Afropolitan, a business that seeks to create a digital nation for Africans, has raised $2.1 million in pre-seed funding.
Over 25 angel investors are involved, including Iyinoluwa Aboyeji of Future Africa, Olugbenga Agboola of Flutterwave, Elizabeth Yin of Hustle Fund, Shola Akinlade of Paystack, Ian Lee of Syndicate, Walter Baddoo of 4DX Ventures, Jason Njoku of IROKOtv, Tobenna Arodiogbu of CloudTrucks, Ngozi Dozie of Carbon.
Among the venture capital firms that participated in this round were Hashed, Atlantica Ventures, RallyCap Ventures, Microtraction, and Cultur3 Capital.
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According to Afropolitan co-founder Eche Emole, they want to solve the scarcity problem that black people face globally, which manifests in an inability to access institutions, money, jobs, and a high standard of living, by creating a digital nation that will allow black people around the world to build abundant lives.
The digital nation of Afropolitan will be constructed in four stages. It will let people into its community or decentralised autonomous organisation (DAO) in the first phase, with NFTs serving as digital passports.
In the second phase, it will create a super app that will let people to track their holdings, transmit money across borders, earn money by contributing to the DAO, and buy products and services from one another.
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The next stage, known as a “minimum viable state,” will allow it to provide some government services, including as assisting Africans caught up in the Russian-Ukraine situation.
Following that, it plans to push for complete sovereignty and buy actual territories in cities around the world.
Afropolitan, which debuted in 2016, offers a variety of community-led experiences for Africans and others in the diaspora through travel, events, and media. Its events arm, which is focused on Afrobeats parties, concerts, and festivals, made a statement in 2019 when it took part in Ghana’s “The Year of Return” event. The number of overseas visitors to Ghana reached that year at 1.13 million, up from slightly under 960,000 in 2018.
Charles Rapulu Udoh
Charles Rapulu Udoh is a Lagos-based lawyer, who has several years of experience working in Africa’s burgeoning tech startup industry. He has closed multi-million dollar deals bordering on venture capital, private equity, intellectual property (trademark, patent or design, etc.), mergers and acquisitions, in countries such as in the Delaware, New York, UK, Singapore, British Virgin Islands, South Africa, Nigeria etc. He’s also a corporate governance and cross-border data privacy and tax expert.
As an award-winning writer and researcher, he is passionate about telling the African startup story, and is one of the continent’s pioneers in this regard. You can book a session and speak with him using the link: https://insightsbyexperts.com/view_expert/charles-rapulu-udoh