Startups

In the global conversation about Africa’s tech renaissance, few names command the respect, data points, and track record of Iyinoluwa Aboyeji. Before he turned 30, he had already done what most founders spend a lifetime chasing: he helped build two unicorns that reshaped digital infrastructure across an entire continent. Today, he stands as one of Africa’s most influential ecosystem architects, a builder whose work has rippled from Lagos to Silicon Valley boardrooms. Aboyeji, known simply as E, is not just a startup founder. He is a force multiplier. An operator who understands markets, momentum, and the infrastructural gaps that hold back scale. And more importantly, a founder who walks away at the height of success to build what the ecosystem needs next. At 33, he is already a living blueprint for the next generation of African entrepreneurs. A Builder From First Principles Iyin’s entrepreneurial journey began long before the headlines, long before the billion dollar valuations, and long before African tech became a magnet for global capital. Raised in Lagos and later educated at the University of Waterloo, he absorbed two contrasting worlds: the extreme inefficiencies of African markets and the tight, efficient execution culture of Canadian tech hubs. That contrast shaped his thinking. He became obsessed with infrastructure: the invisible rails that make innovation possible. And that obsession would later produce two companies that fundamentally shifted how Africa moves money and builds jobs. The Andela Experiment: Can Africa Build Talent At Scale? In 2014, Aboyeji co founded Andela, a talent accelerator built on a radical premise: that Africa’s young population could supply the world with world class technical talent. With support from the founders of L5 Labs and a partnership with Jeremy Johnson, Andela became one of the most ambitious social–economic experiments in modern African tech. The company raised hundreds of millions from global investors and secured early backing from the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative. Andela went on to become a unicorn, validating a thesis many had overlooked: African engineers could compete globally when given the right structure, curriculum, and opportunity. But at the height of its rise, Aboyeji did what few would dare. He stepped aside and walked toward a new frontier. Flutterwave: Building the Rails for a Digital Continent Africa’s economy was digitizing, but the infrastructure that allowed money to move between businesses was fragmented and slow. In 2016, he co founded Flutterwave to solve that. The idea was simple: build the payments pipes for the continent. But the execution was monumental. Flutterwave became one of the fastest growing African fintechs in history, powering payments for multinationals, small businesses, and emerging startups across dozens of African markets. By 2021, the company reached a three billion dollar valuation, making it one of Africa’s top unicorns and a central node in the continent’s digital commerce engine. Once again, Aboyeji stepped back after the foundational phase, choosing not to stay for the glory but to build the next critical institution. Future Africa: Turning Builders Into a Movement After Andela and Flutterwave, E had a new mission: help the next generation of African founders get the early capital and knowledge that he never had. He launched Future Africa, a fund and community investing in mission driven founders solving Africa’s biggest challenges. The platform has now backed dozens of startups across fintech, climate, agriculture, health, logistics, and education. What makes Future Africa different is not just capital. It is the idea that builders are the best people to back other builders. And the results prove it: the fund has already produced several high growth ventures and seeded founders who are solving real problems for millions. E is not creating a VC firm. He is building a movement. Why Global Investors Are Paying Attention Aboyeji represents something global investors rarely find in emerging markets: a founder with repeat unicorn scale track record. His influence extends beyond boardrooms into policy, innovation ecosystems, and the cultural imagination of African entrepreneurship. He is shaping how talent is groomed, how capital flows, and how founders think about scale. For global allocators trying to understand the next decade of African innovation, E is one of the most credible operators to watch. The Legacy He Is Writing Iyinoluwa Aboyeji is part of a rare category of founders who build infrastructure, not just companies. Andela built the talent rails. Flutterwave built the payment rails. Future Africa is building the capital rails. Three layers of one long term vision. Not every generation gets a builder who sees an entire continent not for what it is, but for what it could become. Africa’s digital economy today owes part of its architecture to the decisions he made, the risks he took, and the companies he walked away from so he could build again. In the story of modern African entrepreneurship, Aboyeji is not just a chapter. He is one of the authors.