Babatope Awotona developed an app to organise multiple email exchanges, when scheduling a meeting.
Calendly was born after 7 years of hard work.
“I went for broke and put every single dollar I had ever made into it, I literally put everything on the line”, said Awotona. The year he launched his company, was the year he lost his mother to cancer.
He struggled to get through his pain, and eventually built up his firm into a solid one, with 20 million customers bringing in revenues of 60 million USD, per annum.
Gabkosh: Meet the founder and CEO of Calendly Tope Awotona
You are so right! I actually wanted to do a piece on him, a few days back but I was still trying to get the right material. I logged in and saw you had done it. Well done! Thanks a lot for this!
Why don't you break out and show the World what you posses. How long will you be part of this "shithole" calles Nigeri?
kn23h: Yorubas aren't noisemakers. We own large companies, not 2x2 corner shops. We're creative, we don't make fake copies. Yoruba products are reliable. We focus on quality, not on quantity.
A Yoruba nation with natural resources, a mega city, multi-rich companies, industrial and commercial hubs, high literacy rate, investor-friendly environment, etc is more likely to survive a breakup than other regions. We have everything!!
Kikelomo Lawal is the New Chief Legal Officer of The Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce
Congratulations are in order to Kikelomo “Kike” Lawal, who has been appointed by the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, as its chief legal officer and Executive Vice-President.
After spending 13 years at Canadian interbank network Interac Corp, Kike’s new job, which requires overseeing the global legal function, the corporate secretary, ombudsman and privacy office functions, as well as other related policies and programs, will take effect October 12, 2020. She will report to Victor Dodig, CEO and President CIBC, who according to Bloomberg law, had this to say
Cityblock, Co-founded By Dr. Toyin Ajayi, Raises $160M In Funding Passing $1B Valuation
Another Black-led company has achieved unicorn status!
CityBlock, which bills itself as a “primary care startup” that specifically targets underserved communities, has just announced that it has raised $160 million in its latest funding round led by General Catalyst, according to MedCity News.
The company, which was co-founded by Dr. Toyin Ajayi, has become the latest Black-led company to achieve unicorn status — that is, when a privately-owned start-up company achieves a valuation of $1 billion or more. Yesterday, we told you that Black-owned and operated Calendly has also achieved unicorn status.
“We are fortunate to be in a position where we’ve started to see proof points of our model,” Dr. Ajayi, CityBlock’s co-founder and chief health officer, said to MedCity News. “It’s personal for all of us. I’m a family doctor and I still see patients.”
The Stanford-educated doctor previously served as Chief Medical Officer of Commonwealth Care Alliance, a nationally-renowned integrated health plan. However, she said, she was inspired to found CityBlock due to her experience with marginalized patients with complex needs — most of whom, she said, were covered by Medicaid.
“There was a foundational need to build trust and engagement to really meet people where they were, that’s not built into our typical fee-for-service structure,” she said. “The economic drivers around fee-for-service incentivize more and more procedures, services, things that are not always tied to outcomes. When you look at a population that has been marginalized, disenfranchised, that hasn’t had access to really good healthcare and has reasons to not be engaged with primary care or behavioral health, the place where it all comes home to roost is in the hospital.”
It’s unclear if CityBlock plans to take their company public thanks to this new valuation. What is clear, however, is that the company plans to go above and beyond for its users as the pandemic continues, filling such needs as food insecurity and temporary housing.
Rolake Rosiji becomes first indigenous female CEO of Jobberman Nigeria
Jobberman Nigeria, a career portal for jobseekers, has announced the appointment of Rolake Rosiji as its chief executive officer (CEO) effective on February 1, 2021.
Rosiji is the first Nigerian female to lead the company, succeeding Hilda Kragha, who is now the managing director of ROAM Africa Jobs.
According to a statement announcing her appointment on Monday, Rosiji joins Jobberman with a decade of experience in strategic leadership and operational excellence.
“She recently led the technology and sales operations for credit financed smartphones and solar power sets as country manager of M-KOPA Nigeria,” the statement read.
“Prior to that, she was head of strategy and business development for Arla Foods Africa, where she developed distribution and joint venture partnerships across West Africa to rapidly scale up sales and also worked in corporate strategy roles in Denmark and USA.”
Commenting on her new role as CEO, Rosiji said: “This is a very exciting chapter in my career, and I am delighted to be joining such a passionate and innovative team. Jobberman has built a brand of excellence by using technology to revolutionize the recruitment sector”.
“I look forward to steering the company vision to build a market of greater technology adoption, democratic access and transparency that will tackle dominant challenges, notably youth unemployment and underemployment. It is a privilege for me to be at the helm of this dynamic team as we set out to empower job seekers with key skills and improve workplace productivity for employers in Nigeria.”
In her remarks, Kragha said Rosiji’s expertise, understanding of different markets and high performance is what makes her the perfect person to anchor the next phase for Jobberman.
Nigerian skit makers, Ikorodu Bois are on their way to winning a Nickelodeon Kids' Choice award.
The young comedians recently confirmed their latest feat, a first-time nomination for the 2021 edition of the renowned kiddies award. They revealed via their social media handles that they were nominated in the favourite African social media star category of the awards billed to hold on March 13, 2021.
Great contributions from everyone. I am 100% confident that I and the tech start up I'm aspiring to create will be added to this hall of fame in the nearest future. Meanwhile, to the OP if you could please change the word tribe to ethnic group/Nation. Yoruba is an ethnic group made up of several tribes like Ekiti, Egba, Awori, Ijebu, Oyo, etc. We are an indegenous nation just like the Scots, French, English, Irish etc. Thanks
Dr. Adenike Fajemirokun Group Executive Director, Office of the President/Group Chief Risk Officer
Adenike Fajemirokun takes on the challenging role of managing and coordinating the Executive Office of the Group President in addition to her role as the Chief Risk, Insurance and Procurement Officer of the Group.
Dr. Adenike, a renowned Risk Management & Insurance specialist has over 18 years of diverse experience in developing and implementing Risk Management strategies in Financial, Engineering, Manufacturing, and other industries. Starting out her career as a Civil and Fire Engineer at Ove Arup and Partners, Dr. Adenike later joined Deutsche Bank AG, UK, serving in top management roles such as UK Head Operational Risk and Director of the Management Group for leverage finance at the Corporate and Investment Bank.
Prior to specializing in the Risk Management field, Dr. Adenike held positions in finance as a front office quantitative analyst at Goldman Sachs London and New York. Dr. Adenike worked with First Bank of Nigeria as Head of operational risk management. She also managed and tracked the firm’s risks across all directorates, transaction services, and alternative investments. In 2010, She founded and headed AFRisk Management Consultants Limited, which developed the enterprise risk management frameworks for some of the country’s major institutions including the Central Bank of Nigeria, First Bank Nigeria, and AIICO Insurance Plc. Dr. Adenike went on to become the Chief Risk Officer of Dangote Group in 2013 and leads the Risk Management Functions for the Group and its various Businesses across board, where she oversees the company’s governance model and enterprise risk programs. Holding a B.Eng. in Civil, Structural and Fire Engineering and a Ph.D. in Risk-Informed Engineering both from the University of Manchester, UK, Dr. Adenike continues to zenith by being a Fellow of the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) and Specialist member (SIRM) of the Global Institute of Risk Management. She is also a visiting professor at the University of Manchester, UK, and has received global recognition for her work with the Operational Riskdata Exchange Association (ORX) and Institute of Risk Management, UK. She is currently a member of the Lagos State Research and Innovation Council in addition to her numerous caps on a number of other boards of Nigerian companies.
15-yr-old Nigerian student shares how she beat US, UK, China to win global math competition.
Nigerian teenager Faith Odunsi is putting the West African nation on the map after winning the Global Open Mathematics competition. She beat other contestants from Africa, Europe, Asia, Australia, and the United States to emerge the winner with 40 points, with the second runner tailing her with 10 points.
Odunsi, as the winner, walked away with $1000 which will be presented in an official ceremony soon. The 15-year-old is a final year high school student at the Ambassadors School, Ota Ogun State whose father is a medical doctor and mother, a businesswoman. Her parents are extremely proud of her win and she claims to have gotten her mathematics genes from her father.
According to her, the first stage of the tournament was the most difficult because she was not accustomed to the computer-based test. She scored 66 points in both the first and second rounds which were all CBT then progressed to the quarter and semi-finals held on Microsoft teams, acing that round as well.
Just look at the pictures, more brilliant, smart and talented Yoruba wizkids participated and scored very well all the way to the top in the Junior category.
plaindealer: Just look at the pictures, more brilliant, smart and talented Yoruba wizkids participated and scored very well all the way to the top in the Junior category.
Congrats to these brilliant kids
God Bless them all..
WOW!! Congratulations to all these young geniuses. God has blessed us with the will and and determination to be the best in the WORLD at whatever we do. Continue to reach for the stars!
AFRIEX was set up by Tope Alabi and a partner in 2019. It offers instant, zero-fee transfers to Africans at home, and in the diaspora.
It allows users to deposit cash on the app, send money to a bank account or another user, while withdrawing money through a connected bank or using a debit card.
The company just raised 1.2 million USD in a seed financing round abroad.
Bankly, Nigeria’s Fintech startup raises $2 million led by Vault and Flutterwave
Bankly, a Nigerian fintech startup digitizing cash for the unbanked, announced that it has closed a $2 million seed round.
The funding round was led by Vault and Flutterwave. Other investors who took part in the round include Plug and Play Ventures, Rising Tide Africa, and Chrysalis Capital.
This marks Flutterwave’s first disclosed investment in a company.
Bankly was founded in 2018 by Tomilola Adejana and Fredrick Adams and one of its objectives is the digitization of the informal thrift collections system common in Nigeria and popularly known as esusu or ajo.
Hard work and a lot of grit: CEO of Nigeria’s Pricepally reflects on the lessons learned as a founder
Pricepally Chief Executive Luther Lawoyin says he founded his fourth startup shortly after getting married when his wife starting taking note of their collective expenses and he realized just how much they were spending on groceries.
Speaking to CNBC Make It via telephone, Lawoyin said he couldn't understand the cause, as it wasn't something he had consciously monitored before. However, after conducting some research, Lawoyin said he realized that the high costs were partly due to inefficiency in the fresh food supply chain in Nigeria, where he lives, and across Africa.
This inefficiency is "chiefly due to the outdated and dilapidated infrastructure plaguing the continent," he said.
Pricepally, headquartered in the Nigerian city of Lagos, is an online store that enables people to shop for groceries in bulk at "deep discounts" because it connects them directly with farmers, manufacturers and wholesalers.
Lawoyin explained that there is a lack of integration between people in the supply chain, meaning "the farmer has no information on what the markets need."
"The rural to urban logistics companies have no structured information to convey goods, making intermediaries act at will with no understanding of connecting each stage smartly," he added. As a result, Lawoyin said the end consumer also has "no idea" where the food they buy is coming from or who farmed it.
"Overall there is a lack of data, information and collaborations that can make this food value chain a lot more efficient than it currently is," he said.
To make their own grocery shopping cheaper, Lawoyin and his wife, Mosunmola, decided to pool together with friends to buy fresh food in bulk more directly from producers, which is where the idea for Pricepally was born.
One of the biggest lessons Lawoyin said he'd learned in creating his own business was that "you need a lot of grit.
laudate: AFRIEX was set up by Tope Alabi and a partner in 2019. It offers instant, zero-fee transfers to Africans at home, and in the diaspora.
It allows users to deposit cash on the app, send money to a bank account or another user, while withdrawing money through a connected bank or using a debit card.
The company just raised 1.2 million USD in a seed financing round abroad.
Remita-John Obaro is the founder and CEO of SystemSpecs, the indigenous software company most famous for the Remita e-payment solution which powers Nigeria’s Treasury Single Account policy.
PiggyVest-Odunayo Eweniyi is Co-founder and COO of PiggyVest
Kuda-Kudi Money was rebranded to Kuda Bank. It was founded in 2017 by Babatunde Ogundeyi. It performs similar functions like other fintech companies. The start-up raised $1.6 milion in 2019.
Flutterwave-It was established in 2017 by Iyin Aboyeji and Olugbenga Abgoola
Paystack-PayStack was established in 2015 by Shola Akinlade and Ezra Olubi. It makes payment processes consistent for both consumers and the businesses they are attempting to pay.
Lidya-Lidya is a mobile-first technology with strong customer experience and proprietary credit scoring. Tunde Kehinde - Co-Founder / Co-CEO
VoguePay-Michael Femi Simeon - CEO
7 out of 13 major Fintechs in Nigeria are owned by smart and talented Yoruba men.
A time will come and the stories of betrayal will bring a war to the oduduwa people and those from the land of Chukwu!!!
A war of independent countries and rulers!!!
Let the world of the future remember my words and remember the people who caused the war and hatred that will rule over their lands then has all been turned to sands in their grave!!!
Africa is cursed and we shall all go to war against each other someday to be liberated!!!
Third World war will be cone after all amalgamated African countries separates and I will be here to tell stories of the conquerors and the conquered cause it will be fought in Africa!!!
Nigeria’s Helium Health raises $10M Series A for Africa expansion
Nigerian startup Helium Health sits in a good position during a difficult period, according to its co-founder.
The Lagos based healthtech venture is in the black, has batted away acquisition offers, and just raised a $10 million Series A round, CEO Adegoke Olubusi told TechCrunch.
The startup offers a product suit that digitizes data, formalizes monetization and enables telemedicine for health care systems in Nigeria, Liberia, and Ghana.
Adegoke Olubusi, founder of Nigerian-based health-tech company Helium Health,
I actually wanted to do a piece on him, a few days back but I was still trying to get the right material. I logged in and saw you had done it. Well done! Thanks a lot for this! 
