about exercise although I did eat a much healthier diet in 2022 compared to previous years.

Plans for 2023

Looking to double down on our infrastructure investments next year and close some of the major projects we have in our pipeline. I am, alongside our team, also looking to actively continue to manage our portfolio by further supporting our founders in four main areas: fundraising, recruitment of talent, strategy and business development/marketing .

I am still a board member of Flying Doctors Nigeria , so will be offering strategy support for the team when needed.

I will be back on the road raising our next fund, so any introductions to family offices, institutions, HNI's, foundations or DFI's that would potentially be interested in our work would be appreciated.

Wishing everyone a healthy, happy 2023. Look forward to connecting more in the new year. All the best, Ola