Meet 13 Nigerians Featured In Forbes’ 30 Under 30 List For 2022

Forbes released the 2022 edition of the annual “30 under 30” list, which aims to identify young innovators, trailblazers, and disruptors remaking our world according to them.

The first edition of the list featured big names like Kevin Systrom, whose company Instagram had only 7 employees at the time; Daniel Ek, who had just launched his service Spotify in the US and journalist Ronan Farrow, years before he exposed former film producer Harvey Weinstein as a serial sex offender.

This year’s list includes the cream of the crop in various fields and features a number of Nigerians. 13 individuals of Nigerian origin made the list for their accomplishments in various fields such as gaming, Ecommerce, food and drink and a host of others.

Here are the 13 Nigerians who made it to the 30 under 30 Class of 2022 list:

1. Blessing Adeoye (GAMING)

Adeoye was featured on the list for his influence in the gaming community. He became a familiar face by hosting and producing shows for popular YouTube publisher, Kinda Funny.

The platform has allowed him to raise thousands of dollars for various charities like Black Girls Code, AbleGamers, and Extra Life. He recently launched an independent short video series taking an in-depth look into the Games industry.

2. Oladotun Idowu (MEDIA)

Idowu is the founder of Sisters In Media (SIM), a company dedicated to bridging the gap between opportunity and connection for those who are systematically disadvantaged. She is also the Entertainment Content Partner Manager at Twitter.

She founded the SIM in 2016 and since then, SIM has hosted events that were fully funded in partnership with top media and tech companies like Facebook, LinkedIn, NBA, NBCUniversal, Dow Jones, and a host of others.

The company’s events tackle issues such as salary negotiation, equal pay, and many more. More than 400 professionals have joined SIM and received job offers, mentorships, and networking opportunities.

3. Uyiosa Omorogbe (ART & STYLE) 

Uyiosa Omorogbe is a comedian and social entrepreneur. He has garnered a large social media following as a result of his funny videos, especially his ‘Pissing off my African parents’ mini-series. Specifically, he has 347,000 followers on Instagram and more than 3 million followers on TikTok.

Leveraging on his huge online following, he founded a clothing brand, NASO, in an attempt to marry African and Western culture, and pay it forward to build schools in Nigeria. So far, he has raised over $1 million in seed funding.

4. Ibukun Ibraheem (MARKETING & ADVERTISING)

Ibukun is the Music and Culture Global Brand Marketing Manager for Beats by Dre. She creates and leads marketing campaigns at the company and was the driving force behind its first-ever Black History Month campaign called “Beats Black Future” which was aimed at celebrating the next generation of Black leaders, creators, and entrepreneurs. 

Beats by Dre aka Beats Electronics is an American consumer audio products manufacturer. It was founded by music producer, Dr. Dre and record company executive Jimmy Iovine, who are both minority shareholders now. Beats is currently owned by Apple after the tech giant acquired it for a whopping $3 billion in 2014.

5. Nenye Anagbogu (FOOD & DRINK)

Nenye Anagbogu cofounded Sauce with his friend Colin Webb who he met when they were both students at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Sauce is a pricing tool for restaurants that was created by the duo to give more profitability at the push of a button.

After integrating with restaurants’ online delivery channels like JumiaFood and UberEats, Sauce’s data revamps pricing to net the restaurant higher sales, profits, and customer growth. Anagbogu and Webb, who have both worked in restaurants before, say they want Sauce to close up the digital gap for restauranteurs who lack the resources or expertise to price their menus well.

6. Sam Udotong (ENTERPRISE TECHNOLOGY)

Alongside Krish Raminneni, Sam Udotong founded Fireflies.ai, a cloud-based platform that makes virtual meetings easy for participants. It automatically transcribes and takes notes from user calls and meetings, identifying key points from the transcription. It has key partnerships with top providers such as Zoom, Slack, Salesforce, Dropbox, etc, and has been able to raise $19 million from investors.

The startup has expanded from 10 employees to 70 in under a year and more than 300,000 organizations have received AI-generated meeting notes from Fireflies.ai.

In an Instagram post, Udotong said the startup has employed more people from different countries to transform how people communicate.

“We’ve now hired almost 100 amazing people in 13 countries and counting. We are building a multi-regional, boundary-less, and asynchronous team where you’re measured by your work, not your time, appearance, background, or title. We’re hiring the best people across every part of the world in our mission to transform how people communicate and work,” the post read.

7. Ofo Ezeugwu (SOCIAL IMPACT)

Ofo Ezeugwu founded a platform called ‘WhoseYourLandlord’ which allows users to submit landlord reviews, thus increasing housing literacy communities.

He was inspired to begin work on the platform when he was a student at Temple University in Philadelphia, USA, where he heard negative housing experiences from students living in and around the campus of the school, like stories about female residents being harassed by landlords and students living in infested apartments. The startup has now raised more than $1.1 million from investors.

In September last year, WhoseYourLandlord was chosen for the 2021 U.S Black Founders Fund given by Google For Startups. The Black Founders Fund is a $5 million non-dilutive cash award given to black startups that have participated in the Google for Startups programs or have been nominated by our partner community or a previous recipient.

Google for Startups is a worldwide program launched by Google in 2011 which provides hands-on lessons for aspiring entrepreneurs. It consists of over 50 co-working spaces and accelerators in 125 countries.

8. Emmanuella Asabor (HEALTHCARE)

Emmanuella Asabor is a joint MD Candidate and Ph.D. Student in Epidemiology at Yale University Schools of Medicine and Public Health.

She was recognized by Forbes for her research which sits at the intersection of social medicine, epidemiology, and health policy. It aims to illuminate the impact of structural racism on health. Her research has demonstrated the racial disparities in access to Covid-19 testing in populous U.S. cities.

She also piloted a program at Yale to enable asylum seekers to access free primary care regardless of documentation status.

She earned her bachelor’s at Harvard University where she studied the history of medicine and global health. She also holds a master’s degree in African Studies from the University of Cambridge. Prior to Yale, she shaped supportive housing policy in New York City through a joint New York University and New York State Department of Health initiative.

9. Chisom Obi-Okoye (SOCIAL MEDIA)

Obi-Okoye is the product marketing manager at Pinterest, a popular image sharing and social media application designed to enable the saving and discovery of information on the internet using images.

An alumnus of the prestigious Dartmouth College, she was described as a chief force in Pinterest’s drive to catch up in the creator-monetization race. She co-led the development of Pinterest’s Creator Fund, as well as Idea Pins, a new feature for content creators on the app.

Before her work with Pinterest, she has worked on similar monetization strategies at Facebook and Twitter.

10. Olamide Olowe (RETAIL & E-COMMERCE)

Olamide Olowe launched a skincare brand called Topicals in August 2020, after struggling with hyperpigmentation and other chronic skin conditions during her childhood.

According to the Topicals website, the brand’s mission is “transforming the way you feel about skin through effective science-backed products and mental health advocacy”.

The brand has raised $2.6 million in funding and in March 2021, it launched in Sephora, a popular beauty and personal care retail store, and sold out in 48 hours.

11. Eno Oduok (MEDIA)-

Oduok is the founder and CEO of Naija Comm, the first-ever online community catered to Nigerian creatives and professionals in overlooked career fields, including media and entertainment.

Naija Comm spotlights accomplished Nigerians, such as recent Grammy nominees Burna Boy, Tems, and others, holds virtual networking events, posts job opportunities, shares newsletters, and more.

12. Jess Adepoju (GAMING)-

Adepoju was one of the first 10 hires at gaming start-up, Bad Robot Games, which is owned by JJ Abrams. Abrams is a multiple award-winning filmmaker and composer, responsible for 3 Star Wars movies and many other successful Tv shows and movies.

Adepoju is working as a lead developer on its first game to be published, with accessibility and diversity as part of its core design pillars.

She is an alumnus of the University of Chicago and has an MBA from Stanford University. Before her current position, she worked with gaming giant, Activision Blizzard, the company behind franchises such as Call of Duty and World of Warcraft. The company was recently purchased by Microsoft for $68.7 billion.

 13.         Folasade Ayoola (ENERGY)

Ayoola is the co-founder of ElectricFish, a climate tech company that has invented a containerized combination battery backup system and EV charger that can connect into existing, ubiquitous electrical infrastructure.

She founded the company in 2019 with Anurag Kamal.

According to the company’s website, the ElectricFish product is a modular battery pack integrated with EV ultrafast chargers capable of delivering up to 350kW.

The batteries can be deployed at partner sites such as gas stations and convenience stores, create a network of distributed energy storage that is charged with guaranteed renewable power, delivering valuable utility and ISO services, including resource adequacy. 

The product can power the equivalent of 40 homes during a blackout and can supply an electric vehicle enough power to travel distances of up to 100 miles, in just 10 minutes.

The revenue model involves leasing units to gas-station owners and doing a revenue split. They expect to sign up 50 stations this year.