Nicolai Eddy — Operator, Builder, and Distance Runner

I spent seven years building Nala and Rafiki, a cross-border fintech moving money in and out of Africa and Asia. As co-founder and COO I operated across finance, compliance, revenue, product, partnerships, and engineering as the company grew to ~150 people across 16 countries. I stepped down from day-to-day operations in autumn 2026 and am now working on my next company.

Before Nala, I was at Morningstar in Chicago, where I started after graduating from Bard. I'm Swiss-American — my mother is from Switzerland; my father taught at a Waldorf school in Detroit, where I grew up. I came into fintech sideways, through Y Combinator's W19 batch and a one-way ticket to Tanzania in November 2019.

I'm married to Atieno Onyango, founder of Tieno Studio, an interior design and architecture practice in Nairobi. We split our time between Kenya, Switzerland, and occasional stretches in SF.