Fanta Traore’s personal mission is to use resources & capital allocation to support visionaries who face hurdles towards unlocking her potential. Her secret sauce is threefold: data for impact, intentional collaboration, and institution building. These skills have been honed across continents, notably that of Africa, and the US where she supported two types of founders - those who are Africa-based and those who are underserved in the American market. Prior to joining Seedstars Africa Ventures, where she heads up the West Africa office, she has formerly worked for four accelerators including the African Leadership Academy's Anzisha Prize, Yale’s Tsai City accelerator, Echoing Green, and most recently Realist Lab. She's also worked for venture funds: Commonweal Ventures, Achebe Capital, and CT Innovations Future Fund, the state's first fund-deploying $50M to diverse founders.

 

In a previous life, she was a macroeconomic researcher at the Federal Reserve, and founder  of the Sadie Collective (where she raised $5 M) , an American non-profit organization that Bloomberg, Forbes, and others have recognized.

 

After 100s of pitches, and experience growing her venture, she supports founders to access critical networks that take them where they aim to, in hopes of creating generational wealth avenues for this community.  

 

She holds BA's in Political Science and Economics from Howard University, and is a recent graduate of Yale University's Jackson School of Global Affairs where she focusd on policy & management. In her free time, she enjoys writing poetry, traveling & building niche communities.