Manuel Koser

Co-Founder and Managing Director at Silvertree Internet Holdings (SIH)

Capitalising on his passion for Africa’s emerging markets and internet enabled companies Manuel Koser, the Co-Founder and Managing Director of Silvertree Internet Holdings has proved his diligence as the investment growth partner for some of South Africa’s largest consumer and digital brands, counts digital giants Pricecheck.co.za, CompareGuru.co.za, Petheaven.co.za, Faithful-to-nature.co.za, Cybercellar.com, aumax.co, Ucook.co.za and CarZar.co.za among its investments.

Manuel co-founded Zando and served as co-CEO and is also a Co-Founder of Jumia in Nigeria. He served as the Vice President for Corporate Development and Investments in Frankfurt for the Altira Group, focusing on African, renewable and German mid-cap investments. Manuel started his career as a Management Consultant for the Boston Consulting Group, where he focused on corporate finance and industrial goods projects in Germany, UAE, India, UK and South Africa.

Manuel holds a Bachelor’s degree in International Business Science from Bocconi University in Italy as well as the University of Maastricht in the Netherlands. During his studies, he was accepted into the BCG Fast Forward Program and received the E-Fellows online scholarship for top students, initiated by McKinsey in 2006. Koser completed his tertiary education in 2007.

Manuel was born in Aachen, Germany and is fluent in both German and English. During his studies, he also picked up a little Italian and Dutch. When Koser is not fulfilling his ambition to make Silvertree Internet Holdings into the largest investment growth partner in South Africa. His passion for hiking has seen him summit both Mount Kilimanjaro and Mount Stanley.

As a young and enthusiastic entrepreneur, Manuel has already taken to the podium several times, speaking at conferences and events including the LSE alternative investing conference, Retail Indaba, Online Retail Conference, IBM Smartcamp and the VISA Strategic Retailers Congress. He enjoys these speaker circuits, especially when there’s an opportunity to highlight his passion for building and investing in companies with great potential.