It was a great honor participating at the Center for Inclusive Digital Transformation (CITDA) Summit on African Entrepreneurial Ecosystems Carnegie Mellon University Africa in Kigali yesterday. CMU Africa is on a mission of educating the next generation of African tech leaders and innovators - a mission that is also closely aligned with what we do at Future Africa.
It was a fantastic day kicked off by William Rufaro Mutero, a very insightful lecture by Professor Eric Stam on Entrepreneurial Ecosystems as well as a keynote by Phumlani Nkontwana of the Allan Grey Center for Africa Entrepreneurship. I had the pleasure to join a panel led by Professor Jesse Thonburg together witg David Masoperh and Muhammad Aliyu on the Venture Ecosystem in Africa. Thank you also to Professor João Barros for sharing your fascinating story back and forth between academia and being a venture backed founder.
I was very energized by interacting with students and young entrepreneurs at the Summit and I look forward to seeing the many collaboration opportunities we have in creating Africa's next digital leaders leveraging their skills to create groundbreaking companies that help solve the continents biggest challenges and create millions of meaningful job opportunities in the process come to life.
Future AfricaAccelerate AfricaIyinoluwa AboyejiV. Chinyere Inya Mathew Saunders
We're BACK with Season 3 of 'Invest in the Future' podcast, kicking off with an incredible episode featuring the founders of Andela for their 10 year anniversary!
🎙️ Andela at 10: A Special Reunion Episode
This episode features Christina Sass, Brice Nkengsa, Nadayar Enegesi, and our very own Iyinoluwa Aboyeji as the team reflects on the journey that shaped one of Africa’s most impactful tech companies. Special shoutout to Ian Carnevale & Jeremy Johnson who joined the podcast in spirit!
The team discusses:
- Growing through the challenges of building a startup
- Lessons in leadership, adaptation, and scaling globally
- The future of talent, technology, and investment in Africa
🔗 https://shorturl.at/WhJDC
Stay tuned for more speakers, insights, discussions to come in season 3!
#AndelaAt10#Leadership#AfricanTech#GlobalTalent
Education Thought-Leader | International Development Expert with implementation across Africa | Board Director (M.CIoD) | Multiple Award-Winning Leader | Education (SDG 4) & Decent Work & Economic Growth (SDG 8) Advocate
Enterprise Product Manager| #2 Most Followed Voice in AI Femtech Business |Leading AI Entrepreneur | Building Sanicle.cloud-'Workforce-Period' |Empowering Companies| Founders for Kamala| Amazon Best-Selling Author
#MILLIONDOLLARMANCHAMPIONMONDAY: Countdown to Black Is Tech Week! 💼🔥with Unicorn's Servant of God- Iyinoluwa Aboyeji
On this fine 08/12/2024, as we sip our pumpkin spice lattes, we're gearing up for the big event next week—Black is Tech Week! Today’s spotlight shines on one of the conference's powerhouses, Iyin Aboyeji—Africa’s original rockstar in venture capital.
Meet Iyinoluwa “E” Aboyeji, OON
The man behind not one, but two unicorns: Andela and Flutterwave. As the Founding Partner at Future Africa, he’s leading Africa’s largest seed-stage investment fund, pumping millions into over 100 startups across the continent. But that’s just the tip of the iceberg.
Did You Know?
Iyinoluwa has served as the youngest member of Nigeria’s Presidential Council on Industrial Policy and Competitiveness. Oh, and he’s got a little something called the Officer of the Order of the Niger (OON) title under his belt.
What’s Next?
He’s now the Founding CEO of Accelerate Africa, an innovation fund that’s put its money where its mouth is—over $6 billion worth, to be exact—into sectors like fintech, edtech, healthtech, and agritech. Some standout investments? Moove, a platform that helps Uber drivers in Nigeria own cars, and Itana, a network of charter cities for African tech talent.
Why Celebrate Iyin?
Recognized as a World Economic Forum Young Global Leader and a Forbes 30 under 30 honoree, Iyin Aboyeji is not just a name; he’s a movement.
So, hats off to Iyin—our Million Dollar Man Champion this Monday!
https://lnkd.in/gz-vxwFD
Who’s your Man Champion Monday? Let’s hear it!
#blackistechweek24#productchaste#MCM
🚀Join the ranks of Africa's most promising Startups!
A few months ago i gave account of our experience at Accelerate Africa, a big (perhaps the biggest) part of PipeOps (Accelerate Africa '24)'s transformation today.
Applying for AA1 is easily one of the best decisions we've made in the past year, one that i implore anyone building out of Africa and for the globe to make as well.
This is a clarion call to sign up for Accelerate Africa today—where you will learn how to build products with sustainable business models, powered by high-performing teams!
Do not miss this! Sign up for the next cohort here www.acceler8.africa
🥁 We are excited to announce the launch of Accelerate Africa cohort 2! 🥁
Apply now or nominate a startup at www.acceler8.africa
What is Accelerate Africa? A pre-seed / seed stage accelerator created by Future Africa, that accelerates bold and visionary founders turning our collective challenges into global businesses.
Through customer intros, access to relevant resources, pairing you up with advisors who have built businesses and invested in Africa, and connecting you to our networks - we set you on a path to $1m in revenue within 12-18 months of completion. Selecting startups from across the African continent, we run 2 cohorts per year for up to 10 startups over 8 weeks, to get support in areas such as storytelling, team development, go to market, product development, and fundraising.
Our AA2 request for startup themes are:
⚡ Improving access to affordable energy solutions
👷🏾♀️ Optimizing task-based jobs
💰 Reimagining alternative savings mechanisms
📲 Building IoT as a platform
🏃🏾♀️ Leveraging AI to boost enterprise productivity
👩🏾💼 Providing new models of SME financing
Pre-seed stage founders solving real problems with innovative solutions - Go to www.acceler8.africa to learn more and to apply!
Have questions about how the first full cohort went and want to hear from the founders? Check out our founder feedback series on youtube -> https://lnkd.in/emTnsaYn
Still have questions? Stay tuned for more updates about our request for startup themes blog post, upcoming Q&A session, our advisors, and in person events coming soon!
Iyinoluwa Aboyeji, Mia von Koschitzky-Kimani, Arinze Obiezue, Ifeoluwa (Awodein) Adepoju, Ismail Olasunkanmi, Jonathan Ruwanika CA(SA), Mathew Saunders, Sayo Adegoroye
AA1 Startup CEOs featured in video: Amanda Etuk, Moka Lantum, Henry Okafor, Kamil Sayour, Mwenda M., Nnamdi Emefo, Remi Dada, Samuel Ogbonyomi, Sandile Dlamini, Yinka I.
🥁 We are excited to announce the launch of Accelerate Africa cohort 2! 🥁
Apply now or nominate a startup at www.acceler8.africa
What is Accelerate Africa? A pre-seed / seed stage accelerator created by Future Africa, that accelerates bold and visionary founders turning our collective challenges into global businesses.
Through customer intros, access to relevant resources, pairing you up with advisors who have built businesses and invested in Africa, and connecting you to our networks - we set you on a path to $1m in revenue within 12-18 months of completion. Selecting startups from across the African continent, we run 2 cohorts per year for up to 10 startups over 8 weeks, to get support in areas such as storytelling, team development, go to market, product development, and fundraising.
Our AA2 request for startup themes are:
⚡ Improving access to affordable energy solutions
👷🏾♀️ Optimizing task-based jobs
💰 Reimagining alternative savings mechanisms
📲 Building IoT as a platform
🏃🏾♀️ Leveraging AI to boost enterprise productivity
👩🏾💼 Providing new models of SME financing
Pre-seed stage founders solving real problems with innovative solutions - Go to www.acceler8.africa to learn more and to apply!
Have questions about how the first full cohort went and want to hear from the founders? Check out our founder feedback series on youtube -> https://lnkd.in/emTnsaYn
Still have questions? Stay tuned for more updates about our request for startup themes blog post, upcoming Q&A session, our advisors, and in person events coming soon!
Iyinoluwa Aboyeji, Mia von Koschitzky-Kimani, Arinze Obiezue, Ifeoluwa (Awodein) Adepoju, Ismail Olasunkanmi, Jonathan Ruwanika CA(SA), Mathew Saunders, Sayo Adegoroye
AA1 Startup CEOs featured in video: Amanda Etuk, Moka Lantum, Henry Okafor, Kamil Sayour, Mwenda M., Nnamdi Emefo, Remi Dada, Samuel Ogbonyomi, Sandile Dlamini, Yinka I.
Today’s AA startup spotlight is Afriskaut!
Location: Nigeria 🇳🇬
Afriskaut helps football clubs and scouts find the best players in Africa. Its co-founders, Nnamdi Emefo and Ussa Buggu, were football league hopefuls from high school, where they first met and experienced first-hand the difficulties of getting scouted as promising sports talents in Nigeria.
By Demo Day, Afriskaut had:
🏟️ 700+ matches analyzed
⚽️ 8,000 African football players onboarded
🕵🏾 1000+ football players scouted
With Afriskaut, they’re looking to turn the story around for the next generation of African sports stars through their platform that tracks their games, maps their skills, and creates visual reports on their performance.
You can watch Afriskaut’s Demo Day pitch here: https://lnkd.in/eZ_TpXeX
If you’d like to connect with the Afriskaut team for investments and/or partnerships, please check out: bit.ly/acceler8startups#Afriskaut#Startups#AccelerateAfrica#Accelerator#VentureCapital#Innovation#DemoDay#Africa#FutureAfrica