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Mubarak Muyika

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Mubarak Muyika
Mubarak during MEDays 2015 in Tangier, Morocco
Born (1994-05-31) 31 May 1994 (age 30)
Western Province, Kenya
NationalityKenyan American
EducationFriends School Kamusinga (High School)
Occupation(s)Entrepreneur, programmer, business executive
Known forEntrepreneurship

Mubarak Muyika (born May 31, 1994, Western Province, Kenya), is a Kenyan American business executive, computer programmer and internet entrepreneur based in Silicon Valley.[1] Orphaned at the age of 10, at age 16 Muyika founded Hype Century, a web hosting company which he sold two years later for six figures.[2] He is the founder and CEO of Zagace, a company which runs an app store for businesses to access software for accounting, human resource management, marketing, among other uses.[3][4][5]

Forbes listed him as one of Forbes Africa's 30 under 30 both in 2015 and 2017,[6][7] and he was youngest in Business Insider's list of top young entrepreneurs around the world.[8]

Early life and education

Mubarak Muyika was born in Western Province, Kenya.[1] His father was the district commissioner of Siaya, a senior civil servant, who died when Mubarak was 2, and mother a high school teacher who died when he was 11.[1] Muyika was raised by his mother's sister and her husband in the suburbs of Nairobi.[1]

While a student at Friends School Kamusinga, Muyika won two awards in Kenya's national science fair, the annual Kenya Students Congress on Science and Technology:

In the fair's 48th edition in 2010, he won for a technical whitepaper titled 'Kahunic infra-photo surveyor', which was presented as a computer talk, and was ranked first in that category. Muyika's whitepaper was based on Java, MySQL and C++ dependencies, infra-red and laser rays, and customized ray emitters to identify objects concealed behind concrete and wood, among other uses, by use of reflection and refraction.[citation needed]

Muyika receiving a national award in the Kenya Students Congress on Science and Technology 2011.

In the fair's 49th edition the following year, Muyika won for a database he developed to manage the flow of petrol and movement of oil tankers.[1] The project's original name in the fair was 'Techno Fibre System',[9] but it was also referred to as 'Enhanced petrol tracker'.[1] It was presented as a computer exhibit in the ICT category, and although Muyika was recognized as the best student in the category,[1] the project was ranked third nationally in the category.[9]

He graduated from Friend's School Kamusinga in 2011.[10]

Career

His adoptive parents operated a small book publishing and distribution company, Acrodile Publishers. Using online resources and technical experience gained in earlier years, Muyika built a better Website for the company.[11]

In 2011, Muyika founded Hype Century Technologies & Investments Limited, a company focused on website creation and webhosting. The following year, for his work in HypeCentury, he received the Anzisha Prize for young entrepreneurs, from the African Leadership Academy.[12]

Muyika sold HypeCentury to Wemps Telecoms in a six figure deal in May 2013.[3][10] By the time of the sale Hypecentury had 14 employees and was handling over 700 companies with 1400 domains.[10][13] HypeCentury has since rebranded and is a fully owned subsidiary of Wemps Telecoms.[13][14]

Later in 2013, Muyika founded Zagace in Nairobi with proceeds from the sale of HypeCentury, with additional funding from investors.[15][16] Zagace has since raised a number of angel investments from various investors.[6][17]

In June 2015, Zagace's parent company was restructured as a Delaware-based parent corporation of the same name,[18] with the company now based in San Jose, California.[15][19]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g Afolayan, Enu (16 July 2016). "From Tragedy to Tech Triumph: Mubarak Muyika". Retrieved 19 October 2016.
  2. ^ Horrocks, Ian (18 June 2015). "15 up-and-coming African entrepreneurs who could change the world". Africafreak. Archived from the original on 27 June 2016. Retrieved 1 August 2019.
  3. ^ a b Mania, Samwel Born (10 July 2015). "MAINA: Local youth gain global recognition through innovations". Daily Nation. Retrieved 8 June 2018.
  4. ^ Abeng, Blessing (18 January 2016). "Mubarak Muyika". Nubiaafrica.tv. Archived from the original on 23 October 2016. Retrieved 22 October 2016.
  5. ^ Theyoung, Empire. "Mubarak Muyika: Orphaned at 11. Internet business mogul by 19". Retrieved 22 October 2016.
  6. ^ a b Nsehe, Mfonobong. "30 Most Promising Young Entrepreneurs In Africa 2017". Forbes. Retrieved 6 May 2018.
  7. ^ Kerry A. Dolan. "Africa's Most Promising Young Entrepreneurs: Forbes Africa's 30 Under 30 For 2015". Forbes. Retrieved 18 January 2016.
  8. ^ "9 tech founders who are the 'Mark Zuckerbergs' of their countries — they're rich, successful and younger than 35". 28 June 2015. Retrieved 8 June 2018.
  9. ^ a b National Council For Science and Technology Conference Proceedings (2012) "National Council For Science & Technology" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 28 June 2018. Retrieved 31 July 2018.
  10. ^ a b c Simon Ciuri. "Investor Shuns Harvard to pursue tech dreams". Business Daily Africa. Retrieved 18 January 2016.
  11. ^ Okafor, Lovelyn (29 April 2014). "Meet Mubarak Muyika, The Young Web Pro That is Set to Change The World". Konnect Africa. Retrieved 18 June 2018.
  12. ^ "Celebrating Africa's Youngest Entrepreneurs - Mubarack Muyika". 4 February 2014. Retrieved 17 January 2016.
  13. ^ a b "Hypecentury Acquired by Wemps Telecoms". Wemps Telecoms. Archived from the original on 31 March 2016. Retrieved 10 June 2018.
  14. ^ "Hypecentury Technologies & Investments Limited". LinkedIn. Retrieved 6 August 2018.
  15. ^ a b "Zagace". LinkedIn. Retrieved 31 July 2018.
  16. ^ "Meet 20 year old Mubarak who shunned Harvard scholarship to pursue entrepreneurship". TheFounder Magazine. 11 August 2017. Retrieved 10 June 2018.
  17. ^ Jackson, Tom (7 April 2016). "Meet the Investor: Toro Orero, DraperDarkFlow". Disrupt Africa. Retrieved 30 July 2018.
  18. ^ "Zagace Inc.". OpenCorporates. Retrieved 31 July 2018.
  19. ^ "Zagace Inc. Branch". OpenCorporates. Retrieved 31 July 2018.
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