Lise Birikundavyi

Co-Founder / Managing Partner

Lise Birikundavyi

Co-Founder / Managing Partner

BKR Capital

Lise Birikundavyi is the managing partner at BKR Capital, incidentally becoming the first black woman in Canada to manage an institutionally-backed VC fund. Lise is an innovative finance specialist who has worked with several international institutions and acts as guest lecturer for prestigious organization, including Oxford University, the International Olympic Committee Accelerator managed by the Yunus Sports Hub and the Canadian Private Capital Investment School at Ivey. Lise also mentors and supports highly promising and impactful start-ups in emerging markets.

Lise began her career in the hedge fund industry in Montreal and her interest in mixing

attractive financial returns with long term societal impact is what inspired her to transition to the impact finance sector. She has experience across the investment spectrum: from funds of funds and VCs, to being the transition CEO of a tech start-up.

Lise is a CFA charterholder; she also holds a Masters of Business Administration (MBA) from the Shanghai Advanced Institute of Finance, where she wrote her thesis on impact investing, and a trilingual BBA from HEC Montreal. Lise is fluent in French, English and Spanish, and has a conversational level of Mandarin.

She is a firm believer in using the forces of capital markets as a basis for more inclusive wealth creation and sustainable poverty alleviation.