Tunji Andrews, Tito Ovia, and others on Legit.ng List of Most Outstanding Business Personalities in Startups
- Legit.ng is celebrating business personalities who have excelled despite the rough patches of 2022.
- Legit Business Names of 2022 is a project highlighting top startup individuals, as they exclusively share their projections for startups in Nigeria in 2023 with Legit.ng.
- Their stories will definitely inspire young and new entrepreneurs to aspire to reach their business goals.
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Legit Business Names of 2022 is celebrating top personalities across different sectors of business who have made tremendous impacts in Nigeria in the year in review. Understanding the business landscape in Nigeria, one would agree that it is no easy task to start and grow a business, let alone see it succeed against all odds.
In view of this, Legit.ng has decided to launch a business award, Legit Business Names of 2022, dedicated to Nigeria's most outstanding business personalities to commend them for their remarkable achievements throughout the year.
As the biggest publisher in Nigeria and #1 on the list of Top Web Publishers on Facebook, with profound business journalism, we have created a Digital Talks community where we have regularly interviewed Nigeria's most outstanding business personalities. The background gives us the credibility to conduct this great initiative, as some of our awardees have exclusively provided us with their projections for startups in Nigeria in 2023
We are delighted to present to you (in no particular order) our most outstanding business personalities in Nigeria in the Startup sector for 2022.
Source: UGC
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Tunji Andrews - Awabah
Source: Original
Tunji Andrews, the Co-founder and CEO of Awabah Nigeria, a digital micro-pension platform for Africa’s workforce. Andrews is a highly skilled economist, entrepreneur, and committed financial inclusion advocate on a mission to create dedicated financial offerings for Africa's underserved informal sector.
In less than two years since launching out, Andrews and his co-founders have pushed Awabah to gain a presence in several parts of the country, including Lagos, Ogun, Abuja, Port Harcourt, Edo and Kwara.
The projection for 2023: 2023 will be a unique year to identify resilient startups. Venture funding will improve compared to 2022 but will be more rigorous. Attention to real metrics, with an eye to revenue, will trump vanity metrics and stand out as the institutions that will take the continent into the next phase of Fintech spread.
Romain Poirot-Lellig - Kwik Delivery
Source: Original
Romain Poirot-Lellig is the founder of Kwik Delivery, a logistics business operating in Nigeria. The Kwik Delivery is an on-demand, last-mile delivery platform that connects businesses to independent delivery riders dubbed Kwiksters.
Kwik Delivery was founded in June 2019 to enable African businesses, merchants, and government agencies to efficiently move goods, services, and documents around large African cities.
Before founding Kwik Delivery, Poirot-Lellig acquired experience in sectors including politics, diplomacy, economics and technology. He served as a political advisor and chief of staff for the European Union Ambassador in Afghanistan between 2008 and 2010. Also, he worked as Senior Advisor to the CEO of French video games company Ubisoft SA between 2011 and 2018.
The projection for 2023: Nigerian startups defied so many odds in the past few years, innovating and proving themselves in ways some thought possible. As the context has already started evolving for startups around the world, 2023 will be a year of focus on KPIs growth and consolidation in key segments of the Nigerian tech ecosystem.
Oluwajoba Oloba – The Nest Hub
Source: Original
Oluwajoba Oloba co-founded The Nest Hub, a Technology innovation hub in the heart of Lagos. Oloba has helped startups and SMEs develop more notable brands and presence in emerging markets in the last few years.
The Nest Hub seeks to lead in providing an enabling environment for startups and businesses to grow and fly and to drive the human capacity development of the youth toward productivity through training, funding, mentoring and collaboration.
In June 2022, The Nest Hub partnered with the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO), a specialized agency of the United Nations, to unveil a Technology Innovation Support Centre (TISC) in Nigeria. The initiative hopes to support tech startups and entrepreneurs while promoting global research in a digital era.
Projection for 2023: A glimpse of hope is the passage of the Nigerian StartUp bill into an Act of the National Assembly. This will not only galvanize the whole ecosystem but also present an opportunity for different stakeholders to benefit from a thought-through piece of legislation.
I believe there will be a major improvement in the ecosystem after the elections and the benefits of work done now will yield major effects.
Tito Ovia – Helium Health
Source: UGC
Tito Ovia is a health technology entrepreneur, co-founder, and head of growth at Helium Health. The technology company that helps hospitals digitize their health records and streamline their processes.
Ovia was born in the United States but schooled in the United Kingdom, where she obtained a degree in Biomedical Sciences from the University of Manchester. She has used her invaluable experience to help organizations like Orbis and the Lagos State AIDS Control Agency.
Together with Adegoke Olubusi and Dimeji Sofowora, Ovia founded Helium Health to improve the nation's health challenges through technology. In 2019, the partners appeared on the Canada Health Care list and featured on the Forbes Forbes 30 Under 30 the same year. Ovia is also a winner of the Future Africa Award for Disruption.
Yele Bademosi - Nestcoin
Source: UGC
Yele Bademosi is the Co-founder of Nestcoin, a company that focuses on creating Web3 applications and investing in other startups with similar interests.
Before founding Nestcoin, Bademosi had a brief stint as director at Binance Labs and co-founded and functioned as CEO of Bundle Africa. He is also the founder of Microtraction, an angel fund venture capital with investments in over ten startups.
In early 2022, Nestcoin, a heavy investor in crypto, gaming and digital art, raised about $6.45 million in an early funding round to accelerate crypto and web3 adoption in Africa.
The startup prides itself as a company that was "democratizing access to economic opportunity for everyday people in frontier markets."
Damilola Olokesusi - Shuttlers
Source: UGC
Damilola Olokesusi is the co-founder and CEO of Shuttlers, a Nigerian technology-driven transportation startup revolutionizing how professionals and organizations commute.
Armed with a Bachelor's Degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Lagos, Olokesusi founded the company in 2015 as a tech and transport company aimed at enabling professionals and organizations to share rides to and from work in corporate buses.
With the Shuttlers App, professionals can book a seat on a route, pay a subscription, and track their shuttles' arrival and departure times. Olokesusi's leadership has helped the startup raise $1.6 million in seed funding to expand across Africa.
Olokesusi has earned several recognitions, including being selected as one of the Most Influential Women in Mobility 2022 by Vulog and a technology exchange by the government of the United Kingdom in 2020. She is also a 2019 Forbes30Under30 Recipient for Technology.
Chidi Nwaogu - Savvy
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Chidi Nwaogu is an entrepreneur, ecosystem builder, software developer, and co-founder of Savvy. This global program has equipped over 7,500 individuals from 156 countries with the necessary knowledge, skills, tools, resources, support network, and community to build sustainable, innovative, impact-driven businesses.
He started his entrepreneurial journey at 16 as a video games developer and publisher for Windows. At age 19, he co-founded, grew, and sold two successful tech companies, including LAGbook, a social network that garnered over 1 million registered users within three years and was acquired in 2013.
Nwaogu is the co-founder and CEO at Publiseer, a digital content distribution company for independent African creatives, identified by IFC as one of the startups "that could speed up innovation in Africa".
Ladi Delano - Moove
Source: Getty Images
Ladi Delano is a British-born Nigerian techpreneur who, along with his partner, Jide Odunsi, founded Moove Africa BV, the world's first mobility fintech service, in 2019. Moove Africa BV provides vehicle financing to ride-hailing drivers in sub-Saharan Africa.
Launched in Lagos, Nigeria, in 2020, Moove provides access to vehicle financing to gig worker customers who may have previously been excluded from financial services. Since its launch, Moove has raised over $100 million in funding.
Projecting an outstanding 2023 for Nigerian startups
Startups continue to spring up across Nigeria with the potential of becoming the next unicorn in Africa. 2022 was a good year for many Nigerian startups as they raised millions of dollars to expand their reach, generated employment opportunities and, most importantly, solving problems. Our awardees agree that 2023 will be a much better year for Nigerian startups.
Top 5 Nigerian startups that made big impacts in 2020
Last year, Legit.ng put together a list of the top 5 Nigerian startups that made huge impacts in 2020.
Despite the plaguing COVID-19 pandemic, which brought a lot of global economic activities to a halt that year, and the Nigerian economy falling into depression, some startups were able to excel.
These startups provide solutions ranging from education to health, online payment, savings and financial literacy, among others. The startups provide employment and help boost the economy by attracting foreign investments.
Amid the gloomy situation, startups that were able to make unique impacts in the year 2020 include - Paystack, LifeBank, uLesson, Tizeti, and PiggyVest.
Source: Legit.ng
