The Nigeria tech space is set to benefit from an investment tour of a team of Silicon Valley investors and technology companies. The tour is a collaborative effort between investment firm, Ingressive and the US Consulate General in Nigeria.
The tour which began in September saw the investors from Silicon Valley visit some of the Nigeria’s notable tech hubs like iDea Hub and Co-Creation Hub and they also attended technology events which sought to highlight the works of the start-ups in Nigeria.
According to John Bray, US Consul General who spoke to BusinessDay during a special dinner organised for the investors at his residence, the investment tour was organised partly as a commemoration of the global Entrepreneurship Week an initiated programme of the US government. The Entrepreneurship Week is celebrated in the US between November 14 and 28.
“We celebrate innovators and job creators who launch their products, who bring ideas to life and drive economic growth.
“We are pleased to be partnering with two American firms Ingressive and New Relic who are both here building relationships worldwide with Nigeria entrepreneurs. They are facilitating greater relationship between the US and Nigeria in the business world,” Bray said.
Ingressive Africa’s focus is on sub-Saharan Africa and particularly Nigeria because of the size of the market and the opportunities that exist in the country, explained Maya Horgan Famodu, managing director of the company.
“If you want to back technology in Africa, you look to Nigeria because the first billion dollar company made by Africa, built by Africa has happened in Nigeria and because they have the richest entrepreneurial ecosystem here. Nigerians are hustlers. Silicon Valley investors are looking for low valuation, they are looking to diversify their tech investments, and they are also looking for lower valuations and equal returns.
So if it is a Nigerian company, it can be the exact same company, same revenue, same traction, one Silicon Valley, one in Nigeria. you can get the one in Silicon Valley valued at $10 million and the one in Nigeria at $1 million and of course they are going to want to participate in the one that has lower valuation so they can have more equity and more opportunity. That is why the network has come from there and also because that is the concentration of technical expertise and progressive and exploratory capital,” Famodu said.
Yvonne Wassenaar, CIO of New Relic a technology company that is collaborating with Ingressive on the tour, also told BusinessDay that they are looking forward to collaborating with some of the technology companies they have already identified during the tour.
“It is amazing some of the applications that people have developed on the phones; some of the payment applications, some of the transportation applications and they are all software generated. I see a great opportunity with some people that I met; some companies like PayStalks are using New Relic.
“But many people I met are teaching themselves how to code; figuring it out and being very entrepreneurial. They have great passion and vision. I believe there are many companies in the US like New Relic who have tools to help them be more effective to get higher velocity out of their development teams, to get more reliable code that scales as their companies scale. The tools allows them really to move much faster than they would if they were all by themselves,” Wassenaar said.
