Carnegie Mellon University

David Ross

David L. Ross

Africa Impact Angel Investment Banking

Address
Kigali, Rwanda

Industry/Field

Africa, Energy

Bio

David has over 20 years private and public sector experience serving multilateral clients including World Bank, African Development Bank, and development agencies from the US, UK, France, Sweden, Germany; financial institution clients including HSBC, AIG, JP Morgan Chase, Credit-Suisse, and Morgan Stanley; startups, business owners, SMEs, and project developers in Sub-Saharan Africa. David has completed successful evaluation, design, and implementation of more $300 million worth of investment funds for multilateral institutions to catalyze growth in SME businesses in renewable energy, water, and agriculture in Tanzania, Kenya, Rwanda, and across Sub-Saharan Africa. These catalytic investment funds are projected to increase access to renewable electricity for more than one million people for the first time; provide more reliable access to drinking water for over 800,000 people; and provide access to funding for more than 400 small agricultural businesses. David has successfully raised more than $80 million for nine companies seeking equity, debt, and grant funding in Eastern Africa in agriculture, telecom and renewable energy sectors. He has made angel, pre-seed, seed, Series A, and other similar investments into 15 startups in South Africa, Tanzania, Rwanda, Kenya, Ethiopia, and across the continent in cyber security, machine learning, proptech, microfinance, healthtech, insuretech, business services, agriculture, and other sectors with a focus on technology enabled B2B and B2B2C solutions. David served Carnegie Mellon University Africa for 10 years teaching topics of innovation, entrepreneurship, investment, global sourcing, management, and automation departing as a Distinguished Professor of Practice of IT Entrepreneurship and Founding Manager of CMU-Africa's Industry Innovation Lab in 2020. He has an undergraduate degree in Information Systems Analysis and Design and International Business from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and an MBA in Finance from NYU-Stern School of Business. David serves as the United States Ambassador to the Open University of Tanzania focusing on workforce development and as former Board Member of the American Chamber of Commerce in Tanzania. David is the co-author of "How do we Finance It" published by The German Climate and Technology Initiative, holds 6 very silly world records, and resides in Kigali, Rwanda.