Business & founders stories across Africa
Section
Capital, exits and the people deciding which African companies get built.
Iyinoluwa Aboyeji co-founded two of Africa’s best-known unicorn companies before he turned 30. His current bet is on early-stage founders and on training a generation of…
A database trainee at Heineken became the founder of the payments company that Stripe bought in 2020. He has since turned his attention to football and…
A former Dragons’ Den investor and international speaker, Vusi Thembekwayo turned a hard early lesson about due diligence into MyGrowthFund Venture Partners, an investment firm for…
In January 2021 Odunayo Eweniyi and Eloho Oname launched FirstCheck, an angel platform for women-led and women-focused startups across Africa.
A Nigerian-born lawyer and investment banker, Adebayo Ogunlesi founded Global Infrastructure Partners in 2006 after a career at Credit Suisse First Boston.
Born in London, the physician and entrepreneur founded Flying Doctors in Lagos in 2007 and later co-founded a venture firm that invested in Paystack.
A chemical engineer from Denver who earned patents at Kraft, then moved into Goldman Sachs technology banking in Silicon Valley, Robert F. Smith founded Vista Equity…
Co-founded in 2014 by Iyinoluwa Aboyeji, Andela grew into a company backed by Spark Capital, the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, Google Ventures and SoftBank.
A Harvard-trained lawyer from Baltimore, Reginald Lewis moved to the other side of the deal table, and went on to become the first African American to…
No one has an authoritative total of African startups. Funding trackers do measure how much money reaches them, and 2025 saw a rebound after two years…
A Sudanese-born engineer, Mo Ibrahim founded Celtel when banks would not back African telecoms, and later set up a foundation focused on leadership and governance.
Born in Jos, Tony Elumelu turned a struggling Nigerian bank profitable, led United Bank for Africa into 20 countries, then set up a foundation to back…
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