Iyinoluwa Aboyeji might not have the personal wealth of Elon Musk or Mark Zuckerberg, but his level of success as an African entrepreneur bears comparison with any Silicon Valley tech titan.
While still in his 20s, the Nigerian cofounded two “unicorns,” an industry term for companies that achieve a valuation of more than US$1 billion.
By most counts, Africa has produced only seven unicorns compared with more than 700 in the US.
Photo: Benson Ibeabuchi
Aboyeji, who has many of the trappings of a global tech boss — he is often known simply as “E” and he wants to build a city devoted to tech — says that African entrepreneurs should have big ambitions.
However, they cannot simply copy and paste from the playbooks of Zuckerberg or Musk.
“We admire these guys, they’re inspirations,” he said over the telephone from an investor conference in the US. “But when we’re looking for a path, we don’t look to them because they’ve got a completely different reality from ours. You’ve got to find your own way.”
Now 32, Aboyeji spends much of his time funding start-ups, having left his posts in both of his unicorns — fintech firm Flutterwave and training platform Andela, which counted Zuckerberg as an investor.
“Now I’m the coach. I take a backseat,” he said with a laugh. “I had my time in the spotlight. I played well.”
His Future Africa firm, one of the continent’s biggest start-up funds, is preparing to launch a new round of investing.
It comes as tech firms across the world have slashed workers, and venture capitalists have tightened their purse strings.
The global economic downturn has seriously hampered African tech start-ups.
They attracted more than US$2 billion in funding during the first quarter last year, but this year’s figure is less than half that amount, specialist online newsletter The Big Deal said.
The gloomy figures do not dim Aboyeji’s confidence.
“It feels like the recession really unlocked people’s ability to build all of a sudden,” he said.
Future Africa has invested more than US$10 million in dozens of projects, many of them fintech start-ups trying to improve access to loans and banking services.
Future Africa helps them launch their ideas and get further funding.
However, Aboyeji still has an eye for a grand scheme — he is helming a project to build a city devoted to tech talent.
“Think Delaware, but for Lagos,” he said, referencing the tiny US state with low taxes that hosts many international companies.
The project, called Itana, aims to house thousands of tech workers and give firms tax breaks and other incentives — with a likely budget of US$500 million.
Silicon Valley libertarian ideologue Peter Thiel is among the backers.
Like similar attempts to create such “charter cities,” critics have said that Itana would be a tax haven or an opt-out from state control.
Aboyeji and his partners have repeatedly denied that, insisting Itana is located within an established free-trade zone and would respect Nigerian law.
Aboyeji is the son of a pastor and often talks about his religious convictions, describing himself as a “faith-driven investor.”
“I invest in companies that have redemptive qualities. They save people, they improve people’s lives,” he said. “They transform communities just like my faith does.”
Aboyeji, who attended University of Waterloo in Canada and praises the US as “the capital of capital,” has a talent for teachable stories and has been a regular on the TED talk circuit for years.
He said that the insight that led him to launch his investing career came a decade ago when he saw thousands of young Nigerians gathered in a soccer stadium trying to get permission to emigrate and get jobs.
“You’re not dealing with bums, you’re dealing with people who are desperate for opportunity,” he said.
He agonized over how investors could help to raise incomes in a country where more than half the population are younger than 18.
“It can’t be with agriculture, and it can’t be manufacturing. It is the Internet,” he said, adding that the possibilities were limitless.
For example, African entrepreneurs can legitimately think about space travel, especially if their ideas can help communications in the way that Musk’s StarLink mini-satellites have, he said.
“Never say never,” he added. “But we’re not going to do space exploration or space tourism. I don’t think we’re there yet. I’ll leave that for my kids to contemplate.”
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