The founder
Jonathan Ben Izebe builds technology companies from Kinshasa. His path brings together three skills that rarely go together: engineering, creative work and capital. He designs platforms, draws their identity, and knows how to gather the funding that carries them.
A training where mistakes cannot be undone
In 2012, he earned a degree in civil aviation from the Institute of Meteorology, Aviation and Telecommunications. From 2013 to 2015 he studied management informatics at the Higher Institute of Computer Science, Programming and Analysis, while working as an assistant to management at Haojué Motors by Suzuki. He learned systems and business at the same time, and never separated them again.
Two years in China, and a method
From 2015 to 2017, he studied Chinese language, culture and literature at North China University of Technology, then IT management and cinematography at the Beijing Film Academy. In Beijing, he took on public relations and event responsibilities. He came back with Mandarin, a demanding visual culture and a conviction that still governs the way he builds: a market is built with its own codes, never with someone else's.
2018: the first company
Back in Kinshasa, after a period at the Congolese Wood Industry and then at the AFROXYL group as assistant to the managing director, he founded Alive Media in 2018. Graphic design, photography, web development: the agency gave Congolese startups and small and medium-sized businesses the digital identity they lacked. Alive Media is now Atelier OCA, the group's creative company. It is the oldest entity of OUENZÉ CORP, and its first building block.
Build, sell, start again
He led communications at Lucky SARL from 2019 to 2020 and delivered the media coverage of a national election campaign. In parallel, he designed and developed Tosomba, a Congolese marketplace inspired by the major international models, which he ran for four years before selling it. In 2020, he co-founded a music label alongside recognised Congolese artists and launched The Congolese Times, a news website.
The school of the field
From 2020 to 2023, at African Trading Oil, he led information systems and project management for an eight-service-station programme, and served as the interface between investors and logistics partners. He acquired three skills that are not learned in an office: negotiating high-stakes contracts, keeping a supply chain running in a difficult environment, and speaking to investors in their own language.
A setback, owned
In late 2023, he undertook a gold export project between Zambia, Kenya and the United Arab Emirates. The operation failed financially. He took from it six months on the ground on risk and cross-border logistics, and he tells the story rather than hiding it: a leader who has never lost has never truly committed.
2024: OUENZÉ
He founded OUENZÉ in 2024. OUENZE SARLU began operations on 21 June 2024 and was registered on 3 July 2024 in Kinshasa. In October 2025, he incorporated OUENZE, CORP. in Delaware to carry the group's international operations. Around this structure, four entities are being built: OUENZÉ for digital commerce, Ma Maison à Moi for verified real estate, Atelier OCA for creative work, SELA for technology and infrastructure.
He never left the technical side
Linux administration, networks and protocols, web development, cybersecurity and penetration testing, the full Adobe suite. He keeps training in information security: leading a technology company means understanding what it builds.
Native French, fluent English, Swahili and Lingala, basic Mandarin and Kikongo. He has worked or travelled from China to Mongolia, from Singapore to Ethiopia, from Kenya to the United Arab Emirates.