Zaid Adams

S

Founder & CEO at Helix Bio · Consumer finance

Helix Bio
Johannesburg, South Africa · SAST (UTC+2)
9+ years experience
Covenant University
English, Afrikaans, Hindi
Raising
Messaging unavailable

Overview

I started Helix Bio to fix consumer finance for teams who were tired of the workarounds. Previously built and sold a small consumer finance company. Before that: Paystack and Access Bank. Most at home with compliance and growth. Trail runner and occasional climber.

Good reasons to reach out
  • Investors who back our stage and sector
  • Second opinions on consumer fintech decisions
  • Thoughtful intros to people in my field
  • Working sessions on lending
Please don't message about
  • Offshore staffing offers
  • Generic networking requests
  • Courses and coaching offers
Skills
growthlendingconsumer fintechcompliance
RaisingRaising capital
closes in 3 months

Raising a $1M seed for carbon accounting for nonprofits

Stage
Seed
Raising
$1M
Instrument
Convertible note
Committed so far
$442k from an existing fund
Lead investor
Looking for a lead
Traction
$4M ARR after 13 months
Use of funds
Go-to-market in two new countries

$4M ARR after 13 months. Looking for investors who know robotics and can help with hiring.

Johannesburg, South Africa · remote OKcompliancegrowthconsumer fintech
Open

Experience

  1. Founder & CEO
    Sep 2023 - Present
    Helix Bio · 3 yr 1 mo · Full-time · Johannesburg, South Africa
    • Previously built and sold a small consumer finance company.
    • Grew the team to 61 people across 3 countries.
  2. Sales Development Representative
    May 2022 - Sep 2023
    Paystack · 1 yr 4 mo · Full-time · Johannesburg, South Africa
    • Signed 8 channel partners that now source 39% of pipeline.
  3. Account Executive
    Dec 2020 - May 2022
    Access Bank · 1 yr 5 mo · Full-time · Johannesburg, South Africa
    • Opened 4 new logos over $3 million ACV in the region.
    • Closed 128% of quota two years running.
  4. Partnerships Manager
    Aug 2019 - Dec 2020
    Jumia · 1 yr 4 mo · Full-time · Johannesburg, South Africa
    • Opened 12 new logos over $3 million ACV in the region.
    • Signed 8 channel partners that now source 27% of pipeline.
  5. Partnerships Manager
    Dec 2017 - Aug 2019
    Oakline Logistics · 1 yr 8 mo · Full-time · Johannesburg, South Africa
    • Built the public sector team from 5 to 15 reps.

Projects

Side project: a reading list app
2026

Built with growth and consumer fintech. 2795 people used it last year.

References

No references yet.

Education

  1. Covenant University
    BEng, Computer Science
    1997 - 2001

Details

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