Chenelle Ansah

Passionate about Economic Empowerment, Fintech and Climate Change. Recently awarded Innovate Finance’s standout women in fintech on Innovate UK’s fintech power list for being a top female investor. Chenelle Ansah is an early-stage investor focused on climate tech and fintech in Europe and Africa. In addition to being recognised as one of the UK's leading female investors, she is a speaker and holds a number of NED and board advisor positions. She is also the founder of Nell Consulting, a boutique consulting firm specialising in building digital banks. Chenelle career spans 16 + years working in financial services and has spent the last 10 years working at the intersection of fintech and diversity. She is a Partner (formerly Head of) Cornerstone Partners the UK's first black-owned investment firm, chairwoman of the investment committee and board Advisor at Crisis Venture Studio, the venture arm of the UK’s largest homeless charity. As founder of Nell Consulting, her passion for financial disruption and creating access to finance has given Chenelle the drive to lead the efforts on the build and launch of a number of digital challenger banks including the U.K’s first Kuwait-U.K cross-border digital bank Nomo and the likes of Tandem and Zopa. She has worked on four continents with over 30 clients including nine of the UK’s leading investment and retail banks, which included leading the build of a tech focused consultancy in Asia working with clients such as Barclays in 2013. Chenelle’s passion for creating access to capital and diversifying what capital allocators look like in the UK lends to her work with Cornerstone Partners, with a mission to bridge the funding gap to founders in this demographic. Her investment efforts also include being an honorary member of Green Angel Syndicate, chairwoman of Crisis Venture Studio and recognised as a top female angel investor by the UKBAA. Featured in Forbes, The Sunday Times, BBC news and BBC radio 4, Chenelle is often at the forefront of discussions pertaining to creating access to capital for diverse founders and has been instrumental in influencing government policy to create better opportunities for SMEs and diverse founders in the UK.