Bio

Barbara Iyayi is an experienced venture capital and growth equity investor, and entrepreneur with over 17 years’ experience in financial services, spanning venture capital, private equity, investment banking/M&A and technology. Barbara has founded, invested in, advised and taken board roles in FinTech, financial services and blockchain companies globally. She is the Founding Managing Partner of Unicorn Growth Capital, an early-stage Web3 VC fund that invests in the future of Finance, bridging TradFi & DeFi, to unleash inclusive economies. Unicorn Growth backs leading Web 2.5/3.0 companies providing FinTech & DeFi infrastructure across industries and uniquely helps them scale in markets with high crypto adoption. Barbara served on the board of the Web Foundation, an international non-profit focused on digital equality, founded by Sir Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the World Wide Web, and Rosemary Leith. Previously, she was the Board chair of Appzone, a blockchain payments and banking / FinTech infrastructure platform that enables the delivery of digital financial services in Africa. She was also the Chief Growth Officer and Managing Director for Africa of Element, Inc - a pioneer of mobile deep learning (AI) and co-founded by Yann LeCun, Chief AI Scientist at Facebook and Turing Award Laureate; she managed growth for Element's AI-powered digital identity software across US, Southeast Asia and Africa, partnering with financial service providers and FinTech companies. Previously, Barbara was part of the founding team of Atlas Mara, an LSE listed financial services platform co-founded by Bob Diamond, ex-CEO of Barclays Bank, which was the first ever SPAC for Africa and entity to raise over $1bn to invest in, operate and manage financial institutions in Sub-Saharan Africa. As the Regional Head for M&A & Investments, Barbara led acquisitions and investments in banks in 7 countries in Africa. She also led and pioneered the banking platform’s FinTech strategy and partnerships. 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, where amongst other transactions, she led IPOs for Delphi Automative (Aptiv PLC) and Nord Anglia Education. Prior to that, she worked at UBS Investment Bank and JPMorgan Private Bank in New York. She received a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at Columbia University, and an MBA at Harvard Business School.