Reports to: COO
Start date: July 2019
Responsibilities:
The Investment Officer (“IO”) will report to the COO and be responsible for maintaining client relationships, driving transactions, developing innovative and bankable solutions, and growing our loan portfolio across Africa and other regions.
Grow our portfolio. You will actively contribute to the growth of the current portfolio by building and developing a strong eligible pipeline of investment opportunities in existing markets and new markets.
Lead transactions from beginning to end. As an IO, you will be leading the full investment cycle including origination, due diligence and credit risk assessments of existing and/or potential counterparties, negotiating and structuring transactions to financial close. This includes developing and managing the client relationship, leading negotiations of transactions terms and documentation, managing internal and external stakeholders and working with Analysts to present to our credit committee. We pride ourselves on our quick turnaround.
Maintain a healthy portfolio. You will maintain high-quality relationships with customers with regular check-ins for portfolio monitoring purposes and to ensure we cater to their scaling needs.
Innovate and expand. In a rapidly moving market and a largely untapped market, we look to IOs to develop new solar lending products to meet our customers’ and the sector’s evolving financing needs and facilitate entry into new markets.
Build the SunFunder brand. You will regularly represent the company at conferences, seminars and other relevant events in the region or worldwide, as required. You will also be responsible for building and maintaining SunFunder’s strategic partnerships with investors, co-lenders, advisors and other industry participants.
Support strategic initiatives. You will be actively involved in supporting and championing initiatives that accelerate our growth.
Qualifications / What We’re Looking For:
A passion for what we do and a demonstrated hunger to close deals. You will have at least 5 years in leading, structuring, negotiation and executing debt investments in the financial and/or renewable energy sectors, including experience in assessment or financing of SMEs and/or traders, trade finance, long term and/or project finance. Previous syndication experience required.
Strong Relationship Skills. ·You seamlessly interact with a variety of stakeholders at different levels in an organization. Your ability to analyze complex matters and present them clearly make you a trusted partner to work with for people inside and outside our organization. You know how to adjust your message to people from different backgrounds and cultures.
Technical know-how. You will have strong credit risk assessment, modeling, analytical and presentation skills. You will work closely with the analysts to prepare credit applications to present to the credit committee as well as work closely with the Risk team to monitor our portfolio.
Reliable and accountable. SunFunder is a multi-cultural, distributed team. As such, it is most important that you are someone who over-communicates, is highly organized and results-oriented, is self-motivated and self-disciplined, our team and clients can count on you.
Flexible and innovative. You have a proven track record of making things happen, willing to challenge the way we’re doing things, “get your hands dirty” and perform unglamorous roles from time to time, and ability to thrive in a rapidly changing environment
Excited by travel. You will travel to the markets where you are sourcing and executing deals (20-35% depending on where you are based) and have lived and worked in the emerging economies where SunFunder is active (particularly East or West Africa)
Collaborative and fun. You enjoy learning new tech tools and systems from others. You see feedback as an opportunity for growth and are therefore keen to give and receive it. Other qualities that are important to us include possessing a positive attitude, intellectual curiousity and a low-ego.
Compensation: We offer a competitive compensation package including equity, generous benefits, a unique work culture for an ambitious startup that strongly encourages a healthy life-work balance, and an opportunity to work with a fun, passionate and talented international team.