Simba Marekera

Head of Investment Management, Brightlight Group

Simba Marekera is the Head of Investment Management at Brightlight Group, an impact investing fund manager dedicated to investing with the goal of transforming lives. He specialises in innovative financing and blended finance across a variety of Private Markets asset classes including infrastructure, real estate and credit/private debt both in developed and developing markets. Among other duties, Simba is the Lead Portfolio Manager for the Te Puna Hapori Strategy, which partners with community stakeholders to finance and deliver critical community infrastructure in underserved communities across New Zealand and Asia Pacific Impact Notes, gender equity themed Fixed Income instruments aligned with the Social Bond Principles and 2X Challenge Criteria. Both strategies aim to implement the Justice, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (JEDI) Principles. 

 Simba is active an philanthropist and social entrepreneur focused on empowerment of beneficiaries. He co-founded New Africa Foundation (www.newafrica.foundation) a charitable organisation that empower African communities through targeted philanthropy and investments in education, healthcare and entrepreneurship. He is also a co-Founder of EdFin (www.edfin.com.au), a fintech company that is a pioneer in providing affordable and responsible international education financing in Australia and Ignition Impact (www.ignitionimpact.com), an Angel Network that invests in high growth and high social impact African SMEs.