Lori has hired Uche Ogboi as its Chief Operating Officer and Efayomi Carr as Head of Strategic Finance effective 29 July as it moves to drive its pan-African expansion plan.
Efayomi will be based in Nairobi while Uche will operate from Lagos but with frequent visits to Nairobi.
Ogboi served as the Principal, Investments, at EchoVC Partners, a Pan-Africa and tech-enabled venture capital firm where helped grow the firm’s portfolio both across the region and globally. She has invested in companies across various sectors including logistics, healthcare, fintech, telecoms and agriculture.
She also worked at Citi for 8 years as an Investment Banker where she managed the bank’s SME fund and was involved in structuring the bank’s agriculture lending initiative.
“Lori embodies the spirit of opportunity on the continent for high-growth startups, and I am so impressed by the strong team and what the company has achieved in a short amount of time,” said Uche. “I am delighted to see where this challenge takes me and how we will grow this company together to drive value for customers and help Lori achieve its mission of lowering the cost of goods in Africa.” She added.
Carr joins Lori from Quona Capital, where he served as Senior Associate supporting investments across Africa. Before Quona, Efayomi worked with 8 Miles LLP, a London-based private equity firm that invests in Africa.
He has also worked with the Boston Consulting Group in New York and Nigeria covering financial services and at Jumia as the Head of Marketplace for Nigeria in Lagos. Carr was also the Head of Information Management and Analysis for the National Ebola Response Center in Freetown
“Uche and Efayomi are amongst the most impressive leaders on the continent, and I am absolutely thrilled about what this means for our business as we continue to rapidly scale our operations across Africa and beyond. Their track record with high growth companies make them extremely valuable part of our core management team,” said Josh Sandler, Lori Co-Founder and CEO.
Uche brings a wealth of resources and experience in scaling companies across the African continent while Efayomi will focus on expansion efforts surrounding the company’s financial products.