Community and Growth Intern

Ori-Lane is a curated marketplace connecting independent African fashion and lifestyle brands with customers around the world.

With Phase 1 beginning in West Africa, we’re building the infrastructure that enables exceptional African brands to reach global customers through one trusted platform.

As we continue to grow, we’re looking for people who are excited about marketplaces, community building, partnerships, and business development to help grow both sides of our platform.

As our Community & Growth Intern, you will work directly with the founder to help grow both the supply and demand sides of the Ori-Lane marketplace.

On the supply side, you’ll identify and connect with independent African fashion and lifestyle brands, introduce them to Ori-Lane, and build a strong pipeline of future sellers.

On the demand side, you’ll help more customers discover, trust, and engage with Ori-Lane through partnerships, community initiatives, creator collaborations, and growth marketing.

This is one of the most impactful roles on our team. You’ll have the opportunity to influence how both brands and customers experience Ori-Lane during one of the most exciting stages of the company’s growth.

If you enjoy building relationships, solving growth challenges, testing new ideas, and seeing measurable results from your work, this role is for you.

• Research and identify independent African fashion and lifestyle brands that would be a strong fit for Ori-Lane.
• Build and maintain a qualified pipeline of prospective brands using Instagram, TikTok, Google, fashion directories, marketplaces, events, referrals, and other creative sourcing methods.
• Conduct personalized outreach through email, Instagram, LinkedIn, WhatsApp, and other communication channels to introduce brands to Ori-Lane.
• Qualify interested brands and smoothly hand them over to the Designer Onboarding & Seller Success Intern for onboarding and activation.
• Research, develop, and manage partnerships with African community organizations, universities, cultural groups, creators, entrepreneurs, and diaspora communities that align with the Ori-Lane mission.
• Help identify opportunities to increase marketplace awareness through collaborations, partnerships, campaigns, events, newsletters, and community initiatives.
• Coordinate relationships with creators, ambassadors, influencers, and strategic partners who can help introduce Ori-Lane to new audiences.
• Work closely with the Content & Brand Intern by identifying the stories, campaigns, and community conversations that should be turned into content.
• Track outreach performance, partnerships, campaign performance, community engagement, seller acquisition, customer acquisition, and other marketplace growth metrics, sharing weekly insights and recommendations with the founder.
• Monitor competitor activity, emerging marketplace trends, customer behaviour, and opportunities that can help Ori-Lane continue improving its growth strategy.
• Continuously test new ideas for acquiring both brands and customers, documenting learnings and recommending improvements based on data.

• Hands-on experience helping scale a live international marketplace from an early stage.
• Direct mentorship from a founder with more than 13 years of entrepreneurship experience building businesses across Africa and the diaspora.
• Practical experience across marketplace strategy, business development, partnerships, community building, customer acquisition, seller acquisition, and growth marketing.
• The opportunity to own meaningful projects that have a direct impact on the company’s growth.
• A strong professional reference letter from the CEO.
• First consideration for a paid Community & Growth position as the company continues to scale.
• Exposure to cross-border commerce, startup operations, African fashion and lifestyle industries, and the rapidly growing creator economy.

We’re looking for someone studying Business, Marketing, Communications, Entrepreneurship, International Business, Public Relations, Economics, or a related field who genuinely enjoys connecting with people and building relationships.

You are naturally curious, resourceful, organized, proactive, and comfortable reaching out to people you’ve never met before.

You enjoy researching companies, building communities, forming partnerships, and finding creative ways to grow businesses.

You’re comfortable working independently while also collaborating closely with a small startup team.

Experience with outreach, partnerships, sales, business development, community management, growth marketing, startups, or marketplaces is a strong advantage, but not required.

A genuine interest in African fashion, lifestyle brands, entrepreneurship, technology, marketplaces, or the African diaspora is highly desirable.

• 15–20 hours per week
• Fully remote
• 3–6 months, renewable
• Unpaid — CPT students are strongly encouraged to apply
• Start date: Q3 2026, as soon as possible

Please send your CV along with a short note explaining why you’re interested in joining Ori-Lane to:

recruitment@ori-lane.com