Serial Entrepreneur, Iyin Aboyeji, announces the evolution of “Future Africa” to assist innovators exploit opportunities in Africa

Serial Entrepreneur, Iyinoluwa Aboyeji, has come out of early “retirement” to invest his time and resources in another venture – Future Africa

We knew it was only a matter of time before he would come out of retirement.

This Nigerian who has been behind successful ventures like Andela, Flutterwave has taken up a new mission – to partner with mission-driven innovators to turn Africa’s biggest challenges into global business opportunities. According to him, this is so that “we can build a just world where purpose and prosperity are within everyone’s reach.”

Now Future Africa is not entirely new. It was set up primarily in March 2019 as an online community in deep conversation about Africa’s future. Having discovered that building the future does not just require conversation or consensus building and that it requires taking bold and committed action, Future Africa has evolved. It has evolved from being an online community in deep conversation about an African future to a platform for innovators building an African future today

As he outlined in his blog post on the initiative, he has partnered with two other people, co-founders, Olabinjo Adeniran, Bakarat Adenike Sheriff and Chuba Ezekwesili to drive Future Africa.

According to him, “Today, alongside our exciting and bold new visual identity, we are announcing our evolution from being an online community in deep conversation about an African future to a platform for innovators building an African future today. We believe that by partnering with mission-driven innovators turning our continents biggest challenges into global business opportunities, we can build a just world where purpose and prosperity are within everyone’s reach.”

“We can only leapfrog and solve our present and future challenges by empowering local innovators who are passionate about these problems to design solutions, prove with data that these solutions will work in our context and build large organizations that can exponentially scale proven solutions through venture-backed entrepreneurship. “

Future Africa will initially provide assistance in three focus areas; capital, coaching and community.

Capital

Future Africa has established the Future Africa Fund – an angel fund whose founding Limited Partners are Iyin and Nadayar Enegesi, a co-founder at Andela. This fund will back up to 20 innovators with up to $50,000 of capital each year.

Iyin adds; “The beautiful thing is we will not just back innovators with money but also provide access to a vast network of talent, and early customers which could make the difference between success and failure for many startups. If you are one of these innovators, please reach out to us. “

Coaching

Future Africa is setting up Future Africa Venture School (FAVS). Here Future Africa will work with an experienced faculty of founders, investors and operators from across Africa and around the world to share their practical wisdom on these issues through articles, webinars, videos and podcasts. They will also host public and private virtual office hours where they will help founders navigate the many complex scenarios that arise while building a high growth startup in Africa in real-time.

Community

Future Africa is taking the Future Africa Venture Entrepreneur (FAVE) Hangouts to another level. Hitherto, it used to be predominantly online through newsletters, websites, social media and Slack. Now Future Africa will be taking FAVE Hangouts with them as they travel the world to bring together communities of innovators who like them are committed to building an African Future.

“I have always believed it will fall to young Africans to build our technology-driven future even when it wasn’t a popularly held a point of view. Yet, I cannot deny that particularly in the last year, my faith in an African future driven by a new generation of young innovators was incredibly shaken for obvious reasons. After all, imagining an African future sounds insane in the face of our continent’s seemingly insurmountable challenges – poverty, hunger, disease, a growing population without education or skills, a lack of infrastructure, a rudderless political and business elite, a despondent and misguided youth and the list goes on.” so says Iyinoluwa

“However, as I spent this last year in the wilderness I have become increasingly convinced that the correct response to the present darkness is to build a different future. Perhaps in the future, if we are successful, like their peers in saner climes, our children may have the privilege of asking the question, “what happened to the future?” and history will proudly answer, “It was built at incredible cost by great men and women against all odds. “