How One Leader Is Changing the Investment Landscape in Africa

“As  someone who left their country at a relatively young age, I don't think anyone wants to leave their home,” says Euler Bropleh, founder and managing director of VestedWorld and an alumnus of the Council’s Emerging Leaders Program.  

Euler left Liberia at the age of nine when civil war broke out—an experience that ignited his desire to contribute to the country’s recovery and fueled his broader commitment to advancing economic development across Africa. 

In 2014, he founded VestedWorld to address the continent’s severe shortage of early-stage capital and invest in its long-term potential. “Our goal is to create an environment in these countries that will be enough to spur those young people that are working age to want to stay and build their career and lives in their home country, rather than needing to go somewhere else.” 

In this conversation, he reflects on the founding vision behind VestedWorld, the demographic and economic forces shaping Africa’s future, and how the Council’s Emerging Leaders Program continues to influence his work and global perspective. 

Interview Summary 

This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity. 

You founded VestedWorld in 2014. What issues were you trying to address then, and how have VestedWorld's aim and impact evolved over the past decade? When I first started in 2014, across all 54 countries, only $180 million had been invested in early-stage companies in Africa. When you look across the continent, there's a growing youth population, but there aren't enough jobs for those young people as they graduate from school. There isn't a strong enough economic base.  

The first focus was, how do we invest in these businesses that can either reduce the need to import goods or add value to products prior to exporting them. And the thesis hasn't really changed. When we first started, we were investing around $500,000 per company. Now, we're investing between $1-2 million per company. And that's still not enough. But those companies that we invest in, they're delivering on the objective that, as they scale, they’re employing more people. Those people are all earning fair wages in the markets where they're based, and these companies are contributing to economic development in the area. 

How do demographic trends, such as youth population booms or global migration shifts, affect how you think about investment and development?  The population boom that's occurring in Africa is, to some extent, unprecedented. In the next, I think it's 25 years, the continent's going to add close to 800 million people, whereas most of the world will either be declining or staying pretty level. If the African continent can't engage its youth population in a meaningful way, that could lead to conflict. It could lead to a scarcity of resources. It could lead to more people trying to leave their home country, whether it's crossing the Mediterranean or finding other places to go. It could create problems not just within Africa, but with other countries around the world.  

The opportunity is that you've got a large workforce that's eager, that's relatively cheap, and that, in many countries, is fairly well-educated who can do a lot of things. From a geolocation standpoint, Africa is in the center of the world, with easy access to the US, Europe, and other parts of the Middle East, even Latin America. And so, the continent is ideally located to be a bigger player in the manufacturing sector and export driven sector.  

How did the Emerging Leaders Program help shape your thinking and community? The Emerging Leaders program exposed me to how key decisions are made, both here within the city and nationally. My peers and the speakers we had the chance to interact with helped shape my thinking around how the world works. I met a lot of people who I still keep in touch with to this day, both personally and professionally.  

When we're investing in companies and I don't have any direct experience in that industry, I can call one of my fellow emerging leaders and say, “Hey, we're looking at investing in this company. I know it's an industry that you're familiar with. What can you tell me about the industry?” In some cases, my classmates have helped advise the company that we invested in because they were in a similar space.