Karen Mutema

Karen has over a decade of experience in investment and development finance. She currently serves as Principal at CrossBoundary Advisory mobilizing capital into underserved African markets by providing transaction & strategy advisory for investors, fund managers, companies, donors, and governments. More recently, she has been a CrossBoundary secondee to the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) where she was the primary point of contact for DFC in East and Southern Africa originating, underwriting, and structuring transactions spanning energy, infrastructure, financial services, agriculture, healthcare, and critical minerals, with ticket sizes ranging from US$ 1 million to US$ 1 billion.

Prior to CrossBoundary, Karen has held investment roles at Bamboo Capital Partners and Actis, leading & supporting due diligence, investment structuring, portfolio management, and ESG integration across growth-stage and mature businesses, and across debt & equity transactions. Karen holds an MSc in Financial Mathematics from the University of Leeds and a BSc in Accounting & Finance from United States International University – Africa.