By training, he was destined for a career in public health and epidemiological surveillance. However, he chose digital entrepreneurship. Nowadays, he is a startup builder whose ambition is to develop effective solutions for well-defined needs in Africa. 

Amos Avoce (photo) is a Beninese digital entrepreneur and founder of 229Founders, a startup studio he launched this year. In his own words, “229Founders is neither an incubator nor an accelerator or a coworking space. It is a startup builder.” 

“Incubators and accelerators incubate startups but 229Founders creates startups,” he stresses. Through the startup builder, Amos, and his team identify needs that can be addressed with lasting and efficient tech solutions. They then issue calls for expression of interest for co-founders interested in creating solutions for those needs, back the startup in charge of addressing the needs (they take stakes in those startups) from creation till the marketing of the solutions created. 

Amos is not a newcomer in the Beninese tech ecosystem. In 2017, he had already co-founded Bénin FinTech (BFT), a startup guiding financial institutions in their digital transformation. BFT notably developed SmartPay, a fintech solution that allows microfinance institutions to digitalize their savings and credit issuance processes. The startup also developed SmartAgri, a system facilitating agricultural credits. 

The young social entrepreneur is a graduate of the University of Parakou’s National School of Technicians in Public Health and Epidemiological Surveillance (in Benin). In 2011, one year before his graduation, he joined Give1Project, an NGO dedicated to “building strong and healthy communities.” He is, since 2013, the country manager for ADS Group, which “designs and implements solutions to help develop Africa.” 

He also actively participated in the deployment of the Akon Lighting Africa project started by Senegalese-American singer Akon. 

Melchior Koba