Itanna

Ainojie Irune serves as Chief Investment Officer and leads deal sourcing, diligence, and portfolio management for Itanna. Irune operates with the backing of Honeywell Group's executive leadership, integrating venture decisions with the conglomerate's broader strategic objectives.

Itanna sources deals through Honeywell Group's extensive West African corporate network, its accelerator program that surfaces early-stage founders, and co-investor relationships with other Africa-focused venture funds. The firm also evaluates inbound applications through its website and startup events across Lagos.

Itanna is neither a family office nor a traditional venture firm. It is a corporate venture capital arm of Honeywell Group, a Nigerian industrial conglomerate. The structure gives it permanent balance-sheet capital akin to a family office but with the strategic investment mandate of a corporate VC.

Itanna invests almost exclusively through direct equity deals in early-stage companies. There is no public evidence that the firm makes fund-of-fund commitments as a limited partner in other venture capital funds.

Itanna targets pre-seed through Series A stages, occasionally participating in follow-on rounds for portfolio companies. The firm writes initial checks typical of sub-Saharan African early-stage rounds and reserves capital for pro-rata follow-ons in later rounds.

Itanna is a wholly-owned venture subsidiary of Honeywell Group, the Nigerian conglomerate with interests in foods, energy, real estate, and infrastructure. Honeywell Group founded Itanna in 2018 to invest balance-sheet capital in African technology startups, and the venture arm operates from Honeywell Group's Lagos headquarters.

Itanna is strictly a corporate venture capital unit — it is not a philanthropic foundation and does not offer grant funding. Its investments are commercial equity transactions made for strategic and financial return, distinct from Honeywell Group's separate corporate social responsibility activities.