Eelco Benink

Leadership Team Boost Africa

Eelco Benink is an advisor in VC fund management, M&A and impact fund design and strategy. Eelco is member of the leadership team of the Boost Africa Technical Assistance Facility, a TA facility linked to the Boost Africa investment program of the European Investment Bank that aims to strengthen VC fund managers in Africa.

Prior to this, Eelco has been a founding team member of several impact funds including the InReturn East Africa Fund in Kenya. In recent years, Eelco was engaged as an advisor by a broad range of clients such as Shell Foundation, Oxfam, the Rockefeller Foundation, the Global Impact Investing Network, the UK Department for International Development (DFID), the World Bank, Asian Development Bank, European Investment Bank, African Development Bank, FMO, Triple Jump and the Dutch Good Growth Fund, as well as working directly for a broad range of funds as well as SMEs in Europe, Africa and Asia. Eelco also sits on various advisory and investment committees, such as at the Dutch Good Growth Fund I FiF and the SME Impact Fund in Tanzania.

One of Eelco’s main focus areas is to design and implement risk capital and impact investment funds. His mixed background in M&A investment banking, private equity/venture capital, consulting and public-private partnerships, combined with living on three continents and working in over 20 countries, helps him to understand both the details of fund operations as well as the ecosystems these funds operate in. A common factor in all his projects is to translate the ambitions of founders and funders of investment funds into a realistic operational set-up and sound (fund) economics, including aligning the team and the targeted investees with use of the right investment instruments in the context of their operating environment.