David Akinin

Originally from Venezuela, David Akinin is a developer-entrepreneur, founder of Atenu Developments and OperFin Technologies.
Through Atenu, David has been building since 2014 in Namibia. Atenu builds privately-funded, affordable housing projects in towns around Africa, providing integral solutions to first-time home buyers. On the health and education fronts, Atenu builds clinics and classroom blocks for underserved populations around the nation, partnered with the Pupkewitz Foundation and Palms for Life Fund. In addition, Atenu has evolved in 2019 to be a civil and general contractor, providing EPC services, building infrastructure and industrial projects for companies.
In 2016, David launched FinTech company OperFin, Inc., an eMortgage platform that provides digital home loans and other innovative end user finance products.
David is actively engaged in consulting projects for real estate funds and developers in Namibia, Cameroon, Zambia and Nigeria.
Before moving to Namibia, David Akinin worked for Credit Suisse in NYC as an Investment Banker in the Energy industry, and later covering Latin America from Chile and NYC. Previous to CS, he held positions at Google in California, Clarteza in Chicago/Paris, Fundacion Don Juan De Borbon in Madrid, and Rallytel (startup) in Miami.
Fluent in six languages, Akinin holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Economics from the University of Chicago, where he was a Coca-Cola and QuestBridge Scholar. He’s completing a Masters in Philosophy in Inclusive Innovation at the University of Cape Town Graduate School of Business, and finished coursework at Harvard University and Paris VII-Diderot