Seven years of African fashion e-commerce. Here's what we learned.
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Industrie Africa is built by a tight-knit team of specialists with deep, industry-backed experience. We combine editorial judgment with commercial discipline across curation, buying and merchandising, creative direction, and client stewardship. We stay close to the work — because the difference between a compelling concept and a premium experience is almost always standards, cadence, and execution. Collectively, our senior team brings 35+ years across fashion, retail, and cultural work — shaped by long-term proximity to Africa's design ecosystem and its global audiences.
Founder
Strategy · Curation direction · Partnerships
Nisha founded Industrie Africa in 2018. Tanzanian of Indian origin, she trained at Parsons School of Design in New York before building her early career across the editorial and commercial departments of American Vogue, Vogue India, and Style.com Arabia — formations that gave her a working fluency in both the language of luxury and the mechanics of how it travels across markets. That dual literacy is what Industrie Africa was built on, and what continues to shape its direction. She leads strategy, curation, and partnership direction across Industrie Africa and IA+, translating Africa's design intelligence for global audiences with precision and integrity.
Business Development Manager
Commercial Strategy · Operations & Execution · Customer Experience
Maneka's expertise spans digital strategy, customer experience, and commercial operations — built across brand environments in London and Nairobi over more than six years. Trained at London College of Fashion, her grounding has always been both globally informed and oriented toward the continent. She works closely with the CEO to lead business development and operations at Industrie Africa, bringing e-commerce, CRM, and retail operations experience to the structural work that keeps complex engagements moving.
Creative Director
Experience design · Story systems · Creative direction
Sunny works at the intersection of curatorial practice and creative capital. A BoF500 member, he was a key orchestrator of the curatorial team behind the V&A's landmark Africa Fashion exhibition in 2022, and is a partner at Heva Fund, the Nairobi-based finance facility that has channeled over $10 million in direct investment to more than 50 creative enterprises across the continent. He leads creative direction across Industrie Africa, and IA+ engagements, bringing both institutional rigor and ground-level ecosystem fluency to the work.
Retail Strategist
Assortment strategy · Merchandising standards · Retail performance
Sumendra's retail practice is built on proximity — to the work, to the designers, and to the commercial realities of selling it. Over more than a decade, including her tenure as Buyer at Merchants on Long in Cape Town, she has built collections of ethically produced work and direct relationships with more than 200 designers and artisans across the continent. She leads retail strategy and merchandising across IA+ engagements, where her precise curatorial eye and commercial instincts shape what belongs in a space — and how it performs once it lands.
Operations Manager
Client Intelligence · Systems Management · Project Execution
Millicent's experience at Industrie Africa spans sales, CRM, logistics, fulfillment, and customer care across the platform's years as one of the most trusted destinations for African fashion online. Today, she supports operations across Industrie Africa and IA+, bringing both structural rigor and a deep understanding of client behavior to the work. Working in close partnership with leadership, she manages the systems that hold the business together — ensuring every engagement remains coordinated, on track, and delivered with consistency.
