What began as a six-month sabbatical backpacking around the African continent became a major career shift for Lexi Novitske. In 2012, Lexi left her job at a hedge fund in New York and landed in Nigeria, never to look back. 

In 2014, Lexi launched Singularity Investments, a private capital-backed venture investment firm, and invested in market champions across fintech and enterprise platforms including Paystack, Flutterwave, mPharma, SmileID and Migo. Today, Lexi is the General Partner of Norrsken22, an African tech growth fund backed by an international network of tech founders partnering with exceptional entrepreneurs in scaling disruptive businesses.

We talked with Lexi about her career trajectory, the evolving African investment landscape, what’s next for investors and entrepreneurs in emerging markets, and so much more.

• How Lexi first came to Africa — and why she ended up staying (2:20)
• How she chose the African companies she invested in — which just happened to become some of the most well-known fintech and enterprise platforms on the continent  (4:16)
• The stabilizing monetary policy shift in Nigeria and the impact its having on foreign investment (6:40)
• The total number of languages spoken in Nigeria (hint: it’s more than 500!) and how that dynamic diversity is driving everything from politics to job creation (14:25)
• Where Lexi and her firm are focused as tech hubs are created across the continent (15:08)
• Why she’s excited about the future of digital identity technology (20:11)
• The book (that’s not a book) on Lexi’s nightstand right now (25:01)
• The explosion of fraud that’s happening as a result of AI — and the opportunity it presents for enterprising entrepreneurs in emerging markets (26:10)