Adedapo Adesanya
By Adedapo Adesanya
Nigerian startup, Itana, formerly known as Talent City, has raised $2 million in a pre-seed that will power its dream of building Africa’s first digital free zone.
The pre-seed round was led by global venture capitalists LocalGlobe, Amplo, Pronomos Capital, and Future Africa. The deal brings together a powerhouse of deep industry expertise and technical know-how from partners that have backed model digital societies such as e-Estonia and are building products that scale.
Founded by CEO, Mr Luqman Edu, Mr Iyinoluwa Aboyeji, and Coco Liu, Itana plans to enable global tech and service companies to situate their African operations from Nigeria and also take advantage of globally competitive business policies and incentives.
Itana said the first digital free zone in Nigeria will enable global technology-powered companies — such as tech startups, business service providers, e-commerce companies, outsourcing firms, and digital content providers, among others — to operate and provide services remotely without the need to be physically present in Nigeria.
The free zone will be powered by a one-stop-shop platform for business and government services, including taxation, business visas, banking, capital repatriation, and supportive legislation for businesses.
The firm plans to go live in the first quarter of 2024 and will start its pilot in Nigeria with a few select businesses in the coming weeks. The businesses will access Itana District, a 72,000 square metre “live-work-build” campus.
Speaking on the fundraising, Itana’s co-founder and CEO, Mr Edu, said: “We are thrilled to announce this round of funding. It validates our efforts and reiterates the aligned vision with our investors and partners to make it easy to invest and operate in Africa’s digital economy.
“The African market is still largely untapped, and Itana will provide the ideal business environment that will be fully online for global and pan-African digital and service companies to use Nigeria as an anchorage to operate with ease across the continent.”
Adding his input, co-founder Mr Aboyeji said Itana would enable entrepreneurs to build a globally respected business in Nigeria’s first digital free zone by leveraging benefits currently only enjoyed by traditional manufacturing or oil and gas industries who have traditionally set up in Nigeria’s free zones.
“Within the Itana digital free zone, startups will have the benefit of a stable policy environment, tax and capital repatriation incentives, and the freedom to operate remotely without the need for an expansive physical presence within the free zone. I’m looking forward to the global businesses from Nigeria that will emerge from this,” he said.
