Tag: African business owners in America

Spice Kitchen wants to change the world with its stellar Nigerian food


By Tim Carman | The Washington Post

Thin strips of beef, dusted with a formidable West African spice blend, are scattered atop a waxy sheet of “The American Times,” a faux newspaper whose motto is “All the News That Changes the World.” The slogan, an obvious riff on the Gray Lady’s 19th-century retort to yellow journalism, seems custom-made for Olumide Shokunbi and Spice Kitchen.


Shokunbi earned his stripes in the restaurant business at Chipotle Mexican Grill, rising to the level of general manager at a store in his native Bowie, Md. The chain left its mark on him, not so much with its approach to customization but with its big-tent philosophy.

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South-African company, My Plastic, wants to make Rogers, Minnesota, its North American headquarters

By Sue Webber | Hometown Source

A new industrial company from South Africa is proposing to locate its North American headquarters in Rogers.

“This is an exciting opportunity, a new venture proposing to come to town,” Jason Ziemer, Rogers City Planner/Community Development coordinator, said at the March 22 Rogers City Council meeting.

MyPlas, a company that recycles plastics and turns them into new materials, plans to lease half of the 400,000-square-foot industrial building formerly occupied by Archway.

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300 Kenyans in America Team Up to Build Multi-Million Estate in Nairobi

By EDDY MWANZA | Kenyans.co.ke

A group of at least 300 Kenyans currently living in the United States of America has teamed up to embark on a multi-million housing project in Nairobi. Christened Kitisuru Amani Gardens, the housing project is located slightly off Limuru Road, with the adjacent suburbs comprising of Runda, Rosslyn, and Muthaiga. 

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Cyrille Nkontchou | The Harvard Business School trained Cameroonian who is the founder of a private schools business that operates across 9 countries

By Sven Hugo | How We Made It in Africa

Cameroonian businessman and investor Cyrille Nkontchou is an alumnus of Harvard Business School and is currently the Chairman of the HBS Africa Advisory Board. He is also the founder Enko Education, an African private schools business. Enko currently operates 14 schools across nine countries. Sven Hugo talked to Nkontchou about building the company, lessons learnt and some of the unexploited opportunities in Africa’s education sector.

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Nigeria’s Kiakiaprint Expands into US and Canada

By TAGE KENE-OKAFOR | Techpoint Africa

Following its expansion to South Africa, Kiakiaprint, a Nigerian print-on-demand startup, is now live in the North American countries of Canada and the US. The expansion news coincided with the startup’s partnership with online design and publishing company, Canva.

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Strive Masiyiwa | Netflix appoints Zimbabwean billionaire its board of Directors

By Netfilx

Netflix has appointed Zimbabwean-born Strive Masiyiwa to its Board of Directors. Strive is the Chairman and founder of Econet Group, a telecommunications and technology group with operations and investments in 29 countries in Africa and Europe.

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Chipper Cash | African fintech startup raises $30M backed by Jeff Bezos

By Jake Bright | Techcrunch

African cross-border fintech startup Chipper Cash has raised a $30 million Series B funding round led by Ribbit Capital with participation of Bezos Expeditions — the personal VC fund of Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos.

Chipper Cash  was founded in San Francisco in 2018 by Ugandan Ham Serunjogi and Ghanaian Maijid Moujaled. 

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Chi Uwazurike | Nigerian designer brings unique clothing, special vibe, to Royal Oak

By Chanel Stitt | Detroit Free Press

With the goals of diversity, inclusion and positive vibes, Lé Don Collection, owned by Nigerian Chi Uwazurike, is a space meant for customers and visitors to have a unique fashion experience.

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Tashitaa Tufaa | Meet the Ethiopian who started as a dishwasher but now owns 300 buses in Minneapolis

By Ebimo Amungo

At the height of the Covid 19 pandemic when most of America was put under lockdown and several people lost their jobs, one former Ethiopian refugee, Tashitaa Tufaa, who runs a transportation business in Minneapolis continued to pay his 250 strong staff their full salaries despite the negative impact of the pandemic on his business.

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Sharon Chuter | Meet the Nigerian-born founder of beauty brand UOMA

By Ebimo Amungo

Sharon Chuter is the Nigerian-born founder of UOMA Beauty who has made a big impact in the the beauty industry in since launching her enterprise on Thu, Apr 25 2019 at Neuehouse, Los Angeles, CA. Since then, Sharon Chuter has steered her venture through a Covid 19 disrupted year from Los Angeles and London and made global headlines when she called for more representation for Blacks in the fashion and beauty industry through her Pull Up initiative,

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Why restrictive immigration may be bad for U.S. entrepreneurship

by Meredith Somers | MIT Sloan

A new study shows that, relative to their population, immigrant-founded businesses create 42% more jobs in America than ones started by U.S.-born entrepreneurs.Share 

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Nigeria-Inspired Fintech Esusu Raises $2.3 Million in Seed Extension to Fuel Its Expansion to 1M Rental Units

By Tomiwa Onaleye | TechNext

U.S-based Fintech firm, Esusu Financial has raised a $2.3 million in seed extension to boost its expansion plans in the States. The funding round was led by Acumen Fund, Concrete Rose Capital, Global Good Fund, Impact America Fund, Next Play Ventures, and Zeal Capital Partners.

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Akon | R&B Singer Moves Ahead With $6Billion ‘Akon City’ in Senegal

By Babacar Dione | The Associated Press

American R&B singer Akon is moving ahead with plans to create a futuristic pan-African city, announcing Monday that construction will begin next year on the $6 billion project despite global tourism’s uncertain future.

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Meet Kenyan Family Reaping Big From Traditional Vegetables in US

By MICHAEL MUSYOKA | Kenyans.co.ke

Agriculture is a lucrative venture to undertake in the country but few have taken on the income-generating activity beyond the African borders.For Henrietta Moraa Isaboke, who has lived in the US for 19 years, farming was an activity like many she had not foreseen herself undertaking that turned out to be the family’s pride.Speaking to Kenyans.co.ke, the farmer who specialises in traditional vegetables like Managu for Kenyans living in the US, explained that it is a fullfilling venture which resulted in immense gains for the family.

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Martin Kabaki | Florida coffee shop owner living the American dream

Owner of Growers Alliance, Martin Kabaki, moved to the U.S. from Kenya about 20 years ago and saw an opportunity to help coffee farmers in his homeland.

By Leah Shields | First Coast News

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Biggest IPO by an African company in America is underway


By Olumide Adesina | Nairametrics

Wireless towers operator, IHS Holding Ltd., is considering a potential initial public offering on the New York Stock Exchange. Wendel SE, a shareholder in the company, disclosed this today, whilst noting that the deal could become the biggest listing ever by an African company in the United States.

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Perteet Spencer | Liberian American joins husband to start AYO Foods, a line of West African frozen meals

By Aaron Gettinger| HPHerald

Liberian-American Perteet Spencer and her husband Fred are banking on her Liberian heritage and experience in the food industry as they launch AYO Foods, a line of West African frozen meals. Already, Ayo Foods has got Whole Foods among their growing list of customers.

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aKoma is Dead. Long Live aKoma!

With the poor representation of Africa in the media and the lack of avenues for African creatives to express themselves, two former Turner/CNN staff, Chidi Afulezi, from Nigeria, and Zain Verjee from Kenya, joined forces in 2015 to form AKoma. Conceived as a platform that would enable and unleash Africa’s talent on the world, Akoma had the mantra “The most important person in Africa is the storyteller.” After 4 years trying to sell the message of Akoma to customers and investors, the duo pulled the plug on their enterprise. This article narrates the tortuous journey of Akoma.

by Chidi Afulezi | Medium

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Adam Demuyakor | This 31-Year-Old Ghanaian-American Venture Capitalist Has Bet $12 Million On Real Estate And Diversity

By David Jeans | Forbes Staff

As institutional landlords grapple with vacant buildings, and real estate startups fight for survival, one 31-year-old venture capitalist is betting his firm on the category bouncing back. Stealth until now, Los Angeles-based VC firm Wilshire Lane Partners has invested $12 million in property tech startups in the past 10 months, says founding partner Adam Demuyakor, even as the spread of Covid-19 has battered the category.

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Detroit’s Newest Food Truck Serves ‘Authentic Nigerian Cuisine’ On Livernois

by Alan Stamm | Deadline Detriot

An immigrant entrepreneur who launched a northwest Detroit food truck called Fork in Nigeria two months ago has a heads-up for adventurous diners: Some “restaurants we have around here wrongly brand themselves as African,” Prej Iroegbu says at his website.

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South African-born Elon Musk is now the 5th wealthiest person in the world

By South China Morning Post

The Tesla and SpaceX founder’s wealth has almost tripled to US$74 billion since March, according to Forbes’ rich list – but will he be digging deep to support bestie Kanye’s West beleaguered presidential bid?

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Maya Horgan-Famodu | The Nigerian-American founder of venture capital firm, Ingressive Capital

BY TOM JACKSON | Disrupt Africa

Nigerian-American Maya Horgan-Famodu always knew she wanted to run an Africa-focused VC firm. Yet the route she took in the end was a roundabout one. Horgan-Famodu is founder of VC firm Ingressive Capital, which invests in pre-seed and seed-stage tech-enabled businesses in the B2B space in Africa. The company averages US$200,000 to US$400,000 ticket sizes and targets 10 per cent ownership into companies it funds. 

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Silicon Valley has deep pockets for African startups – if you’re not African

American venture capital and private equity is dominating Africa, but it’s mostly funding other white foreign founders as black entrepreneurs struggle to raise financing.

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Nneka Egbujiobi : The Attorney Who Created The Newest Dating App to connect African diaspora

By Omose Ighodaro | Afro Vibes

The dream started in 2018 for Nneka Egbujiobi: “One night, I was sitting at home reading a few DMs that were sent to me but I wasn’t intrigued. I then thought, wouldn’t it be nice if there was a platform for the African community where we could select the type of people we wished to date?” Egbujiobi’s initial peevishness toward the unwelcome DMs (direct messages) led her to invent an app that would help Africans in the diaspora to create beneficial connections.

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Meet the richest African immigrants in America

By Ebimo Amungo

The richest Blackman in America may not be Robert Smith, Oprah Winfrey or Micheal Jordan as has long been thought of, rather, he may be a Harvard trained lawyer from Nigeria called Adebayo Ogunlesi. But even Ogunlesi is not the richest African immigrant in America. That distinction is held by South African-born Elon Musk and his countryman Patrick Soon-Shiong who are both multi-billionaires.

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Bentzy Goldman : South African tech entrepreneur suggests ways to make Tulsa a part of ‘start-up land.

By Michael Overall | Tulsa World

Bentzy Goldman wanted to leave South Africa to start a new business in the United States, where investors and customers would both be easier to find. But where exactly in America?

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Adeyemi Ajao: He is half Nigerian and half Spanish and he is Co-Founder of World’s Largest Black-Led Venture Capital Firm

By crunchbase

Adeyemi (“Ade”) is co-founder & Managing Partner at Base10 Partners. Before Base10, Ade had a successful career as an entrepreneur and investor.

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World’s Largest Black-Led VC Firm Doubles Size of Latest Fund

Adeyemi Ajao, co-founder and managing partner of Base10, said the equality movement sparked by the death of George Floyd demanded an urgent response.

By Lizette Chapman | Bloomberg

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Ada Osakwe: Nigerian becomes first African to Deliver a Commencement Address at the Kellogg School of Management

by Kemi Ajumobi  | Businessday

Ada Osakwe has become the first African to give a speech at the Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University. The event took place on Friday, 19th June, 2020. The topic of her speech was titled ‘Finding your voice in extraordinary times’. She is also the fourth black woman to do so, following in the footsteps of outstanding Black-Americans that include Edith Cooper (Kellogg ’86), Global Head of Human Capital at Goldman Sachs in 2017, Roslyn Brock, Chairman Emeritus of the NAACP in 2012 and media titan Oprah Winfrey, in 2011.

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Elon Musk: South African-born billionaire says ‘America is the land of opportunity – there is no other country where I could have done this’

By Taylor Locke | CNBC

Growing up in South Africa, Elon Musk  read plenty of books but was especially inspired by science fiction.  The genre motivated him to create “cleaner energy technology or [build] spaceships to extend the human species’s reach” in the future, according to the book “Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future” by Ashlee Vance.

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