Karabo is an investor-operator entrepreneur. In 2020 she founded Amara Strategic Investments, a venture philanthropy company. Amara Strategic Investments' long-term aspiration is to have interests fintech with a focus on financial inclusion, manufacturing, agriculture-related and -adjacent industries, culture and tourism. Karabo's current operational focus and mission is to get collectors of African art to see it as an asset class to ensure that modern and contemporary artworks from Africa and other under-represented regions are not relegated to artefacts over time, and that art collectors see long term value in the artworks that they collect. She is the Founder of Capital Art which is an art fintech and is a service for art collectors to better manage their art collections.
Karabo started her career in 2005 working in investment banking at J.P. Morgan, first working in equity derivatives in the Johannesburg franchise before moving to London, United Kingdom, in 2006 and working in Insurance Securitised Products until 2009 where she gained invaluable international experience.
She then moved back to South Africa and joined the pan-African financial group Old Mutual, in their Johannesburg offices in 2010 as a Strategy & Marketing Executive in the Retail Affluent segment, then moved into the Corporate segment as General Manager: Member Solutions in 2011 where she focused on customer experience for the members of the retirement funds the company administered. In January 2016, she became Managing Director in the Personal Finance segment, becoming the first woman to lead that business, a role she held until January 2020 where transitioning the business from being product-led to being customer-led was a key achievement as were the strides made in diversity and inclusion. Karabo has experience on several company boards and a former independent non-executive director at (amongst others) Tyme Bank Holdings Ltd, the first digital bank in South Africa to have its core banking platform in the cloud, as well as a former independent director of the Public Investment Corporation SOC Ltd, Africa's largest asset manager.
Karabo has a Bachelor of Business Science degree (cum laude) in Actuarial Science and Finance, and also a Postgraduate Diploma in Actuarial Science, both from the University of Cape Town. She is also an alumni of Harvard Business School, having completed the Advanced Management Programme in May 2019. Outside of work, she is a fellow with the Actuarial Society of South Africa (ASSA), having been the second black woman to qualify as an actuary in South Africa, and was recognised as one of the 200 Young South African leaders who are shaping the country's future in 2014. She enjoys travelling, learning about new cultures, art, film and photography and music.