Nigerian Male Tech Founders Making a Difference Beyond Nigeria

This Week In Tech

By Nosa Alekhuogie

nosakhare.alekhuogie@thisdaylive.com

08097710984

Brief glance at 2022

With the tactical employment of digital and telecoms structures that facilitate financial access to credits, payments, and investments in a democratic fashion, the fintech industry takes on a gap-filler role in providing segmental finance services in 2022. These services, according to Aelex 2022 Fintech Report, cut across Personal Finance (8.1%), Lending and Financing (19.7 %), Payment and Remittances (26.6%), Security & ID (2.3%), Insurtech (3.5%), Business Administration (6.9%), Blockchain (11%), Investtech (10.4), open banking (2.9%), and other (8.7%).

This led to about 107 Nigerian startups raising one-third of the continent’s take home, N951,606,344,700, from 2015 to August 2022. The sector ranked top as it commands about 38% of the total vertical income, followed by e-commerce, health tech and edutech. Based on this, the country was considered the best investment destination for tech investors in 2022. The industry was said to have suffered about a 55% drop in projected income due to the global withdrawal of funding for tech companies in general. Despite these harsh realities, the Nigerian tech startup Flutterwave still raked in a $250 million Series D round and other tech startups within the space.

Funding realities in 2023
With the presidential election behind us, investors are eagle-viewing potential startups that can mature their investments. This also projects that the headlines will have new names based on their funding securities and equity acquisitions. This further boils down to the all-round technical and monetary support the startups will have in their pockets.
Notably, of the top 100 richest people in the world, only one is a woman. Besides, women-led startups receive only two per cent of venture funding. Despite these disparities, men have dominated the tech industry for decades, with many successful male founders paving the way for innovation and entrepreneurship.
It is significant to explore the contributions of some top male founders in Nigeria’s tech industry.

Kola Aina: Founding partner at Ventures Platform Fund
Kola is a seasoned investor, entrepreneur, non-executive director and company chair, passionate about seeing startups grow. He is the founding partner at Ventures Platform Fund – a leading Pan-African early-stage venture capital fund. He brings demonstrable success from leading investment in over 90 companies in Africa, India and the US, including payments companies such as Paystack.
Recognised as an entrepreneur, technology operator, and investor with experience working in Africa’s most significant economic market, he brings expertise across several sectors, including venture capital, technology, media, agriculture, infrastructure, publishing, and real estate, with a substantial interest in the arts.
Through Ventures Platform Foundation, he works on advocacy, research, and social impact initiatives that support youth entrepreneurship, civic engagement, and innovation. He is the Founder of Ventures Park – a network of artsy innovation and co-working spaces.
He is a Tutu fellow and a mentor with various programmes, including – XL Africa, the World Bank Accelerator and Google Launchpad Accelerator. He is also a board member and advisory board member of various organisations ranging from ARM Financial Advisers, Iron Global Markets, and Reliance HMO – to name a few.

Kola is passionate about mentoring and advising young entrepreneurs to create solutions for mass underserved -marketsHe was also a speaker at Techcrunch’s first event in Nigeria, Techcrunch Startup Battlefield Africa 2019.
He has received multiple awards and has been featured in various lists such as The 20 most important people in Nigerian tech, The ten most influential people in Nigerian Tech and #YNaijaPowerList2018 for Technology and many more.

Oluwatomi Solanke: Trove Finance
Tomi is a technology entrepreneur with experience working in
Africa’s largest economic market. His prior entrepreneurial experience spans several sectors, including technology, logistics, media, and real estate. He is the Founder and CEO of Trove Finance, a mobile and web platform that allows Africans “own the globe” by investing in stocks on multiple exchanges globally, such as the NASDAQ, NYSE, and NSE, to mention a few.

At Trove Finance, Mr Oluwatomi Solanke is responsible for all major corporate decisions, handles multiple operational strategies, and is the company liaison between the board of directors and investors. He has led the company to become one of the fastest growing fintechs in Nigeria, processing significant volumes in monthly transactions and growing the reach of the product to a community of over 300,000 Nigerians in about three years. He is an alumnus of the inaugural class of 1,000 entrepreneurs in the $100 million Tony Elumelu Foundation Entrepreneurship Programme (TEEP), a Young African Leaders Initiative WA fellow, an Ecobank Fintech fellow, as well as a LEAP Africa 2018 Social Innovator.

Oluwatomi has a decade’s experience building, growing, grooming and advising technology startups. Additionally, he is extremely passionate about youths and innovation and actively serves in multiple dimensions across his community, such as serving as a volunteer with the Red Cross, Lagos food bank and as a mentor with Tony Elumelu Foundation Entrepreneurship Programme (TEEP) and Founders Institute, the world’s largest pre-seed accelerator. Oluwatomi is a technology enthusiast who loves talking about new technologies and gadgets and is passionate about startups.

John Oamen: LiveVend By CutStruct
As the co-founder and CEO of LiveVend By CutStruct, John Oamen is determined to transform the construction industry in Nigeria using innovative technology and data-driven solutions. He is on a mission to promote transparency and eliminate inefficiencies in the construction industry, paving the way for a brighter and more sustainable future.
With a real estate and construction background, John’s experience exposed him to the many challenges plaguing the industry, particularly in Nigeria. Fuelled by his belief in inspirational leadership, he founded CutStruct.
Under his leadership, the formidable CutStruct team of professionals was born. Together, they are raising the bar for construction in Nigeria, providing access to price insights, a marketplace for procurement of construction materials, and a monitoring tool for construction projects. With over $700,000 in pre-seed funding, LiveVend By CutStruct is leading the charge towards more efficient, transparent and sustainable construction practices in Nigeria. Notable among their investors are DFS Lab and Tofino Capital, recognising the game-changing potential of Oamen’s vision.
As an advocate for sustainable construction, LiveVend By CutStruct is committed to reducing its carbon footprint and minimising sustainability risks. Oamen and his team work closely with top players within the construction industry in Nigeria to push the use of eco-friendly materials and promote sustainable building practices.
Oamen passion for creating positive change does not stop at the construction site. He is a mentor at Join The Journey, a US-based non-profit organisation providing training and small business loans to female entrepreneurs. He is also a member of Premia Business Network, a community of thought leaders in business and innovation.

Fejiro Hanu Agbodje: Patricia Technologies
He is the founder and CEO of Patricia Technologies Limited, a fintech solutions provider company duly registered by Nigeria’s Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) with RC Number 1484208. He is a serial entrepreneur who draws experiences from business tours in the UK, Asia, the Middle East, and other African countries as he introduces unique positive markers that will drive user experience and excellence in service delivery to the next level in Africa and beyond.
His dream to make Africa the most desirable place for innovative transactions and change the world gave a thought to starting a gift-card exchange company, which eventually birthed the fintech business in 2017. This reality is known as PATRICIA, which now has offices in Ghana, the United Kingdom, USA, UAE and Asia. Patricia is focused on improving users’ experience in the fintech and crypto space whilst consistently guiding the development of her products, one of which was Africa’s first-ever Bitcoin debit card. Recently, she launched new products and partnerships intending to make its platform a one-stop shop for convenience, leading to over 300,000+ unique sign-ups within a year and over 10,100,000 unique transactions across all products and services.

Fehintolu Olaogun: CredPal
Fehintolu Olaogun cofounded CredPal in 2018 with his partner, Olorunfemi Jegede, and currently serves as its CEO. His role at CredPal involves spearheading external operations and executing long-term strategies that have led to the company’s growth and success. Under his leadership, CredPal has become a leader in the financial technology industry, offering innovative credit solutions to individuals and businesses across Africa.
Fehintolu is passionate about leveraging technology to create lasting solutions to bring impactful change in emerging markets. Before CredPal, he cofounded Exolve Technologies, a leading technology company providing enterprise solutions for organisations across Africa.
Driven by a passion for technology and entrepreneurship, Fehintolu seeks new challenges and opportunities to make a positive impact on society. As an experienced software developer and CEO, he inspires and mentors young entrepreneurs, helping them realise their dreams and achieve their full potential.

Shola Akinlade: Paystack
Shola Akinlade is a Nigerian software engineer and entrepreneur. He is the cofounder and CEO of Paystack, the company that was acquired by Stripe in 2020 for $200 million. Akinlade’s company Paystack was a part of startup accelerator YCombinator’s 2016 batch of startups.
It was the first Nigerian company to receive startup capital from YCombinator. Paystack provides businesses and companies a platform to accept payments via credit card, debit card, money transfer, and mobile money on their websites or mobile apps. The company helps businesses in Africa get paid online and offline. They are based in Lagos, Nigeria, and California, United States.

Paystack was launched in January 2016 by Shola Akinlade and Ezra Olubi.
The acquisition by Stripe was the highest acquisition of a Nigerian startup at the time. The acquisition was a surprise and as well an encouragement to most companies in the technology sector in Nigeria.
Shola Akinlade claimed that Paystack was not actually interested in selling, but the offer from Stripe was too good to refuse. y
In 2022, Akinlade founded a football club, Sporting Lagos FC, which he notes is a platform for community development and social change.
In October 2022, Akinlade was conferred with the officer of the Order of the Niger (OON) by President Muhammadu Buhari of Nigeria in recognition of his contributions to advancing technology in finance and business.

Babs Ogundeyi: Kuda Bank
Ogundeyi is the Chief Executive Officer and cofounder of Kuda Bank. Kuda Bank is the first full-service digital bank in Nigeria. Ogundeyi founded Kuda with a mission to make banking more accessible while being cheap. He has worked as an auditor and given his service to some of the biggest banks in Africa.
Kuda Bank, initially ‘Kudi Money’, is a free digital bank in Nigeria established in 2017 and based in London. Kudi Money was rebranded to Kuda Bank after it was licensed by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) in 2019.

From October 2002 to March 2010, Ogundeyi worked as an engagement manager at PriceWaterCooper (PWC). He directed audits and advisory engagements of many African banks. He has also performed auditing for some financial service organisations.
Ogundeyi was also the special adviser to the Oyo government on finance from 2011 to 2015. As a special adviser, he served as head of the state’s microfinance bank, transforming it from a $2 million loss position into a profit-making entity within four years. He was also responsible for raising capital in the state and successfully led the largest Bond raise in the state’s history – a ₦55 billion bond programme. Babs also successfully set up the public-private partnership office and debt management office and created products to boost internally generated revenue effectively.
As a value-driven entrepreneur, Ogundeyi also cofounded Motor Trader Nigeria, the first classified car magazine in Nigeria, sold to a major newspaper company after one year of launch.

Ogundeyi is recognised as one of Nigeria’s top 10 COVID-19 innovators for his efforts to curb the pandemic’s adverse effects. In 2020, his mobile banking outfit launched a ₦1.5 million COVID-19 fund catering to the less privileged in Lagos.

Olugbenga Agboola: Flutterwave
Olugbenga Agboola, popularly known as ‘GB, is a Nigerian software engineer and entrepreneur.
He is the cofounder and chief executive officer of Flutterwave.
The founders were two Nigerians: Iyinoluwa Aboyeji and Agboola. The company headquarters is in San Francisco, California, in the United States, but it operates in Nigeria, South Africa, Ghana, Kenya, and other African countries.

Before founding Flutterwave with Iyinoluwa Aboyeji in 2016, he worked as an application engineer at PayPal and in product management at Google.
Aside from being a fintech engineer and an entrepreneur, he is also a certified ethical hacker, security analyst, and Microsoft system engineer. Agboola also assisted in the growth of a few fintech companies and financial services like Standard Bank.
Flutterwave is a company that provides financial technology services to individuals and businesses. It is one of the top 5 Fintech unicorns in Africa, having a company value of over $1 billion.
From 2018 to date, Agboola has moved Flutterwave forward and massively contributed to its growth. Agboola was listed on Fortune’s 40 Under 40 list in 2020. He was also on Time’s Next 100 list in 2021. In April 2022, he received the ‘Tech Investor of the Year’ award in the Business Insider Africa awards.

Moving forward
The fintech industry projects a futuristic boom, not solely for advancing innovative financial payment and transactional solutions but also for fintech entrepreneurs in Nigeria. The industry is one to be proud of as an emerging tech-savvy nation. Despite the littering surprises on the global scene in 2022, the sector still has its head up high. This is not to say that the industry’s challenges are not pressing hard. About 40% of the adult population remains unbanked, and this calls out the industry to fasten her belt. The first quarter of 2023 is over, and with the emergence of fintech and other tech-based startups, the industry will certainly be on a green path. There is hope for favourable volumes of investments in several seed rounds, equity, and other industry-specific positives.
In conclusion, while male tech players are not the only ones contributing to the fintech space in Nigeria, they have certainly played a significant role in its growth and success. However, it is important to note that much work must be done to ensure that the industry is inclusive and accessible to all, regardless of gender.