Tidjane Deme

Tidjane Deme is a General Partner and co-lead of Partech Africa, one of the continent's largest dedicated tech investment platforms, managing over $300 million across two funds. Born and raised in Dakar, Senegal, Deme studied at École Polytechnique and ENSTA-Paritech before beginning his career at Capgemini. He went on to found CommonSys, a West Africa-focused IT consultancy, before spending seven years at Google where he launched the company's Francophone Africa office in Dakar and oversaw market development across 15-plus countries. He joined Partech in 2016 alongside Cyril Collon to build what has become the benchmark institutional VC fund for African tech, closing the second fund in February 2024 after pitching more than 360 investors. The fund's portfolio includes Wave, Yoco, TradeDepot, Nomba, Reliance Health, and TerraPay.

Deme occupies a singular position in African venture capital — an operator who lived the continent's mobile and internet transformation from inside a global technology company before betting on the founders trying to reshape it. His emphasis on local presence — "we are a local investor, not a tourist investor that flies in to do a deal and flies out" — has helped define how institutional capital engages with African founders at Seed through Series B. For borderless African finance, his fund's backing of Wave represents one of the most consequential bets on financial infrastructure outside the anglophone hubs.