Armed with a Masters in Finance and Management from the University of Central Lancashire and an MBA from the University of Salford, he has worked at leading start-ups such as auto tech firm, Cars45, mobility and logistics, Gokada.

With over 15 years of expertise in finance management, team building and operations management, he shares his outlook for 2024 and what businesses must do to stay ahead of the curve in the light of global macroeconomic headwinds.

What’s your approach to work and leadership?

My approach to work and leadership has been shaped by the fundamental premise that an empathetic and values-based approach to work is non-negotiable if you are going to get the best out of the people. A quick example comes to mind here.

I recall my time at one of the nation’s leading automotive start-ups and I had been hired to drive growth and profitability for a territory. I came in and inherited a non-performing team, some colleagues had joked that it was the worst performing territory in the whole business across the various countries of operations.

The irony of this situation is that the region had an impressive array of high-end quality mobility assets at its disposal.

So, we set around and tweaked a few things here and there but this was underpinned by an empathy driven approach which believes that before people can deliver their best, they need to be sane mentally, physically and emotionally.

So, provide an atmosphere that is non-toxic, even in a hot-wired, pressure cooker environment, you’ll watch your team bloom.

Connect and tap into those values that drive your team members intrinsically, such that the bonds are very strong and cohesive.

Lead from the front and get your hands dirty alongside the team, provide feedback, be humble and go hard at it.

These are the things that have worked for me. I think as eloquent testimony to this is that in two years at one of my previous employs, I rose from being a territory manager to a GM and Executive Committee member while at Gokada, I was hired as Head of Operations, and in less than 9 months I had been thrust to the front row first as interim CEO to help stabilize the business during a management change and subsequently as COO.

In terms of your career trajectory, what key learnings can we take during moments of transitions?

The key thing during these pivotal moments of transition is adaptability. As a business how agile are you to adapt to things and situations considering that typically things are always in a state of flux. Are you flexible as a business leader and how malleable are you and the organization to be able to seize emerging opportunities without being bogged down by bureaucracy.

To be open to change, you’ve got to have adaptability, flexibility and malleability. If you don’t have any of these skills set, you can’t work in the tech space.

In tech, the tendency of moving in zig-zags is stronger and higher as opposed to traditional firms where there is a semblance of regimentation.

Like we say, we move fast, break things, break them down and find what works, that’s just the MO in a typical tech start-up.

Nothing is ever fully cast in stone and you’d have rapid, quick-fire dynamism if you are looking to work in a tech firm that is under 5 years old.

How would you assess 2023 and the various tech bursts?

Last year, we saw shades of the Darwinian biological theory around survival of the fittest in operations while drawing some inspiration from insights around Abraham Maslow’s economic theory of needs where we see the different hierarchy of needs – food, shelter, clothing, self-actualization and the likes.

And so, when we look at the industry, most startups started the year with so much enthusiasm, everything was booming and all that but we all knew that elections were coming and this would typically from historical precedents take a toll on businesses.

With that sense of uncertainty around the outcomes, a lot of investors decided to take a laid-back approach to see how things would pan out.

Bear in mind that many of the early-stage start-ups are much independent on investor funding for their viability and growth.

Also, these start-ups invest a lot in tech infrastructure which is layered and paid for using foreign exchange. But when you look at what has happened to our currency against the dollar, then the scale of the challenges become magnified. Let’s assume that I had invested in your business with $1000 about 3 years ago when the exchange rate was less than 400 naira to the dollar.

Now, it’s more than 1000 naira to a dollar which means that if you are going to give me back my investment, you’d have to use almost 3 times the value of the naira to offset, which can put your business in a loss position.

Only businesses that are generating dollar equivalent in terms of revenue that are able to withstand all this economic quagmire that we saw in 2023.

Another reason why we saw some bursts can be attributed to poor corporate governance and mismanagement of investor funds – we saw some folks trying to live large in borrowed robes. You can’t live off the business.

Yes, many businesses are thriving but your ability to balance your expenditure, and cut off things that don’t have to do with the business or will move it forward as a founder or CEO is also very essential. Such bad and errant behaviour sends a wrong signal to investors and they then decide to withhold spending until the unit economics are right and proper spending structures are in place.

Where do we go from here?

We see that many Venture Capital funds are beginning to be very finicky and cherry pick the industries they want to play in.

A few years back, it was an all-comers affair and if you’ve got game and a track record or the right people speaking for you, your chances of securing funding was quite high.

However, we are seeing a deliberate focus on thriving segments that have the potential for wider use – health, clean and alternative energy tech, EVs, zero carbon emission and agriculture.

For a lot of players in the traditional spaces where VC funding has always flowed to, there’ll be a lot more due diligence and scrutiny by VCs to determine the viability and propensity for scale.

On the government side, they need to be a lot more focused on their enabler role. And if they want to play in the various spaces as well – fintech, ride-hailing and all, they need to stop being late to the party.

Tech companies are huge employers of labour and their contributions to economic growth is huge, government needs to find a way to continue to support them robustly and ensure that regulatory services are not detrimental to the growth and survival of the business and tech community.

So far, the first quarter of the year for tech startups in Africa has been juicy in terms of funds attracted. Data from the Big Deal compiled by Max Cuvellier, revealed that a total of $2.25 billion was raised in funding activities by tech startups in Africa in the first four months of 2022. 

A breakdown of the data shows that the biggest funding came in the month of March when the startups attracted about $710 million. Then, in February, they attracted $630 million. In January Flutterwave, the most valuable tech startup ($3 billion valuation) in Africa raised $480 million. 

Interestingly, Nigeria gets the most attention for being the most populous country in Africa, with 200 million people. Prospective investors see this huge number as an opportunity. But in some cases, this number doesn’t necessarily determine the opportunity size for every startup.

Regardless, venture capitalists are still looking to tap into Africa’s huge population of young people. New talents emerging in technology, and more startups with big dreams are emerging present those opportunities.

The space has bottlenecks that hamper growth. Investors still see Africa as a virgin area for investments, regardless of the funds it has continued to attract. 

For example, Nigeria’s popular active angel investor Olumide Soyombo began angel investing in 2014 and has invested in at least 33 startups, including Stripe-owned Paystack, PiggyVest, and TeamApt.

Startups across different sectors such as health (health-tech) education (edutech), finance (fintech), agriculture (Agritech), etc., are all getting a large chunk of investments from VCs. However, in the last few years, the Fintech space has been dominating in terms of the number of funds, it has attracted. 

In 2021, an industry report, says African startups attracted $5.2 billion in venture capital with Nigeria accounting for the largest share of investments.

It is not out of place now to say Nigeria is a hotbed of innovative fintech firms surpassing South Africa, the continent’s most developed economy.

Fixing Nigeria’s Mess

Lots of the critical stakeholders at various fora always suggest that the Nigerian government come up with the right policies that will attract foreign investments and spur the growth of businesses. 

The basics is the government addressing insecurity challenges and enhancing road construction and rehabilitation, as this will benefit investors who are invested in Agritech. This space requires that there are good roads that link the cities with the rural areas. 

Improving electricity to ensure businesses optimize their potential and avoid over-regulation that could affect businesses. 

According to Iyin Aboyeji, General Partner at Future Africa, a venture fund, said the tech community’s engagement with so regulators in the space is unstructured. “There is a need to stamp out a bad policy before it takes root.”

One of the erroneous moves by the Nigerian government which sent a wrong signal to venture capitalists was when it decided to place a ban on Twitter.   

Twitter has been a medium for most angel investors to communicate and engage in conversations that radiate the market opportunity in Nigeria.

The ban, however, at a time could have negatively affected sentiments and perception of foreign investors about Nigeria negatively. Another major challenge that must be addressed is the excess taxes and levies imposed on small businesses. Investors take notes of these details and make decisions on whether to invest in a particular market or not. 

“We have suffered a few things like being restricted from conducting international money transfers until we obtain a local license. We have also been threatened with new levies,” an edutech startup that doesn’t want to be identified told TechEconomy on a phone call.

The restriction placed on banks to carry out cryptocurrency transactions by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) is also another pointer to over-regulation. This situation raises concern for venture capitalists who are observing the Nigerian market.

CBN, while announcing the ban, said cryptocurrencies were widely used as speculative assets rather than as means of payment, making them significantly volatile and variable in their prices.

According to Luno, a crypto trading platform, Other companies have chosen to find workarounds that are less visible to regulators – for example, Peer-2-Peer (P2P) trading. Our view is that P2P trading would go against the spirit of the CBN’s directive.”

There have been calls at various fora for the CBN to get more involved, understand how the system works and provide robust regulations to address its valid concerns.

Dotun will be supporting Ventures Platform portfolio founders with investor relations, corporate governance, fundraising, international expansion, M&A, and growth marketing.

Founded in 2016 by one of Nigeria’s most active early-stage investors, Kola Aina, Ventures Platform focuses on funding market-creating innovations that optimize for non-consumption.

The firm has built one of the largest technology start-up portfolios on the continent, having invested in 74 companies spanning 6 countries, including Paystack (acquired by Stripe), Nomba (formerly Kudi), Reliance HMO, Brass, MarketForce, Mono and Piggyvest. To-date, Ventures Platform portfolio companies have gone on to raise more than $600m in follow-on funding. 

Dotun will join the existing Venture Partner – Seni Sulyman and the broader Ventures Platform team as they continue to scale their investments and impact in Africa. The appointment is aimed at strengthening the VCs position as a solid funding partner for Africa’s startups.

Dotun Olowoporoku, who has worked alongside the Ventures Platform team for a number of years, says, “I believe innovative entrepreneurs will significantly shape the future of the continent for the better, and Ventures Platform has demonstrated a good track record of finding and funding them. I’m excited and privileged to also contribute to the fund’s growth and expansion”

Founding Partner, Kola Aina adds, “As we deepen our expertise and invest in the growth of startups across Africa, it is important for us to partner with investors and experienced operators who have deep market experience and whose personal beliefs align with our thesis. Dotun is a fantastic complement to our growing team and we are honored to have him on board.” 

Dotun Olowoporoku is an accomplished entrepreneur, investor, and former Principal at Pan African VC firm, Novastar Ventures. He is currently the Chief Commercial Officer at TeamApt, with oversight on fundraising, investor relations, strategic investment, and acquisition.

According to her, the new agency will help brands tell their unique stories to their audience and attract more investments for startups in the continent.

Based in Lagos, Nigeria, ABCs will usher in new opportunities for the communications industry and tech community while delivering high-quality services to its clients.

The company boasts of a team of well experienced and dedicated tech writers, visual designers and account managers who have worked on numerous PR campaigns for tech startups in Africa.

Since inception in 2021, the company has had an interesting list of clients across fintech, femtech, transport tech and health tech, some of which include Bossbus, Shecluded, VFD Group and several others.

Speaking at the launch, Abiola stated, “ABCs will be a catalyst to African growth. We understand the realities that tech startups face, so we are currently offering Tech PR services specifically tailored to their needs.”

She added, “The sucAbiola Bonuolacess of the ecosystem depends on how well the African story is being told and we are happy to support the industry with the right insights for a better reputation.”

“Abiola Bonuola Communications (ABCs) seeks to be the PR Manager to Africa’s innovation world. To contact the Agency, African entrepreneurs, startups and VCs can reach out at abiola@abcs.africa or hello@abcs.africa”.