Key Points
- Cascador appoints Oyin Solebo as Chief Operating Officer, effective March 2026
- Solebo previously served as Managing Director of the ARM Labs Lagos Techstars Accelerator
- The appointment advances Cascador’s pivot from founder development to a full company-scaling platform
- Cascador’s Catalytic Fund deploys $2–5 million annually in financing to high-performing alumni
- Since 2019, Cascador-backed founders have collectively raised over $125 million and created nearly 40,000 jobs in 2025 alone
Main Story
Cascador, the Africa-focused platform for growth-stage founders, has appointed Oyin Solebo as its Chief Operating Officer, a strategic hire that signals the organisation’s shift from a leadership development programme into a full-scale company-building platform with capital deployment at its core.
Solebo brings hands-on experience from the front lines of African startup acceleration. She most recently served as Managing Director of the ARM Labs Lagos Techstars Accelerator, where she oversaw investments into and operational support for high-growth startups across multiple sectors. Her work spans venture capital, startup acceleration and corporate innovation, and she has established a track record of converting institutional vision into operational reality.
The platform pivot
The appointment comes at a defining moment for Cascador. Founded in 2019, the organisation has supported more than 70 entrepreneurs whose companies collectively raised over $125 million and created close to 40,000 jobs last year. It operates the ScaleUp Programme, a flagship initiative that works with proven, traction-stage founders to sharpen leadership capacity and strategic positioning ahead of significant capital deployment.
The Catalytic Fund, which sits alongside the programme, provides $2 to $5 million annually in tailored financing to high-performing alumni. The fund is explicitly designed not as runway extension, but as a multiplier and capital for founders who can absorb it and convert it into measurable business growth, job creation and market resilience.
Solebo’s remit as COO will be to build the operational systems that allow this model to function at scale: optimising programme delivery, deepening post-programme alumni support and constructing the institutional infrastructure that growing companies need to transition from founder-led execution to organisational durability.
Why Africa’s scaling deficit matters
Cascador’s thesis is built around a well-documented problem in African venture: the continent does not lack founders, it lacks companies that successfully scale. Most African startups that attract early-stage capital either stall at Series A or struggle to institutionalise their operations sufficiently to absorb follow-on funding without structural fracture. Cascador’s model combining leadership development with capital and operational systems, is an explicit response to that pattern.
For Nigeria specifically, which accounts for a significant portion of Cascador’s alumni base and sits in the same Lagos ecosystem where Solebo built her accelerator credentials, the appointment reinforces a local talent-to-leadership pipeline that is increasingly visible at continental level.
What’s being said
“Oyin is a force multiplier,” said Trish Thomas, CEO of Cascador. “She understands what it takes to build and run organizations that endure. As we expand our focus from developing founders to scaling companies, her operational expertise will be instrumental in helping us deliver on that vision.”
“In Africa, we don’t have a shortage of founders, we have a shortage of companies that successfully scale,” said Solebo. “The difference lies in systems, discipline, and the ability to deploy capital effectively. Cascador has built a powerful foundation by investing in people. The opportunity now is to extend that into building stronger companies that can absorb capital, institutionalize operations, and grow sustainably.”
“Cascador has always been about multiplying impact through entrepreneurship,” said Dave DeLucia, Founder of Cascador. “With Oyin, we are strengthening our ability to ensure that the hard work of our team and the deployment of capital ultimately translates into scaled, enduring businesses.”
What’s next
Solebo’s immediate priorities will centre on strengthening Cascador’s operational backbone, advancing the ScaleUp Programme’s next cohort and positioning the Catalytic Fund for increased deployment. The longer-term objective is to establish Cascador as a durable, institutionally recognised scaling partner for African entrepreneurs, not merely a programme, but a pipeline.
Bottom line
Cascador’s appointment of Oyin Solebo as COO is a deliberate operational bet on the part of an organisation that has proven its development model and now needs execution infrastructure to match its capital ambitions.
