Joel Blake Obe
Founder of GFA Exchange
Joel Blake Obe
Founder of GFA Exchange
Birmingham, England
Overview
Work Experience
Founder & CEO
2019 - Current
At GFA Exchange, we're on a mission to empower finance providers and consulting firms to reach new heights. As a B2B fintech startup, we specialise in enhancing inclusivity within financing and business support models, while mitigating risks and reducing costs. Our Innovation: AI-Powered Data Platform-as-a-service. We've developed our own cutting-edge AI risk rating platform that connects businesses with the most compatible clients inclusively. Our cloud-based solution streamlines the process, enabling our partners to benchmark, rate, and monitor their clients' business health performance. We deliver unique and personalised insights that drive success! Our commitment to inclusivity means we're here to support businesses of all kinds, no matter their unique characteristics. We bridge differences to foster growth and resilience. Awards and Achievements: We're proud to have received recognition for our dedication to innovation and excellence: 🏆 Fintech of the Year 2023 - Best Credit Risk Management Platform (Wealth & Finance International Awards) 🏆 Midlands Top 50 Tech Disruptors 2023 (Business Desk) 🏆 Fintech of the Year 2022 (BTA Awards) 🏆 Top 10% Most Innovative Solution for the Financial Services Sector (Innovate UK) 🏆 UK Top 100 Fintech Startup 2019 (Information Age) 🏆 Midlands Inno50 - Top 50 Most Innovative Companies 2019 (Mills and Reeves) 🏆 Rising Stars Regional Winner 2018 (Tech Nation) Want to learn more? We would love to hear from you - visit us at www.gfaexchange.com.
Board of Advisors
2023
Taranis Capital is an ethically-focused fintech investment fund. We focus on investing in fintechs with excellent ESG practices such as how staff are treated, the staff`s social well-being, and the impacts of projects that the companies are involved in. We also offer first-hand advisory support alongside the investment on a range of topics, including marketing, business development, global expansion, rollout plans, and strategic product development. For more information, visit www.taraniscapital.com
Chair of the Board of Trustees
2021
EmployabilityUK aims to facilitate employer engagement to enhance the aspirations, opportunities, and career prospects of enthusiastic and committed young people. As an award-winning charity, EUK builds sustainable partnerships with businesses, the public sector, schools, colleges and learners. Through programme- led activity aligned with Government’s strategies for education, skills and employment, we help break down the barriers to progress that young people face, transforming their employment prospects. EUK is a proud recipient of the Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service, and since 2014, we have engaged with over 4000 young people and a bank of 750 volunteers. For more information about our work, please visit www.employabilityuk.org
VC Scout
2021
Proud to be supporting Ada Ventures mission, to support bold business ideas from traditionally overlooked and underrepresented founders.
Board Trustee
2014
Performances Birmingham Limited is the charity that manages and runs both Birmingham Town Hall and Birmingham Symphony Hall, two iconic venues at the heart of Birmingham, creating a musical synergy across the two venues and ensuring each of their programmes complement each other.
President
2020 - 2022
The Commonwealth Chamber of Commerce is focused on supporting and promoting bilateral trading opportunities between local organisations and countries across the Commonwealth and includes a major events programme focusing on Commonwealth knowledge transfer. The Commonwealth represents a largely untapped market, and one which has been overshadowed by the UK’s relationship with the European Union. Currently, the EU accounts for 44 per cent of all UK exports, while Commonwealth countries make up only nine per cent.
Board Director
2019 - 2022
Birmingham Tech Week is a not-for-profit community initiative (CIC) which aims to raise the profile of the Birmingham tech scene, encourage inward investment, inspire the next generation, facilitate collaboration and create an ecosystem where tech companies can flourish.
Founding Chair Birmingham Forum
2018 - 2020
The Supper Club is an exclusive membership community of inspirational founders and CEOs of high growth businesses all of whom support the ethos of ‘give and get’ to support each other and drive scale. Since 2003, The Supper Club has enabled thousands of founders and CEOs to realise their growth ambitions by enabling them and their teams to overcome challenges, create value and drive scale. This is achieved through practical peer group learning, curated connections and entrepreneurial insights - at all stages of the entrepreneur lifecycle: from scale, to sale and life beyond.
Co-Founder
2019 - 2020
The Ark is a unique new business initiative designed to support and invest in high-growth businesses in the Midlands. This will be achieved through fostering a strong spirit of cooperation and collaboration among entrepreneurs, funders and support agencies. While all investors seek to invest in great companies, many also wish to add value through specialist advice and access to their own powerful connections. The Ark aims to connect these investors with passionate entrepreneurs seeking expert guidance and smarter funding. Something we like to call "commercial altruism". To learn more, please visit arkhub.co.uk
Founding Director
2007 - 2020
We are a niche award-winning advisory firm, specialising in Leadership Diversity. We help companies develop type of leadership talent they need, to compete in a more modern and innovative world of business. We combine over 15 years of diversity management support, with real-life business start up and scale up experience, to help our clients deliver personalised and bespoke ways to accelerate growth, develop people and increase social impact. Our results have included improved leadership talent, improved business performance and increased revenue opportunities for our clients. With a reputation for 'being outside of the box', our delivery style of work is always interactive, informative and solution-focused. Over the years, our experience has enabled us to work on a range of projects – examples include developing diversity strategies for global firms, advising regional organisations on their scale up and inclusion strategies, right through to C-Suite executive coaching and enterprise leadership programmes for senior leaders. Our diverse client base includes professional services firms, high growth firms, business support organisations, governing bodies and universities.