Karen Serem Waithaka

CEO

Karen Serem Waithaka is the CEO at DOB Equity, having joined the Nairobi office in September 2024. Karen specializes in sustainable impact investing in Africa having most recently served as the Chief Investment Officer at Catalyst Fund, an early stage VC Fund and Accelerator investing in climate-tech startups across Africa. 

Prior to Catalyst, she worked as the Investment Director at Global Partnerships Social Venture Fund, making impact-first investments in various sectors including Agriculture, Energy, Healthcare, Fintech, Education, among others.

Karen has also worked as an Investment Manager at Safaricom Spark Venture Fund and TBL Mirror Fund. Her experience covers the end to end investment deal cycle including sourcing, financial analysis, in depth due diligence, negotiations and closing. She is passionate about supporting entrepreneurs and plays an active role in portfolio management taking on various board seat positions and portfolio advisory support. 

She holds a Bachelor of Science in Actuarial Science from Curtin University of Technology in Perth, Australia and a Master of Finance specializing in Funds Management from the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia.