5 Nigerian Tech Entrepreneurs To Watch.
Internet seems to be creating a new universe on Earth, with the increasing online community that triples with global internet penetration, especially in Africa. This increase comes with associated with business opportunities. Tech entrepreneurs emerge on daily basis globally and Africa and Nigeria is not left behind. Below are 5 Nigerians Tech Entrepreneurs to watch.
Chinedu Echeruo
Echeruo is the founder and Chairman of HopStop.com, a company he founded in January 2005. HopStop.com operates in the navigational and local search industry. The Company provides door-to-door directions to city residents and tourists via public transportation systems. The Company’s services are delivered through a website (www.hopstop.com), SMS and voice interface and a downloadable mobile application; allowing users to access the HopStop service anywhere and anytime. Company was purchased by Apple, Inc. in July 2013 for estimated $1b.
Chinedu A serial entrepreneur grew up in Eastern Nigeria and attended Kings College, Lagos. He attended Syracuse University and the Harvard Business School in the United States. He founded and raised nearly $8 million for his two U.S based internet companies; Hopstop.com and Tripology.com. Tripology.com is a lead generation company for the global travel industry. Tripology.com connects consumers to specialized travel professionals and provides travel professionals with high-quality leads. Company was acquired by Rand McNally in 2010 and is now owned by USA Today.
He was named Black Enterprise Magazine’s Small Business Innovator of the year and listed in the magazine’s Top 40 under 40 and is currently a partner and head of the Principal Investing group at Constant Capital, a West Africa based investment bank.
Echeruo is working on yet another venture but this time, focused on small businesses in Africa. Project for small businesses in Africa ‘Business in a box.” Which he hopes to be financed through “crowd funding.’
Jason Njoku
Jason co founded iROKO Partners with Bastian Gotter in December 2011 iRoko Partners is an online media distribution company focused on the Nigerian Entertainment Industry. The company was established in September 2010 and is headquartered in Lagos, Nigeria with a branch in London, United Kingdom. Partners offers a range of online media products including its movie streaming website named iROKOtv focused on Nollywood Film productions, and ‘iROKING’, a Nigerian music streaming platform, other web brands are iROKtv, NollywoodLove and YorubaLove which operate on the YouTube video platform.
The company is globally the largest licensor and the leading distributor of Nollywood movies (both English and Yoruba) online.[1] Tiger Global, a hedge fund run by an early investor in Facebook and Zynga, has invested $8 million into the company.[6] iROKO Partners is now the fastest-growing internet company in Nigeria and is currently YouTube’s biggest African partner with distribution deals with Dailymotion, iTunes, Amazon and Vimeo. Last year, Iroko did eight million YouTube streams a month, with a $1 million revenue run rate. The success of NollywoodLove on YouTube led to a successful investment from US-based hedge fund Tiger Global, who led a two round funding amounting to $8 million, making it one of the biggest single investments in a West African internet venture. Another investment of about $2 million then followed again in July 2012 led by Swedish-based hedge fund Kinnevik.
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Njoku hold a B. Sc in Chemistry from the University of Manchester and also attended the University of Manchester Business school from 2002-2005.
His company has 71 workers with a sizeable $1.3 million in revenue last year and has been dubbed the ‘Netflix’ of Africa.
Bankole Cardoso
Bankole is the brain behind Easy Taxi Nigeria, a brand that is poised to revolutionize the face of running a public transportation business in the country. This brand is an online service that allows people to hire taxi from the comfort of their homes or offices through mobile device or computer.
Early this year, he was listed in Forbes 30 Most Promising Young Entrepreneurs and he got featured on CNN African Start-up. When he launched Easy Taxi, many thought his idea was abstract and wondered how far he would go with it. But Bankole has not only succeeded in building his brand to be a success story but he has emerged a force to be reckoned with in the comity of youth entrepreneurship.
Bankole was born and raised in Lagos before moving to the UK to attend Rugby School. He then went on to study business management at Boston College in the United States. He launched his career with PriceWaterhouseCoopers in New York City before joining the private equity firm called The Carlyle Group also in New York.
Damilola Solesi
She is the creative Director and founder of SMIDS Animation Studio with Head office at Ikeja Lagos. SMIDS Animation Studio is arguably the best and first Nigerian Animation Studio. Damilola is an extra ordinary entrepreneur, brazing a very unique and difficult startup terrain in Nigeria. She registered SMIDS Studio in 2010 with her savings from NYSC scheme.
Damilola is one of YOUWIN women Awardees. She has been selected among 44 others to represent Nigeria at the 2015 Mandela Washington Fellowship in USA. She studied Computer Science and has undertaken various animation and professional courses both local and overseas, Damilola is currently been featured on headline campaign for FIRS [Federal Inland Revenue Service].
Chukwuwezam Obanor
Chukwuwezam is a co founder of Nigerian tech startup Prepclass. Prepclass provides a database of study content to help prepare prospective university students for their Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) exams, Senior Secondary Certificate Examination (SSCE),NECO and WAEC. The platform has close to 3,000 registered users and over 1000 paid customers. A three month subscription-based model gives students full access to all content on the platform for a fee of around US$6.
Prepclass was identified as one of Fast Company’s top 10 most innovative companies in Africa for 2014. Obanor recently won $75,000 Anzisha Prize, a pan-African competition that recognises entrepreneurs between the ages of 15 and 22.
He had interned at Ericsson for six months while studying for his degree in electrical engineering at the University of Lagos, and soon after was one of only two Nigerians selected for the Google Africa internship, where he gained an understanding of corporate culture.
Obanor then worked for a year at Rocket Internet’s Jumia, a leading online retailer in Nigeria, as a senior online marketing specialist.
