Impact and Research Director at Founders Factory

Key responsibilities:

• Develop an impact strategy that articulates  the organisation’s impact objectives, ensuring that these are aligned with the organisation’s broader mission and strategy

• Design and deploy an end-to-end impact measurement and management approach embedded within the entire investment process (  deal sourcing, selection/investment decisions, post-investment support, and reporting), with consideration of industry best practices and standards

• Manage relationships with investors, corporate partners, portfolio companies, and other stakeholders to ensure alignment with FFA’s impact strategy

• Build and manage a solid team to deliver on the impact strategy and IMM approach. 

• Empower and build the capacity of the wider FFA team and Founders to implement/embed the impact strategy across the organisation, through technical guidance and support to management teams, training, and sharing of best practices

• Develop and execute the FFA impact, research, and learning agenda

Specific activities include:

• Identify, assess and evaluate impact potential and risks across the investments and grants process life-cycle; from pre-investment due diligence through to investment

• Participating in sourcing calls and analysing potential investments to understand their potential impact contribution and alignment with FFA impact themes (Impact due diligence)

• Monitoring the performance of FFA’s portfolio against selected KPIs and initial development/impact goals

• Provide support to  portfolio companies  to  define and measure impact

• Manage and coordinate the collection of impact data from other teams and FFA portfolio companies, providing support for timely, accurate, and consistent reporting

• Synthesise impact data/results into practical insights that inform decision making

• Produce impact reports for  FFA stakeholders including investors, exco, board of directors, and subcommittees of the board

• Coordinate with the Communications team within FFA to develop and disseminate impact stories and learning, using creative channels to reach different audiences/stakeholders

• Continuously monitor trends in the impact domain to ensure the company's recognition and visibility as a leader in designing, delivering, and capturing impact

• Regularly producing research and thought leadership on impact as it relates to the business and its portfolio companies

• Develop a fit-for-purpose data management strategy, and identify/design and deploy tools and technology required to facilitate data collection, analysis and visualisation

Candidates should meet the following minimum requirements:

• At least 10 years of relevant experience in impact and/or responsible investing, impact strategy, and implementation related to incubators, accelerators, and early-stage investments

• Undergraduate or honours graduate degree in a related discipline

• Knowledge and understanding of key frameworks and methodologies in impact measurement and management (i.e. IMM, GIIN, 5 Dimensions of Impact, UNPRI, etc.)

• Understanding of venture building, accelerators and investments in early-stage startups in Africa 

• Ability to deploy a wide variety of qualitative and quantitative research methods and tools

• Appetite for collecting and analysing data to produce meaningful reports to various stakeholders

• Experience in data visualisation tools like Power BI, google studio, QlikView, or Tableau is a plus

• Adept in developing and implementing  cross-functional projects

• Strong collaboration and project management skills are a must.