The launch of Apple Watch, Apple Inc.’s smart watch, appears to have heightened the angst over the seeming absence of Blacks as entrepreneurs and professionals in U.S. STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) industries. With good reason. Black entrepreneurs make up only 1 percent of venture capital-backed tech startup founders and during the period measured from January to June 2010, the median amount of funding secured by an all-Black founding team was $1.3 million, compared to $2.2M for a racially mixed team, and $2.3M for an all-white team, according to CB Insights, producer of reports and analyses on venture capital, private equity, angel investment, mergers & acquisitions, IPOs and emerging high-growth industries.
While it may not seem so, the number of Black techpreneurs is growing. Below are the names of ten Diaspora African achievers in technology in the United States.
Ime Archibong (Nigeria), manager, Strategic Partnerships, Facebook Inc. He’s in charge of Facebook’s music and video strategy and manages Facebook’s relationships with companies like Spotify, Hulu, and Netflix. Archibong joined Facebook in 2010. Before that, Archibong worked at IBM in its business development department, where he handled the licensing of IBM’s technology.
Kelechi Anyadiegwu (Nigeria), founder, Zuvaa. Zuvaa connects customers all over the globe to African style, offering cultural stories about each designer. Kelechi is a social media and community engagement expert, having worked on a wide range of projects and clients, from EA Sports to the Microelectromechanical Systems Sensors Trade Association.
Brian Asingia (Uganda) and Franco Abbott (Kenya), co-founders, The Pearl Dream Inc. Connects African storytellers to a global audience by bringing content creators together on its DreamAfrica app, the world’s largest digital collection of African stories for kids accessed on mobile app with illustrated eBooks, animations, voice-overs and games/quizzes.
Billy Bones (Nigeria), founder, Booking Agent Info. Booking Agent Info connects you with celebrities by providing you with the contact information for their official booking agent, manager, publicist, and more.
Chinedu Echeruo (Nigeria), founder of HopStop. HopStop is an online transit-navigation service. Echeruo sold it to Apple Inc. for $1 billion.
Philip Emeagwali (Nigeria), inventor, the world’s fastest computer. Emeagwali researched how to stimulate the detection of oil reserves through the use of computers. He used more than 65,000 microprocessors instead of the proposed eight supercomputers, breaking computation speed records. Hailed “a father of the Internet,” he ranked numner one in a global poll of the world’s highest computer wizards of all times, and first by google for “contribution to the development of the computer.” (Pictured above)
Maureen Erokwu (Nigeria), founder/CEO, Vosmap. Vosmap helps brick-and-mortar businesses leverage the visual elements of search marketing to drive revenue. It is the leading provider for Google Maps Business Street View in New York.
Jon Gosier (Uganda), founder/CEO, Appfrica and Metalayer. Appfrica is a tech company that helps corporations enter African markets while providing local talent. Metalayer is a data analysis company. Gosier is also a founder of nonprofits HiveColab, an innovation hub and startup incubator; Abayima, which makes crisis communications technology for disasters; and Apps4Africa, an accelerator for African technology initiatives.
Kanyi Maqubela (South Africa), partner, Collaborative Fund. Maqubela has worked in consumer technology since 2006, quickly moving up from field director at solar leasing and sales company One Block Off the Grid to a venture partner at Collaborative Fund, which he joined as entrepreneur in residence in 2011. He became a full-time partner in December 2012.
Suleiman “Su” Sanni (Nigeria), co-founder/CEO, WeDidIt. WeDidIt helps nonprofits crowdfund projects. The company provides nonprofits with tools, like fundraising coaches, to help them successfully transform a video campaign into an executed project.
