Techpoint Africa has unveiled a new initiative called Techpoint Diaspora, designed to celebrate and connect high-achieving Africans making waves in the global technology ecosystem.
This initiative will strengthen ties between Africans in the diaspora and the continent’s growing innovation landscape, building collaboration, investment opportunities, and knowledge exchange.
The launch follows the successful hosting of the Afrotech: Understand African Markets, a Techpoint Africa event dedicated to connecting the African diaspora with the continent’s vibrant entrepreneurial ecosystem, held in Houston last week.
The event drew together African founders, investors, and tech professionals from across America, and featured conversations exploring Africa’s emerging tech sectors and how Africans in the diaspora can engage with businesses and innovators back home.
The origin of Techpoint Diaspora
The concept that has now blossomed into Techpoint Diaspora traces back to 2016, when Mark Zuckerberg, then CEO of Facebook (now Meta), visited Lagos, Nigeria, and Kenya, to meet with African developers and entrepreneurs.
At that time, his visit somehow served as a validation of the local tech scene. Techpoint Africa observed and chronicled the energy of the moment, particularly by spotlighting the talent pool of Africans who had achieved success on the global stage.
Techpoint Africa ran a series of timely articles profiling Africans working at major global technology companies such as Meta, Google, Amazon, and Microsoft, giving our audience insights to how Africans were influencing some of the biggest tech ecosystems in the world.
Some of the articles included stories on 18 brilliant Nigerians working with Mark Zuckerberg at Facebook and other Africans building global products. The context of these original features was simple yet profound: to showcase the dispersed talent driving innovation globally and to implicitly connect that success back to the growing promise of the African tech landscape.
This trajectory further intensified in November 2019, when Jack Dorsey, Twitter’s co-founder and then-CEO, held a landmark town hall meeting at the Techpoint Africa headquarters in Lagos. The event became a defining moment for the ecosystem, especially when a Nigerian developer, Dara Oladosu, who created a viral Twitter bot, received an on-the-spot job offer from a Twitter executive.
This early effort to identify and celebrate the diaspora’s achievements served as the foundation and inspiration for Techpoint Diaspora, moving the focus from recognition to active engagement.
What this means for Africans in the diaspora
For Africans in the diaspora, the benefits are enormous. On the one hand, Techpoint Diaspora will serve as the primary conduit for connecting diaspora professionals and entrepreneurs looking to do business back home, whether as an investor, a founder, or an expert.
Through Techpoint Africa and other platforms under the Businessfront ecosystem, including Finance In Africa, Energy In Africa, and Intelpoint, this initiative will help professionals access valuable market intelligence, reports, and thought leadership to make informed business decisions.
To bring this vision to life and build a more connected community, Techpoint Diaspora will be hosting a series of on-the-ground events across different locations with significant diaspora presence.
For now, the initial focus is on the United States, where the team will host several events, meet-ups, high-profile talk sessions, exhibitions, and dedicated networking in different cities and states. These gatherings will serve as vital hubs for the diaspora to connect with one another, share expertise, explore opportunities, and interact directly with Techpoint Africa’s leadership and African founders.
Are you an African tech professional outside the continent interested in joining the Techpoint Diaspora? Send a mail to diaspora@techpoint.africa, or click here to fill the form.
