Mighty Oaks Capital Partners’ Gbenga Olomola Sleeps and Wakes Working with Global Startups and Funds
I had the pleasure of interviewing Gbenga Olomola, Founder & Group/CEO of Mighty Oaks Group.
Gbenga Olomola’s expertise spans equity capital markets, debt capital markets, M&A, and business acquisition, among other areas.
He is an established VC investor and partner at Network.VC Silicon Valley Fund, co-investing in late stages alongside top-tier VCs such as SoftBank, TMT Invest, Mighty Capital, BlackRock, and Fusion Fund.
As a co-founder of Mighty Oaks Capital Partners (MOCP), a US-based fund, Gbenga focuses on investing in startups and connecting founders to venture capital at pre-seed, seed, and series A stages. MOCP has supported companies on their IPO trajectory by strategically allocating capital, talent, and other resources, providing more than just funding to founders worldwide.
Mighty Oaks Capital Partners (MOCP) strategically allocates capital, talent, and other scaling resources to assist founders with their ventures in achieving success on their fundraising and their scaling journey, providing more than funding to founders across the globe.
The company accelerates investor funding by providing founders with Go-To-Market resources to minimize operational expenses while providing market fit and scaling founders’ revenue.
Gbenga is a Fintech entrepreneur and founder at ImportCredit Africa, a go-to platform for global merchants and trade partners.
Gbenga has spent 21 years as Founder & Group/CEO at Mighty Oaks Group managing subsidiaries of global trade finance, advisory, oil & gas, investment, marine, power, amongst others.
He is an active member of Global Investment Leaders Club. An exclusive community of over 5,000 unified active investors from 127 countries with $25 trillion worth of AUM. 41% of members are family offices
He is an advisor to startups across different geographies and sectors including Fintech.
As the Chief Investment Officer (CIO) at BLAM Retail Inc, a California-based dynamic marketing and technology service provider, he is committed to transforming the traditional retail experience into a comprehensive digital solution. With connections to more than 20,000 convenience stores across the country, BLAM Retail aims to help independent stores compete effectively in the digital age by expanding their online presence and offering innovative, consumer-focused solutions.
He is a partner at S20c VC, a $25 million US seed fund backing diverse fintech founders. He is also a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) enthusiast, industry and sector agnostic, assisting funds to raise capital and helping businesses get their projects funded.
Gbenga is an invited member of a US-based platform of a community of over 100 LPs assisting established and emerging managers to fund either their newly formed funds or their existing funds in a seamless manner.
He also runs a platform assisting startups and scale-ups to get in front of funds including in front of a US fund where startups from across the globe can get an offer within 6 days of submitting a pitch and presenting.
How did you break into tech investing?
The pain that I have been through building Mighty Oaks organically in the last 21 years and the combined experience of a non-tech founder of a digital platform breaking away from the traditional way of conducting cross-border transactions in the first instance, fuelled my interest in the tech space. As an entrepreneur who had commenced his entrepreneurial journey from the African (Nigerian) business environment originally, i spent years researching to see a consolidated digital platform that can assist to find, select, and be able to compare the right trade partners that I can work with in terms of cross-border trade deals, i found none capable of addressing my issues. Many years later, I imagined a marketplace connecting all these trade participants under one roof. Then, the idea of ImportCredit Africa was born.
Somewhere in my journey, Network VC, a Silicon Valley Syndicate Fund contacted me to join the fund as a partner. As a result of my interest in the tech space and the pain i have been through as an entrepreneur, especially at the birth of each of my new ideas and the challenges of fundraising often required to deliver these projects, I found it interesting and swift to join the Network VC family, so as to further enable me in assisting other budding entrepreneurs within the tech space to fund their new ideas or scale their startups.
What is it that excites you about investing?
The fact that my fund’s investment in an idea (startup), possibly located in a remote corner of the world, could transform it into a global product/phenomenon solving problems worldwide excites me more than the potential financial benefits of such an investment. The other time, I saw a tech-backed product of eye glasses designed specifically to enable blind little children to see. Seeing the spontaneous reactions of the children wearing the glasses and their ability to see images more clearly now for the first time as they come in contact with the product, including the tears of joy from their parents’ faces touched me in a number of ways. It really made my day.
What has been your biggest challenge when it comes to finding the “right deals”?
Of course, we regularly do receive tons and loads of deals, but finding high-quality investable opportunities can be very challenging. For me, a satisfactory diligence check on the founder/team behind the product is key. Beyond how sexy a product may appear, I find it more appealing and convincing to invest in a startup whose team I would be more comfortable working with in the course of our investment in the company. Startups take after the nature and the personalities of their founders. So to put it more clearly, meeting the right team with the right attitude capable of building, scaling, and demonstrating the capability and the temperament of being able to work in harmony with the rest of their team members, customers and their investors amongst others has been the biggest challenge in finding the right deals here.
What major trends do you expect to see in technology innovation over the next 5 years that excites you?
The fact that we are approaching an era where transformative technologies would be leading further the fourth industrial revolution is quite very exciting. It’s exciting to know that speech and gesture recognition technologies will be revolutionizing productivity and potentially automating knowledge-based tasks. Soon, traditional passwords are expected to be phased out making way for new authorization services based on biometric technologies such as facial, voice, eye, hand, and signature identification. This will further enhance security measures and provide a seamless and personalized user experience. Over the next 5 years, there would have been some technological infrastructure upgrades and the development of consumer and enterprise-focused applications unlocking new opportunities, revolutionizing how we interact with digital environments, especially as it relates to the virtual and augmented reality industry.
If you had to share, “words of wisdom,” with a Founder who’s about to start their own startup, what would they be?
In my own experience over the years, I have come to learn that passion fuels and sustains innovation including the innovator. I found out that companies which have survived their founders have been businesses that have continued to solve problems for the generality of humanity. The entrepreneurial world is a very challenging one where as a business owner, you would need to be self motivated in order to keep the fire and to be able to keep moving. As a founder, you will go far if there is a story behind the product you are about to build or building? Is this pain your own pain? Is there a story behind why you are building for which you wake up daily just to see the pain go? Do not only look to own a startup because of the fame, glamor and the cash reward that sometimes comes with the position. Be motivated to build because there is a problem to solve. Learn to grow organically enduring the pain. Ensure to experience each moment on this journey.
How can our readers follow you on social media?
You can look me up on my personal Linkedin account: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gbenga-olomola-26b704201
This was very insightful. Thank you so much for joining us!
