Helios announces new financial services and fintech hire

Helios Investment Partners, an Africa-focused private investment firm, announced that Elias Yazbeck has joined the firm as Managing Director, Financial Services and Fintech. This addition to Helios’ investment team demonstrates the significance of the financial services and fintech investment opportunity across the continent.

Yazbeck brings experience in building, transforming, and scaling financial services products and businesses across both developed and emerging markets. Most recently, he served as Group Director, Head of Growth at VEON, where he was responsible for driving the company’s strategy to identify and scale digital ventures across its operating markets.

Prior to joining VEON, Yazbeck was Facebook’s Head of Finserv Partnership and Market Development for EMEA, focusing on enabling payment acceptance and launching new commerce and payment experiences across the region. He also held leadership positions at Mastercard, advising private and public entities across the Middle East and Africa on their financial services and payment strategies, prior to which he advised financial services institutions as a management consultant.

Since Helios was founded nearly two decades ago, the firm has backed growing financial services and fintech businesses across the continent during an extraordinary period of African innovation which continues to build momentum. Examples of Helios-backed companies in this space include Interswitch, Fawry, Crown Agents Bank, TPAY, Equity Bank, Africa Specialty Risks and Thunes.

Tope Lawani, Co-founder and Managing Partner of Helios Investment Partners commented, “Our investment strategy is centred on opportunities driven by the dual long-term secular trends of demographics/urbanisation and technology/innovation that we believe will power economic growth in Africa over the coming decades. Elias brings significant industry experience to our team that will reinforce our strong position as a partner of choice for growing financial services and fintech businesses, and as a trusted counterparty for future buyers of our market-leading companies.”