Itana (formerly Talent City), aiming to be Africa’s first digital free zone, has received $2 million in a pre-seed round led by global venture capitalists LocalGlobe, Amplo, Pronomos Capital, and Future Africa. Itana’s attempts to improve the ease-of-doing-business index, attract foreign direct investment, and create jobs in Nigeria will be helped by the money.
The deal combines the deep business knowledge and technical know-how of partners who have backed model digital societies like e-Estonia and are building products that many people can use.
“We’re excited to let you know about this round of funding. It confirms what we’ve been doing and shows that our funders and partners share the same goal of making it easy to invest and do business in Africa’s digital economy, says Luqman Edu, the CEO of Itana.
“The African market is still largely untapped, and Itana will provide the ideal business environment, which will be fully online, for global and pan-African digital and service companies to use Nigeria as an anchorage to operate easily across the continent,” he says.
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Itana digital free zone
Itana Free Zone will be made for startups, both local and international, as well as technology and service companies that want to grow across Africa without having to deal with uncertain policies, a lack of infrastructure, and other business problems.
Itana will enable entrepreneurs to develop an internationally recognised firm in Nigeria’s first digital free zone by harnessing benefits hitherto only enjoyed by traditional manufacturing or oil and gas industries in Nigeria’s free zones.
As a digital free-zone enterprise, enterprises will use ‘Itana Edge’, an online one-stop shop for business and government services, to take advantage of globally competitive business regulations and incentives.
Taxation, business visas, banking, capital repatriation, and supportive legislation give enterprises access to the local and worldwide business community. Itana wants to create an atmosphere where enterprises may conduct global business in Nigeria from anywhere and reach Africa’s largest markets.
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More on Itana
Nigerian entrepreneurs Luqman Edu (CEO), Iyinoluwa Aboyeji (Founding Investor), and Coco Liu formed Itana. Iyinoluwa is the Founding Partner of Future Africa and co-founder of Andela and Flutterwave, while Luqman provides services and building technology solutions for UK and Nigerian cities and governments. Coco provides operational skills from working for multinational digital organisations and creating early-stage businesses.
The business aspires to construct a virtual city like Delaware (U.S.), E-Estonia (Europe), or Dubai (Asia) that lets global corporations incorporate and operate in a Nigerian Free Zone remotely.
The Itana digital free zone offers stable policies, tax and capital repatriation advantages, and remote operations for startups. I expect Nigerian global firms from this, says Iyin.
The sustainably designed 72,000 sqm “live-work-build” campus, ‘Itana District, in Alaro City (in Lekki Free Zone, just outside Lagos, Nigeria), will host networking events, coworking, coliving, and more for permanent residents and digital community visitors—the first phase of the Itana District digital model city and infrastructure in Africa completed by 2027.
“The market opportunity to serve digital service and technology businesses in Africa is significant – the ecosystem is growing at pace despite the huge infrastructure challenges faced by startups across the continent,” says LocalGlobe Partner Yvonne Bajela. E-Estonia and other digital societies have helped enterprises scale.”
Tech and service companies wishing to establish virtually in Nigeria can join the Itana Digital Free Zone business licence queue at www.itana.africa.
Itana’s aggressive approach to solving these issues and empowering young Nigerian and international entrepreneurs excites us. We’re thrilled to sponsor such an ambitious team and establish an African innovation cluster with them, Yvonne said.
In 2022, Itana launched a digital residency programme introducing business executives and potential residents to e-governance, global networking, and Africa’s digital economy. This online community of Itana Digital Residents has 3,000 tech entrepreneurs building for Africa.
“I’m thrilled about Itana’s impact on Africa’s economy, having worked with various international corporations in Nigeria. According to Coco, Itana’s COO, we build infrastructure and processes to help firms register bank accounts and receive licences remotely.
Our business platform should be transparent and user-friendly.”
Africa’s young and fast-growing population attracts software developers and foreign direct investment, as Nigeria’s incorporated enterprises have expanded 400% year-over-year. Itana inspires ‘builders of tomorrow’—founders, entrepreneurs, creatives, and inventors.