Category: Enterpreneurship

StorsPay, a Nigerian Decentralized Retail Investing Platform, Raises $320,000 and Gets Accepted into Techstars NYC Accelerator

By KODZILLA | Bit KE

StorsPay, a fintech startup by Nigerian, Sam Alonge, has secured a funding round of US$320,000 and selected to participate in the Techstars NYC accelerator. The accelerator supported by the JP Morgan Accelerator.

The fintech has developed a decentralized platform for retail lending infrastructure which aims to connect small businesses worldwide with retail investors seeking alternative asset investment opportunities.

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ONE OF BIRMINGHAM’S BRIGHTEST ENTREPRENEURS, SHEGUN OTULANA, SOLD HIS COMPANY FOR $1.2 BILLION

By Darryl Robertson | Black Enterprise

One of Birmingham, Alabama’s most skillful entrepreneurs, Shegun Otulana, sold his company Therapy Brands for a hefty sum, $1.2 billion.

According to Otulana, over the next decade, he plans to create 40 new startups in Birmingham–with an aggregate value in the billions of dollars.”

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Kenyan-born fashion designer finds inspiration at home


By Tina Locurto | York Dispatch

If it’s a type of fabric, bet that Victoria Kageni-Woodard has it. The self-starter fashion designer based in York County has piles upon piles of colorful, patterned textiles she uses to create clothing designs of her wildest dreams.

Kageni-Woodard, born in Kenya, always felt a passion for sewing and design. With encouragement from her parents, Kageni-Woodard moved to the United States in 1991 and honed her skills at the Savannah College of Art and Design.

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Kenyan-Born Woman Elated as She Fulfils Her American Dream As She Opens a Business in Wisconsin

By John Wanjohi | Mwakilishi.com

A Kenyan-born woman living in the United States could not hide her joy after finally fulfilling her dream of opening her own business.

On Monday, Priscah Norton opened a café christened “Coffee 4 All” in Stoughton, a city in Dane County, Wisconsin, in what she described as a dream come true. 

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Founded by Ghanian Immigrant Sam Badoo, Fleri allows users to sponsor health insurance for those abroad

BY CYNTHIA BENT FINDLAY | FOR COLUMBUS CEO 

Founded by Ghanaian immigrant Sam Baddoo, Fleri is a platform that allows users to purchase health insurance for beneficiaries in Africa and other in countries far away—currently only in Nigeria and Ghana, but is expanding rapidly. The beneficiary can go to local doctors, pharmacies or hospitals without having to wait for relatives to send money.

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Detroit Business Sells African Attire Made By Tailors In Congo

A Detroit-based brand is selling clothing and accessories that are made by African tailors who have been affected by past wars and their aftermath in Congo.

Zapenda is an online retailer started in 2019 and owned by co-founders Stella Safari and Dextina Booker, who are running the business in two countries. The sewing shop is in Bukavu in eastern Congo, where Safari employs eight people, six of them tailors. 

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Mother and daughter bring Egypt’s traditional drinks to North America

By Kamal Tabikha | The National

When an Egyptian mother and daughter emigrated to Canada 10 years ago, they took with them one of their most cherished memories of home — special herbal drinks from the Middle East. From brewing hibiscus and other infused drinks to share with their new neighbours in Toronto, Amal Soliman and Logaina El Kattan are now taking their beverage operation, Nuba, to the next level after winning C$75,000 in backing from business reality-TV show Dragons’ Den.

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Rose Njeri | Story of an unemployed college graduate who founded 2 companies in the United States

By The Bharat Express News

Rose Njeri is an established entrepreneur enjoying her success despite being tarred for years due to unemployment.Njeri, like any other university graduate, had bigger dreams of getting a job in a multinational company to explore his gained experience.

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Richelieu and Mary Dennis | Meet the Liberian mother and son team who founded one of the largest black-owned cosmetic firms in America

By Ebimo Amungo

Richelieu Dennis and his mother, Mary, are one of the most unlikely success stories of African immigrant entrepreneurship. Forced by war to overstay in America and prompted by unemployment to start making soap and shea butter products at home. Dennis and his school roommate hawked their products on the streets of New York and eventually founded Sundial Brands. The company grew to become one of the largest immigrants owned cosmetic businesses in America and was eventually acquired by Unilever for $1.6billion, making Richelieu Dennis and his mother one of the richest African immigrants in America.

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Nawal Denard | Ghanaian Immigrant entrepreneur draws on business support systems to brighten Detroit’s wardrobe

KATE ROFF | Model D Media

Nawal Denard began this year like most of us, with grand plans. The founder and owner of House of African Prints felt like she was just ramping up her clothing business when the COVID-19 pandemic hit. The entrepreneur moved to the U.S. in 2008 from Ghana to study industrial engineering at Murray State University in Kentucky, and later at Wayne State University. But she had trouble equipping her personal wardrobe, discovering a lack of quality African fabric on Detroit’s clothing racks. In 2017 she started selling West African-inspired clothing, with the goal of making chic garments from her home country available here.

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African immigrant entrepreneurs thriving in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania

Ron Mukuria | One United Lancaster

Musa Mmugambi has just started the process of earning his brokerage license. Mmugambi, an immigrant from Kenya who is in his late 40s, is a part-time independent real estate agent at the Younger Realty Group. He ventured into this field as a part-time job three years ago. Mmugambi’s example shows the dynamic entrepreneurial spirit that immigrants and refugees bring to Lancaster County.

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South African introduces Taste of Soweto as part of food festival in Colorado Springs

By Nick Puckett

A south African chef is hoping to introduce his Kalahari chicken wings, from his A Taste of Soweto restuarant to visitors of the Annual A Taste of Colorado Food Festival in Colorado Springs. Mpho MaPoulo wants to introduce the taste of his home country to Americans with his start-up food business A Taste of Soweto. MaPoulo and his wife, Ocean, hope to have their own food truck at the festival come October.

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WEST AFRICA FINDS AN UNLIKELY HOME IN SILICON VALLEY

By Jackie Abramian

There’s an influx of top West African government officials in Silicon Valley.

And it’s due to the efforts of one woman, Denise Ajayi Williams, President and Co-Founder of the Silicon Valley – Nigerian Economic Development Inc. (SV-NED).

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Fiery stews and jollof rice: the chef giving San Francisco’s food scene a Nigerian flavor

By Luke Tsai in San Francisco

When Simileoluwa Adebajo was homesick for Nigeria, she started a restaurant to recreate her childhood home through traditional cuisine. Simileoluwa Adebajo missed the fiery stews she grew up eating in Nigeria. She missed her mother’s smoky jollof rice.

Adebajo lived in San Francisco, where dozens of stylish fast-casual restaurants churn out every kind of rice bowl and ethnically inspired sandwich you can imagine but there’s not a single jollof joint to speak of. So Adebajo had little choice but to follow in the footsteps of so many homesick expats before her: She opened a restaurant of her own.

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This New Women-Owned Site Curates the Coolest Home Decor from Africa

By Emily Bihl

In this age of Amazon Prime, same-day home deliveries, and global online shopping marketplaces, we tend to think we can get anything from anywhere (and fast). But as Nana Quagrain discovered after moving from South Africa to New York, that’s not *truly* the case.

Commuting back and forth between Brooklyn and Johannesburg for years while working in infrastructure finance, Quagraine realized that the contemporary African design she loved was conspicuously absent in retail-obsessed New York. Creating 54kibo was a way to fill the gap.

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University of Georgia freshman starts business selling unique African products

  • Ramatulai Jagne, a first-generation college student from metro Atlanta, started Ramla Apparel, during her first year at UGA.
  • She saw a gap in the marketplace and dove in headfirst.
By Sara Freeland

Most University of Georgia students spend the first semester of their freshman yearadjusting to campus and studying for exams.

But after Ramatulai Jagne finished her homework, she worked on launching her business, Ramla Apparel.

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South African couple help American farmers find seasonal workers

South African couple, Manuel and Kathy Fick, are helping connect seasonal farmers from more than 80 foreign countries to large American farms in places like the Dakotas, Missouri, Texas, Nebraska, North Carolina and Kentucky, to fill jobs that are mostly spurned by American citizens. This report by Savannah Koval of The Mountaineer gives more details Continue reading “South African couple help American farmers find seasonal workers”

Students launch online shop for rare African ingredients in Canada

Two Nigerian students team up to serve the African community in the Americas with ingredients they are used to.  They created an online shop,Afrocart , which features around 200 products including rare spices, snacks and soups. This report by Nick Boisvert  of  CBC News gives all the details

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