Naija Diaspora
Tope Awotona: Meet The Richest Nigerian Immigrant Who Toppled Otedola, Alakija On Richest Nigerians List
Forbes has ranked Nigerian-American Tope Awotona as the wealthiest immigrant in the United States.
The 42-year-old Awotona, who is worth $1.2 billion, relocated to the US from Lagos, Nigeria where he was born.
With this recent Forbes ranking, Awotona toppled Femi Otedola and Florunsho Alakija on the list of richest persons of Nigerian decent.
Femi Otedola’s name appeared on the recent Forbes Billionaires List with a $1.1 Billion net worth. This makes him the fourth Nigeria-based billionaire. The position was previously occupied by Folorunsho Alakija, Nigeria’s richest woman.
Awotona is the CEO and founder of the scheduling software startup Calendly.
Tope Awotona
Forbes reports that he previously worked as a salesman for IT companies like EMC (now Dell EMC). He later founded Calendly in reaction to his personal frustration with the time-consuming back-and-forth emails required for meeting scheduling.
After a protracted period of self-funding, Tope Awotona successfully raised a sizeable $350 million in 2021, raising Calendly’s worth to $3 billion.
Awotona tried his hand at a couple of failed enterprises before founding Calendly, including a projector sales company and a garden tool company. But the software he developed accounts for the lion’s share of his wealth.
Awotona, a University of Georgia Bachelor of Business Administration alumnus, resides in Atlanta, Georgia, with his family.
His software startup, Calendly, focuses on providing business communication platforms that help teams effectively plan, organize, and monitor external meetings.
