Quona Visiting Associate (EMEA Team)

Opportunity Overview

Quona Capital is a venture capital firm investing in financial technology companies in emerging markets. We are looking for a Visiting Associate to join Quona’s EMEA investment team for a fixed term of three to six months.

Most people who break into venture only ever see one part of it. They source and never watch a deal close, or they run diligence and never learn where returns actually come from. This role is built the other way round. The Visiting Associate will work across the full life cycle of a deal, from the first cold conversation through diligence and investment committee to live exit processes, and will play a central role in building a new AI-native sourcing engine for Europe, Africa and the Middle East.

This is an apprenticeship model. The Visiting Associate will work directly with Quona investment team members based in London and Cape Town, and will also collaborate with Quona’s global investment and platform teams in North America, Latin America and Asia. Our EMEA team is small, which means there is no layer between the Visiting Associate and the work.

About Quona

Quona was established in 2015, with a vision to back innovators enhancing the quality and availability of financial products and services for underserved consumers and enterprises through business model innovation and smart leveraging of technology. Today, Quona manages approximately $1B, has 70+ portfolio companies across our core funds, and is backed by a marquee group of global investors.

We are a diverse team who collectively speak over 20 languages. Our team spans the globe, and we are deeply embedded in the regions in which we work. Our team members work from locations like Sao Paulo, Mexico City, Bangalore, Cape Town, Singapore, London, New York and Washington DC, to name a few. We deeply value collaboration and learning, and are looking forward to growing our team with individuals who embody our key values: Impact, Trust, Teamwork, Integrity and Excellence.

The EMEA team covers Africa, MENA and Europe-headquartered companies with emerging market applicability, and is currently deploying out of Fund IV.

Role Responsibilities

Sourcing

We are building a new sourcing engine for Europe, Africa and the Middle East from scratch, and this is the part of the role we are most excited about. The Visiting Associate will help design it rather than simply operate it.

• Market mapping, structuring the underlying data, and designing how we screen and rank opportunities at scale.
• Building a network within the fintech space. The candidate should be open and excited to represent the firm at ecosystem events and to connect with founders and peer investors.

Evaluation

• Directly support the investment team to conduct business, financial and technology due diligence, helping move deals through the investment process to closing.
• Develop financial models and company valuation analyses.
• Draft pre-screen and investment committee memos. The Visiting Associate will see how deals are argued for internally and, far more often, exactly why we pass.
• Conduct thematic research and competitive deep dives within fintech sub-sectors.

Portfolio

• Support portfolio companies and management teams on short-term operational projects as well as long-term decision making.
• Board preparation, KPI analysis and tracking performance against plan.

Exits

• Support live exit processes, including buyer mapping, secondary strategy and exit planning. This is exposure that is rarely available at this stage, and understanding how a fund returns capital changes how you evaluate every deal thereafter.
• Other projects as developed by the EMEA team.

AI Fluency (Required)

This is not a role where AI is a useful extra. Our EMEA team uses it daily, and the sourcing engine the Visiting Associate will help build is AI-native by design. Candidates need to be well past using a chatbot to summarise documents, and candidates who cannot demonstrate this will not progress through the process.

• Evidence of things you have built. Workflows, databases, screening tools, evaluation systems, agents or internal products that other people then used.
• We care far more about what you have shipped than about which tools you can name.
• Judgment matters as much as fluency. You know when the model is wrong, when to override it, and when the manual route is still the right one.

What This Role Is, and What It Is Not

We would rather be straight about this than imply something we cannot commit to. This role is designed as a stepping stone, for people between things. Between roles, between a graduate degree and what comes next, or between an operating job and a move into investing.

An exceptional Visiting Associate could convert into a full-time role at Quona. This possibility is real, and we will be honest with the successful candidate about where they stand as things develop. It is not, however, a promise attached to this position.

What we do commit to is that the Visiting Associate leaves with a body of work that is theirs, a network across our markets, a reference from people who have watched them closely and can speak to specifics, and a properly informed view of whether this career is the right one for them.

This role is not a good fit for candidates who want a narrowly defined remit and a title, who want a research project handed over and then to be left alone, or who are applying solely as a route into a permanent seat.

Logistics

• Duration. Three to six months.
• Commitment. Full time or part time, with flexibility around study or other commitments.
• Location. Fully remote within EMEA working hours. Strong preference for candidates based in London, Cape Town, Cairo or Nairobi, where there is scope to spend time with the team and in the local ecosystem.
• Compensation. Dependent on the structure agreed, and discussed openly and early in the process.

Application Material

• Link to Workable Application
• Resume
• Cover letter (why you would like to join Quona and what makes you a good candidate)
• One page (max) on something you have built using AI. Please include enough detail that we can tell what you actually did, what it was used for, and what you would do differently.
• One page (max) on the market or thesis within emerging markets fintech that you would want to go deep on with us, and why.

We read every application ourselves. Shortlisted candidates will be asked to complete a case study, which is a substantial piece of work, and we will provide feedback on it either way.

Candidates of all backgrounds, including women and those belonging to underrepresented minorities, are strongly encouraged to apply.

Requirements

Desired Qualifications

• Approximately four to six years of experience in venture capital, private equity, investment banking, management consulting or a comparable analytical role. Candidates may be pre-MBA, mid-MBA or post-MBA.
• A genuine appetite for the apprenticeship model, and a desire to get hands on and learn the craft rather than to hold a title.
• A real connection to our markets, whether Africa, MENA or emerging markets more broadly, through where you are from, where you have worked, or a network you have deliberately built.
• Enthusiasm for technology, entrepreneurship, financial inclusion and investing.
• Team player mentality, ready to support the team in achieving collective goals.
• Drive, hunger, humbleness, adaptability, curiosity and openness.
• Exceptional analytical skills and advanced financial modelling ability, with a desire to produce consistent top-tier quality work.
• Ability to take initiative and work independently in a fast-paced team that is geographically distributed.
• Excellent English business writing and communication skills. A large part of this role is making an argument on paper.

Additionally Desired

• Domain expertise in financial services or financial technology.
• Experience evaluating investment opportunities, with the ability to quickly identify and analyse the key questions, risks or upsides to an investment.
• An existing network in African or MENA startup and venture ecosystems.
• Languages relevant to our markets, particularly Arabic or French.

Benefits

A stipend dependent on the agreed structure, direct exposure to global start-ups and to live investment and exit processes, an unusual degree of access to senior investors, opportunities to grow and learn, and people who are fun to work with.