Rukayyat Kolawole, CFA,MBA

(CEO/Founder)

Rukayyat is the founder and CEO of PaceUP Invest in Germany, France, and Nigeria; a Fintech start-up whose mission empowering women and underrepresented communities financially and help with wealth-building irrespective of their income towards attaining a responsible and sustainable future for themselves and their generation.

Rukayyat has over 16 years of experience in the financial industry: Investment banking, Investment Management, and Capital Markets in Goldman Sachs, Bloomberg, Reuters, and BMCE International London. She was a former VP Capital Markets and Treasury at BMCE Bank International London covering EMEA, Americas, and APAC. She is a transcultural communicator and leader having worked on international assignments throughout her successful career.

Rukayyat is currently on the board of Kassavex, a social impact agricultural company in Nigeria; Founding committee board member of 100 Women in Finance Germany and a mentor at &ahead, Germany. BWAM 40 under 40 in 2022, Forbes Inspiring Founders Globally, Innovate Finance Women in Fintech Powerlist. She is a Keynote speaker and regularly partakes in panels globally. PaceUP Invest is listed as one of The Most Influential Financial Technology Firms of 2023 | The Financial Technologist

Rukayyat earned an MSc in Finance and Investment Management with a Distinction. In 2020, she earned a double Diploma Executive MBA at Mannheim Business School, Germany, and ESSEC Business School, France. She is a Chartered Financial Analyst.

She loves playing golf, travelling, reading, and playing silly games with her 5-year-old.

Ibraheem Kolawole

(CTO)

Close to a decade experience in building Softwares, worked as intern for SmartSpaces, an EU pilot project for smartly measuring carbon data from buildings in realtime with custom built software in 2013/2014, which served as a pilot for implementation of close to a 100,000 retrofits/newbuilds in EU.

Built SaaS and Business workflow applications for small to medium size businesses whose daily operations running into 10’s of thousands of users rely on daily.

BEng Ahmadu Bello University, Nigeria. MSc DeMontFort University, UK.  Object Oriented Software Development (OOSD) SAIT Canada.

Vivian Hendrikse

(Business Development Partner- Dutch.)

Vivian connects people, businesses, and communities with the purpose to create social impact and more inclusive (work-)environments. She has studied International Business Finance & Investments and is passionate about the intersection of financial innovations and the inclusion of minorities. After having worked as an innovation consultant for 4 years, she founded DIVE Agency to focus fully on social change in financial and business contexts. DIVE supports organisations in becoming more aware of inequality and connects them to the right initiatives – with the vision that most change is achieved through the collaboration of social change agents. One of her projects includes the Gaari Art Movement in which businesses make a statement for equality through art, allowing the business sector and creative sector to meet. Next to that, she is active for Holland Fintech as program manager of working groups about social, and innovative topics.

Vivian has an international background, being half Dutch, half German, and having lived in Singapore, Spain, and France. She is currently based in Amsterdam, and supports Pace UP Invest in the Dutch market. 

Obsidian Adebayo

(Business Development Partner-UK and USA)

Obsidian is a highly motivated professional who is deeply committed to the potential of impact investing to generate both social benefits and financial returns. With a career spanning several years, Obsidian has consistently advocated for individuals from marginalised communities and has developed a particular expertise in investing in these groups. Obsidian has held positions of increasing responsibility across a range of top-tier global finance firms, including Rothschild & Co, Tellimer, Vestd, Royal Bank of Scotland, and Goldman Sachs. Obsidian has also provided corporate strategy and consulting services to companies in the media and arts sectors, in addition to running their own media production company.

Obsidian's thought leadership and writing have been widely recognised, and they have authored opinion columns for prestigious publications such as The Africa Report, Black Ballad, and Rolling Stones. Obsidian also founded and led the young professional’s subgroup of Nigerians in the Square Mile (NISM YPro), a think-tank dedicated to bridging the gap between Nigerian professionals in the City of London and Nigeria. Obsidian has shared their insights and expertise at high-profile events and media outlets, including Chatham House, BBC News, BBC Radio 5 Live, and LBC. Obsidian has also contributed to Channel 4's "Smuggled" and has been interviewed by leading publications such as the Financial Times, the Guardian, and Vice.

In 2019, Obsidian took a career break to embark on an unassisted solo cycling trip across North America, covering nearly 2000 miles from Toronto to Atlanta, and raising approximately £1,600 for Macmillan as part of this journey. Obsidian is now eager to leverage their extensive experience and knowledge to help companies across the UK unlock financial well-being through PaceUP Invest.