How TechBBQ’s Charles Kinga Is Bridging Nordic VCs

Charles Kinga does not immediately strike you as someone who can talk for hours. When we meet on August 25 in the lobby of Go Hotel in Copenhagen, Denmark’s capital and largest city, he appears quiet, almost understated. I am in the Danish capital for TechBBQ, the annual Nordic technology gathering, where Kinga heads its Nordic-Africa Startup Summit.

Yet Kinga is a natural storyteller, the kind who takes the scenic detour but never loses sight of the destination.  A simple question about his move to Denmark detours through Punjab, running a cocktail bar in India, and sorting letters on Copenhagen night shifts. Somewhere along this journey, he was also a musician, which perhaps explains the lyrical quality with which he tells these stories.

He has lived among enough cultures to belong comfortably to several. Kenya is home. Denmark is home. India, where he spent some time, left its own imprint. He speaks several languages and seems fascinated by the small customs through which societies reveal themselves.

Today, Kinga is Head of the Nordic-Africa Initiative at TechBBQ, a job that requires him to persuade two ecosystems that often misunderstand each other to sit at the same table.

He is thoughtful, entertaining and unusually optimistic about African technology. But his optimism is not uncritical. Africa’s growth story, he thinks, is sometimes exaggerated. Founders and investors misunderstand each other. And putting African entrepreneurs on Copenhagen stages means little unless conversations eventually become capital.

Over our conversation, Kinga talks about belonging, money, culture, and why Africa needs more than another platform startup.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Let’s start before TechBBQ. Where did you grow up, and what kind of home did you grow up in? What…