• Charmaine Hayden

    Founding Partner

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    Charmaine Hayden

    Founding Partner

    Charmaine Hayden is best known for being co-founder of the dynamic force behind the triple award-winning modelling agency, Face4music. Face4music is a leading ethnic curve model agency located in London. The agency represents close to 70 models located across the globe.

    With a successful modelling agency under her belt, Charmaine is passionate about helping other women start new ventures. She started a women’s empowerment group called Gold Digger where she is a confidence coach, mentor and advisor to women in her local community helping them launch their own businesses.

    In 2016, she co-launched a successful online media channel, Not for The Radio, where she is a co-host interviewing top musical artists. The channel has over 10 million views and digs into the business behind top industry artists and their craft. With a passion for start-ups and a wealth of knowledge across both the entertainment and media sectors, Charmaine was an obvious fit for the team at GOODsoil. Her vision is to help find and fund more women-led startups.

    Charmaine received a dual degree in law and psychology from the University of East London where she graduated with Honors. She loves to cook and develop new recipes for her friends and family.

  • Ashley Thompson-MacCarthy

    Partner

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    Ashley Thompson-MacCarthy

    Partner

    Ashley has a track record in building successful financial services companies. He began his career working for a family office in London before deciding to go out on his own with business partner, and co-founder of GOODsoil, Richard Mensah.

    Together, they co-founded Reflex Eco, a precious metal brokerage firm in the UK, before deciding to cross geographies and start investing in their mutual home country of Ghana. Since 2013, Ashley worked on multiple investment advisory projects in Ghana focusing on infrastructure and agricultural development including raising £32m for a Ghana-based teak plantation.

    In 2014, Ashley paired up with Rich Mensah once again to start OBSIDIAN, a Fixed income, Currencies and Commodities (FICC) trading business for the financial services sector of Sub-Saharan Africa. In 2015, OBSIDIAN completed their first deal and since then the company has become one of the leading brokerage firms in Sub-Saharan Africa, reaching a trade volume of £760 million in 2017.

    Building upon his success with OBSIDIAN, Ashley decided it was time to help others with an entrepreneurial spirit start and grow their own ventures. In 2017 GOODsoil was founded. His vision for the firm is to provide start-up resources to those communities that are often underfunded or underrepresented in the start-up world.

    Ashley is an active member in local London organizations focusing on tackling youth and gang violence. His passion lies in helping that less privileged break through barriers to succeed in the business world.

  • Richard Mensah

    Partner

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    Richard Mensah

    Partner

    Richard is a serial entrepreneur, having founded his first company right out of university.

    Most notably in 2011 Richard founded GAFF TV, which created unique media content on the lives of famous footballers and Rus Management which was a Sports Marketing Agency connecting footballers to national brands. Bringing together his love of marketing and start-ups, in 2012 he launched Dream Random, a branding agency located in London. The agency has worked with brands such as MAINS© London and Nike.

    As a passion project, Richard co-founded The Supps, which is an online media channel focused on bringing awareness to new start-ups and SMEs through in-depth interviews.

    In parallel to his work in media, Richard co-founded Reflex Eco group, with GOODsoil’s Ashley MacCarthy. The company focused on investing in precious metals for high-wealth individuals across Europe. In 2015, the pair went on to found financial services company OBSIDIAN, which focused on investments across Sub-Saharan Africa. Richard was the principal strategist for the firm and helped them expand into the East African market. The company is based in Accra, Ghana and continues to thrive, having reached a trade volume of £760 million in 2017.

    In 2017, Richard co-founded GOODsoil. He is passionate about marketing and branding and will focus on building brand awareness and marketing for GOODsoil portfolio companies.


  • Akash Mishra

    Analyst

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    Akash Mishra

    Analyst

    With a background in law, Akash pursues a keen interest in interdisciplinary application of legal and financial scholarship for the economic analysis of competitive asset markets, focusing on private equity and venture capital funds.

    Akash has a Masters in Law and Finance from the University of Oxford.

  • Marcus East

    Marcus East

    Venture Partner

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    Marcus East

    Venture Partner

    Marcus possesses over 25 years of experience gained on three continents, working as a technology leader for major brands including Google, Apple, IBM, Comic Relief, Marks and Spencer, and National Geographic.

    He is currently the technical Director in Google’s Office of the CTO, which is a group of experienced engineers and former CTOs that work with Google’s largest customers and internal product engineering teams around the globe to help them tackle complex business and technical challenges. I am a Certified Professional Cloud Architect.

  • Stephan Breban

    Investment Advisor

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    Stephan Breban

    Investment Advisor

    Stephan has close to 30 years experience researching and investing in illiquid assets across the globe, as both a consultant and a fund manager. In this time he has also advised pension plans and other institutional investors on all aspects of investment, from asset allocation to manager selection.

    Stephan joined DWA Limited in 2009, providing rigorous, independent advice on all aspects of illiquid investments to institutional investors.

  • Danielle Graham

    Venture Partner

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    Danielle Graham

    Venture Partner

    Danielle is the principal at Sandpiper Ventures, unlocking angel capital for women-led teams in Canada. She was also the Fund Manager for Ontario Centres of Excellence Market Readiness Fund and founded the Fierce Founders programs, the first female-focused accelerator and Bootcamp series in Canada.


    Previously, she launched and sold a CleanTech startup and as a management consultant, built out Sonnet, Economical's direct-to-consumer business, and Deloitte's multiple innovation and executive labs. Her expertise encompasses due diligence, investment readiness, market analysis and driving growth to scale for early-stage technology startups.

  • Tomi Davies

    Investment Advisor

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    Tomi Davies

    Investment Advisor

    Tomi is one of Africa’s most experienced thought leaders and angel investors for early-stage investment and entrepreneurship in innovation and technology.

    Over the last decade, Tomi has looked after a growing portfolio of Africa-based tech-enabled early-stage businesses and is the Founder of the Lagos Angel Network (LAN) as well as holding the position of President of the African Business Angel Network (ABAN).

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