Canadian-born, Amoye Henry, was destined for entrepreneurship. As a community builder, enabler and ideator, her quest is to break into venture capital (VC) - but first - is the need for new knowledge. This is Amoye’s story.

Organic opportunities

Teenage Amoye had something her peers didn’t: an eye for a business opportunity. At 13 years old, she started a business as a graphic designer, specifically to boost the brand and identity of local Caribbean restaurants.

“They had the best food for my culture! But their marketing didn’t reflect the quality of the products, so I wanted to offer suggestions to help them scale.”

Roll on a few more years and this time it was the lack of diversity in the modelling world that drove Amoye to her next venture. At 18 years old she started a modelling agency, The Jhenesis, for diverse models from a variety of communities. The modelling agency then pivoted into creating a festival for celebrating Black women, AfroChic. 

“Coming towards the end of university, my friends and I wanted something to celebrate Black fashion, beauty, culture and tech - all of the things we loved. So by the age of 21, I’d started three businesses. Each led to the other. I’m an ideation person: I ideate and then execute.”

Amoye studied political science and communications at McMaster University with plans to pursue a career in law. Yet, her love for creativity combined with her experience and connections took her down another career path into the healthcare industry. 

“Over a five-year period, I worked at a women's hospital as a marketing coordinator, then at a hospital for children where I was project manager before moving on to government, working with Provincial Health Care. I enjoyed being able to have an influence on decision-makers. It was a lucrative and stable career that led me to purchasing a house.”

Scaling up

After some time working in government, the entrepreneur bug bit Amoye again. In 2018, she started her consulting firm, AH Global Consulting.

“I’d formed good relationships in community development and in government and it gave me a great set of skills. I started raising money for startups and charities and I was able to scale companies.”

And to date, Amoye has raised $14 million across seven to eight years in the space.

“By 2019, I was getting lots of mentorship and support from people I’d worked with. I felt there was a bigger calling. At the same time as setting up and running the consultancy, I was also co-running the festival.”

The scaling up of AfroChic and its popularity was drawing in celebrities and big partnerships.

“We had celebrities such as Erykah Badu, Wizkid and Issa Rae and big brand partnerships such as Toronto-Dominion Bank, HSBC, and Bumble. It started as just four high school friends then we had people flying in from all over Canada to attend! It helped me build my fundraising skills and develop mutually beneficial partnerships.”

For Amoye, this was a catalyst to do an MBA to better understand how global finance works. 

“I wasn’t sure about an MBA: I’m not necessarily a ‘textbook’ business person. Everything I do comes from my intuition, my instinct. I do the market research, ensure it makes sense then execute. But I wanted to understand different industries, financial currencies and I wanted to understand the mechanics of how economic resources are distributed.”

Amoye was humbled to get a huge outpouring of financial support to allow her to do the MBA. She was awarded a scholarship, did her own fundraising, and people in the community came forward to contribute too. 

“My MBA was a huge thing for the community so I vowed I would help other Black people to get in. Now working with my business school, I’ve created a scholarship programme for Black learners.”

The MBA experience was a reminder for Amoye that she was doing a lot of firsts, not just for herself, but for other Black women too as she was the only Black woman in the program, but it didn’t stop her excitement.

Just as Amoye was hitting her stride with the MBA and her multiple ventures, the pandemic hit. It was another hurdle to get over but despite it killing off her festival, AfroChic, and risking her place on the MBA, Amoye powered through.

“I had no funding outside of the scholarship so I thought about dropping out. Instead, I pivoted. I’d been consulting throughout the MBA and had established a programme helping female entrepreneurs in business to pitch better. It became my baby and my focus, Pitch Better.

“I was doing live sessions on Instagram and Zoom sessions and had tons of women asking questions about scaling their businesses. Amid the MBA, I cultivated women in tech communities and programs to support underrepresented founders. It was all becoming clearer to me where my skillset was - I’m an enabler, an ecosystem builder, a fundraiser, and also an investor. I realised VC is one of my paths and I've put all my energy since then towards building my career in VC.”

Breaking into VC

Amoye had the skillsets and the passion, but not the connections until her friend and investor, Yvonne Bajela, shared more about Newton Venture Program.

“I’d just had a baby and decided to make the UK my base. I hadn’t had the opportunity to network so coming across Newton was a blessing, a massive blessing.”

Despite navigating motherhood and building a career in a new space, Amoye was keen to commit to Fundamentals.

“My biggest fear was that there would be an intense workload while I was still on maternity leave and I was feeling daunted about trying to network in Europe. I’d achieved some success in Canada and worked with a number of funds there, but Europe is a whole other beast. So my biggest hopes from the program were networking and securing a VC role.”

Relieved to have time for the online sessions (and not a hefty workload!), Amoye’s perception of VC was challenged as she took on new learnings.

“I was keen for this to be transformational and really get the most out of it. My key takeaway was understanding the mindset of investors and also limited partners. It’s more than CSR and wanting to help people: it’s about returns. How can I as an investor make money? How can I help founders and get them to a better position? I got a lot of value from the sessions covering calculating projections and financial modelling - even though it was very challenging!”

Next steps

Now the program is over, Amoye is keen to stay in touch with the Newton alumni and encourages anyone taking Fundamentals to take as much as they can from the sessions and also the in-person opportunities where possible.

Currently consulting with funds to help them increase their diversity of investments, Amoye is also helping more women to understand how to become angel investors. 

“I’m talking with successful female business owners who want to become angel investors, as there are a lot of women seeking startup capital. I’m on a cap table of a new start up, where 70% of the investors are women. I’m very passionate about driving that.”

Keen to understand more about how the diaspora can invest in Africa, Amoye also writes about the investment opportunities in the countries she visits. 

“My passion is in the EMEA region and exploring the startup opportunities there. My ethos is to help the diaspora invest in the continent and listen to the stories being shared to understand the value in Sub Saharan African investment. I want to understand it and do my part to enhance the visibility and access.”

If Fundamentals sounds like the next step in your journey, discover more here.

Read Amoye's blog here.