From Andela to Flutterwave to Future Africa: the serial founder now backing the next wave

Iyinoluwa Aboyeji was raised in Nigeria by reverend parents, studied at the University of Waterloo in Canada, and by his mid-twenties had helped start two of the continent’s most closely watched technology companies.

The first was Andela, which he co-founded in 2014. It trains software developers in Africa and places them with global employers, and it went on to attract backing from investors including Spark Capital, the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, Google Ventures and SoftBank. The second was Flutterwave, a payments company he co-founded in 2016 with Olugbenga Agboola. Both are widely described as having reached unicorn status, meaning a valuation above one billion dollars.

Changing sides of the table

Aboyeji later stepped away from day-to-day management at Flutterwave and became an investor. He co-founded Future Africa, which describes itself as a platform that provides capital, coaching and community for mission-driven African founders. He has also advised the seed-stage fund Africa Angels Network, now known as CRE VC.

The move matters because the early-stage capital gap is one of the sector’s most persistent problems. Founders who have built through the full cycle, from garage to global investors, are a rare source of both money and hard-earned judgment.

Politics, construction and training

His interests have not stayed inside tech. In 2019 he served as deputy director-general of Oby Ezekwesili’s presidential campaign. He co-founded Talent City, a construction company now called Itana.

His latest focus is talent. In 2024 he joined a seven-member advisory committee for Nigeria’s 3MTT programme, the government’s technical talent drive, and has announced Learn2earn, an initiative designed to develop a large pool of AI talent aligned with that programme.

Recognition

In October 2022, Nigeria conferred on him the national honour of Officer of the Order of the Niger. New African magazine named him among the continent’s 100 most influential people in 2019.

For the next generation of founders, Aboyeji’s career is both a template and a challenge. He has shown that African-built companies can reach global scale, and he is now trying to make that path less lonely for those who come after him.