Iyinoluwa Samuel Aboyeji (born March 28, 1991) is a Nigerian entrepreneur and the general partner and co-founder of Future Africa, a platform that provides capital, coaching, and community for mission-driven innovators building an African Future where purpose and prosperity are within everyone’s reach.
Growing up, he attended Loyola Jesuit College, Abuja where he graduated from in 2007. He then proceeded to the Columbia International College, earning degrees in International Development, Legal Studies, and Economics. and then went to the University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada, for his Bachelor of Arts in Legal Studies.
In 2009, Aboyeji served as an intern for the World Youth Alliance (WYA) at the UN’s main office. Later, he was appointed president of the board of Imprint Publications, one of Canada’s biggest student-owned publishing companies. In 2010, he and Pierre Alrs launched Bookneto Incorporation, a social learning platform that enables users to share and organize learning resources within learning communities.
Bookneto Acquired
In 2013, Bookneto Inc. was acquired by the Canadian Innovation Center. Following this event, Aboyeji went on to co-founded Fora alongside Ian Carnevale and Nadayar Enegesi. Fora as a service provider helps African universities to develop by providing them access to online course materials. Professors prepare such materials from top international institutions.
Birth of Andela
Iyinoluwa Aboyeji would go on to partner with Jeremy Johnson, to create a team in 2014 which resulted in the establishment of Andela. Andela provides training for African software engineers and also aids businesses in hiring competent team members. This start-up was successful in attracting the interest of numerous foreign investors, some of which include Al Gore and Mark Zuckerberg.
Iyinoluwa Aboyeji’s departure from Andela happned not too long after they had managed to raise funds totalling USD 24 million with Mark Zuckerberg’s help for their Series B round. However, he went on to start Flutterwave instead.
The Coming of Flutterwave
Flutterwave is a financial technology company that serves africans and african businesses. Aboyeji’s stay with Flutterwave however, just like his previous ventures would be short lived. Aboyeji remained with the company for two years before departing on October 15, 2018. Olugbenga Agboola, a software engineer and his fellow co-founder, succeeded him. Before he left, this business had produced over 60 million transactions worth more than $2 billion.
More Vnetures Under Iyin’s Belt
Iyinoluwa Aboyeji has no doubt had quite an eventful run over the years. But the faith driven invetsor and co-founder apparently isn’t done yet.
In November 2018, he co-founded Street Capital, a company that connects foreign investors with African businesspeople. One month later, he joined the Rainbow Educational Services Limited board, an institution that provides pupils with a good education. He also joined the FilmoRealty board before the end of the year. FilmoRealty provides property and facility management services.
Iyinoluwa And Birth of Future Africa
Iyinoluwa Aboyeji founded Future Africa in March 2019 and became a General Partner in the business. Future Africa helps start-up innovators get finance and makes investments in media, infrastructure, and technology based companies. In October 2019, Aboyeji was appointed Chairman of Talent City Incorporation, which aspires to give African IT talents a level playing field.
Iyinoluwa, who says he is a “faith-driven investor,” explains that this does not mean that he only invests in Christian-owned businesses or strictly follows the Bible in all his investments. Instead, he sees being a faith-driven entrepreneur or investor as trying to emulate Christ’s behaviour in the marketplace by investing to help others.
According to Iyin, it can be challenging to create a business that is profitable and has a positive impact on the world. This is because you must be willing to sacrifice your own goals and plans to obey God’s call. Even when we were successful, we always had to move on to the next thing God asked of us, he says.
“This is why I prefer to establish businesses one at a time rather than try to grow one rapidly. If my commission is to save the African continent and its people from ruin, it will take more than just one business to make a difference.” He also stated that many businesses would need to work together to create the change.
In his words, “I contributed to the creation of Andela, a platform that trains and employs young Africans to work online to keep them out of unemployment. I participated in creating Flutterwave to prevent financial exclusion for African enterprises by enabling payments from anywhere in the globe, using any payment method. I contributed to the creation of Moove to protect mobility entrepreneurs from the bad debt of automobile leases and to provide them with the gift of an ownership-centred economic opportunity.”
Some people accuse me of having a saviour complex; upon reflection, I agree. Like my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, I have the commission to build and invest in businesses to save the world. This starts with Africa, he said.
Awards And Recognitions
Iyinoluwa has been recognized for his outstanding entrepreneurship and leadership skills with numerous awards, some of which includes the John C. Holland award for Youth Leadership from the JC Holland Foundation in 2010. In addition to being named one of Nigeria’s top 20 under 20 people by Ynaija, he was also acknowledged as a Global Shaper by the World Economic Forum in 2012.
In 2017, Business Day named him one of the 50 Most Influential Nigerians, and New African Magazine included him in their 100 Most Influential Africans list. He has also won a West Africa Mobile Award and was included in Forbes’ 30 Under 30 list of the Most Promising Young Entrepreneurs in Africa.
He was also recognized in 2018’s Forbes 30 Under 30 list for the Enterprise Technology section as well as the WEF’s list of “Young Global Leaders.” In 2019, New African magazine listed Aboyeji as one of the Top 100 most influential Africans.
