Dr John Lazar

Trustee

John Lazar Headshot

Dr John Lazar is President of the Royal Academy of Engineering, co-founder and general partner at Enza Capital, and Chair of the Raspberry Pi Foundation.

In 2019, with two partners he co-launched Enza Capital which backs founders and teams using technology to solve large and meaningful problems across Africa. Headquartered in Nairobi, Enza has invested in more than 30 African tech companies to date. John sits on the board of four of Enza’s portfolio companies.

John has also been an active angel investor and technology start-up mentor in the UK and Africa, with more than 40 individual pre-seed/seed investments.

For the past eight years, he has also been a judge and mentor on the Academy’s Africa Prize for Engineering Innovation, which backs 15-20 early-stage African engineering companies annually. He has also spent many years working on tech-related non-profit initiatives in Africa, especially building “digital blacksmiths” and maker labs.


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