the most influential men in digital transformation
Iyinoluwa Aboyeji, CEO, Future Africa (Nigeria) A serial entrepreneur, Aboyeji uses technology to solve issues facing Africa such as financial inclusion and mobility. As CEO and General Partner of Future Africa, an early-stage venture capital firm which has so far invested in over 90 start-ups such as Flutterwave, Andela, Stears and 54gene, they are worth over $6 billion. Aboyeji is also the founder of Moove, an African-born, global mobility fintech that provides revenue-based vehicle financing and financial services to mobility entrepreneurs across ride-hailing, logistics, mass transit, and instant delivery platforms. Before this, he was the founding CEO of Flutterwave, a billion-dollar global payments platform connecting African businesses and individuals to the global economy and Andela, a billion-dollar business which matches Africa’s top engineering talent to global technology companies. Last year, Future Africa’s Lagos-headquartered venture capital firm announced it is teaming up with TLG Capital, a London-based open-ended credit fund, to launch a $25 million venture debt fund reserved for portfolio companies. The fund created from TLG’s existing funds will help Future Africa’s portfolio companies preserve their runway in an increasingly tight fundraising environment. On the other
hand, Moove, which operates in six cities including Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, and South Africa, announced expansion to seven new emerging markets in Europe, Asia, and the Middle East after raising $105 million in its latest round of funding.
Babs Ogundeyi, Co-Founder & CEO, Kuda (Nigeria) In 2019, Babs co-founded Kuda with Musty Mustapha and has overseen the company’s growth in the three years it has been in existence. Over this period, Kuda has raised a total of $90 million in seed funding, while still expanding its customer base to over five million users. Kuda, a neobank, boasts easy and free to low-cost transactions, instant lending, debit card services, and more recently, international remittances from the UK. Tagged “The bank of the free,” Kuda demonstrates a new era of banking to Nigerians: free, easy, and completely digital. Today, the start-up is poised to replay the script of its revolution in the Nigerian market to its latest South Asian market entrance. In early 2023, the Nigerian-born digital banking platform set on its way to power digital banking services in Pakistan as the fintech acquired a digital banking licence from the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP). The license was issued to KT Bank, a joint venture between Kuda and two leading Pakistani companies, positioning Kuda as one of the five companies to receive the highly coveted digital banking license in Pakistan. Through Kuda, Ogundeyi has answered the question many have asked - Can African fintech start-ups can offer global solutions? He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Business Studies and Accounting from Brunei University, London. www.cioafrica.co | FEBRUARY 2023 | CIO Africa Magazine | by dx⁵
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