The Tech Vantage

The Spark | Ignite / Connect / Achieve
www . the sparkng.co m
SPOTLIGHT
Introduction
Vazi Legal is an innovation-driven law
firm that exists to simplify legal services
delivery for African startups and early-stage
investors.
The importance of access to legal services
that is contextual to our growing
technology ecosystem in Africa today
cannot be overemphasized. However,
many traditional law firms on the continent
still do not understand how to provide
legal services to startups.
Startups are unique and aren’t like regular
businesses, so they require legal services
that are tailored, and at the same
time flexible enough to be adaptable to
a startup’s business needs and reality.
This is the gap Vazi Legal was set up to
fulfill.
Who is behind Vazi Legal?
We are currently set up as a close network
of startup focused lawyers qualified
to practice in Nigeria, Kenya, South
Africa, the United States and the United
Kingdom. Most of our lawyers are quali-
Another thing we are set up to do is
bridge the gap between local law and
international law. Many startups in Africa
raise money from outside the continent.
What this means is that these startups
usually need lawyers in their home country
as well as lawyers in the foreign jurisdiction
– so we act as a one-stop-shop
for that since our lawyers are qualified in
some of the most vibrant investor markets
in the world.
On the flip side, we also provide legal
services to foreign investors who are
looking to invest in Nigeria, Kenya or
South Africa. Our investor clients also
find the multiple qualifications extremely
valuable.
My name is Moe Odele and I am Managing
Partner at Vazi Legal. Prior to this, I
worked for a boutique, Impact Investing
consulting firm operating in the UAE, Europe,
Southeast Asia and North America.
Before that, I worked for a New York City
based Non-profit that provided pro-bono
legal services to social entrepreneurs,
impact investors, communities impacted
by large scale development projects and
to governments.
I started my career in Nigeria until I
moved to the United States for school. I
attended Columbia University and right
after that worked with the University as
a Post-Doctoral Research Scholar.
While here, I co-published several papers
on access to legal services amongst
others and these were presented at the
United Nations, the World Bank and
even to the U.K. Parliament.
After some years of doing international
work, I realized that what I really wanted
to do was contribute to the technology
landscape in Africa and that’s how Vazi
Legal was born. Before Vazi Legal was
formally set up, I had always provided legal
services to Nigerian-based startups
so I have about 7/8 years of experience
doing this and a lot of my early clients
are now recognisable names in the technology
ecosystem.
Additionally, because of the way we are
regulatory, international tax, intellectual
property and other specialists in a
for startups, medium-sized investment
Our clients
Our clients are typically early stage investors
and growing companies, especially
the ones looking to raise capital.
We’ve had clients in some of the top
technology accelerator programs such
as Google Launchpad Africa, 500 Startups
and Tech Stars.
We are sector agnostic and work with
folks in agriculture, education, healthcare
and fintech. We also have several
clients working on frontier technologies
like blockchain and artificial intelligence.
In terms of legal expertise, we are focused
on early stage investing, intellectual
property protection, impact investing
and fund formation.
I am excited about Gender Practice Area
and in my professional life, I have done a
lot of work on gender-lens investing and
courtesy of this experience, I’ve seen
-
ness decisions. So, one of the things we
help our clients do is develop corporate
legal strategies and policies that are responsive
to gender and inclusivity.
Our role in the ecosystem
As much as the technology ecosystem
is growing in Africa, we need to understand
that to ensure sustainable growth,
we need to bring the service providers
along as well. No ecosystem can grow
only with technology companies.
We need lawyers, accountants, business
development and public relations experts
that understand what it means to
service startups and innovation driven
companies.
One of the things we do is organise
trainings for lawyers who want to become
part of the ecosystem. These trainings
take place every quarter and so far,
we are excited about the impact of this
project.
We have now trained over 50 budding
startup lawyers across the continent and
are hoping to double that number by the
end of the year.
I am also a mentor on several programs
focused on growing the ecosystem such
as Google Launchpad Africa, and Replash
- a training initiative set up by Microtraction
– one of the most active early
stage investors in Nigeria.
For us, participating in the ecosystem
like this is a long term play and we are
certain that when the story of the ecosystem
is told, Vazi Legal will have a line
in there somewhere!
“We have now trained over
50 budding startup lawyers
across the continent and are
hoping to double that number
by the end of the year.”
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