5 Years of HoaQ

HoaQ turned five this month. We put together a report to share how far we’ve come. I also wrote about how we started the collective below.

You can read the 5-year report here.

The present

Q1 2025 was busy. Very busy. But that’s not new: every Q1 tends to be intense. This year, I’ve been building Borderless, hiring, fundraising, and navigating major personal milestones.

It’s Friday, 4th April, and I’ve just applied to consult on a crowdfunding platform for the diaspora with the African Development Bank. No, Borderless isn’t a consulting business; we're a technology company. However, when the bank released the Expression of Interest (EOI), about 10 people sent it to me. It literally described Borderless. It was a no-brainer. I rallied the team, and we submitted a 30-page proposal. As I hit “send,” it hit me: This is the work we started five years ago - mobilising the African diaspora to invest in Africa.

The early days

Growing up, I often wondered why Africa remained relatively poor while the rest of the world moved forward. In Afanoukope, a small town just outside Baguida in Lomé, we had missionaries who brought biscuits and gifts from Spain every year. I remember I didn’t enjoy the biscuits very much. Over the years, they kept bringing gifts but never invested anything locally. We had a local church that needed renovations. All we got was biscuits. Eventually, the building fell apart, and soon after, the missionaries stopped coming. The locals, led by my dad, bought a new plot and rebuilt the church; today, that community is thriving.

Why is this relevant?

Africa has always been seen as a place that needs saviours. But in my experience, real transformation is driven by people with a high sense of agency—locals, diaspora, and us.

When I moved to Ireland at 15, I was excited to leave Togo. Like many others, I didn’t see a future at home. We called Europe edjigbé in slang Ewé, meaning “the higher place.” If Europe was higher, then home must have been “lower.” That mindset stuck. But after 15 years in Ireland, I began wondering: What would it take to make home better?

A lot of us want to retire back home. My mom has been planning her return for the past 15 years. If we wait until we’re ready to move back before building, it’ll be too late. The work must start now.

Inception

In 2019, my friend Ayo and I discussed launching a fund leveraging Diaspora capital. We did the math on diaspora disposable income and gave up almost immediately; mostly, we’re both qualified accountants. The numbers didn’t make sense.

Around the same time, I was working with Nubi. We had endless Slack chats and lunch conversations about Africa, life, and purpose. One day, he said his life mission was to electrify Africa. That was a big vision. It got me thinking: What’s my vision for Africa?

For three months in early 2020, we debated models, ideas, and even draft constitutions. We eventually settled on startups. I knew nothing about investing in startups, especially in Africa. It felt risky and inaccessible, so I hesitated. Nubi had more experience. He exited his startup before moving to Ireland and has been on the founder’s side. He also pitched the education angle: Forget returns for now. Let’s learn by doing.

Most angel investment courses cost over $1,000 just for theory. Could we create a way to learn by actually investing? After all, we both understood how businesses work. We’d worked in and exited startups.

In March 2020, we drafted a short paragraph and sent it to friends and colleagues on LinkedIn: Do you want to be part of an investment club? We gave them three simple options: 

1 - Yes, I’m in.
2 - Not now.
3 - Not interested.

We added the “Yes” folks to a Slack group. It was mostly people we knew. What made it appealing? The low entry point (€1,000), active participation, and the chance to learn by doing. About 20 people said yes. A few dropped off. We started with 17 people. €17,000 raised.

Getting the first deals across the line

We forced the first two deals through. We collected the money before sourcing investments. That way, folks were mentally committed. Considering 1 out of 10 startups make it, the sooner we get started, the better the odds of landing a successful deal. Finding the right deals was the hardest part. Nubi and I put in our own money. We had to. It meant we made decisions in the best interest of the group.

We spoke with many founders. The early days were chaotic because the pandemic had just hit, and everyone was scrambling. We spent weeks vetting three companies and eventually chose one: Voyance. Due diligence took time, but we liked the idea and the founders. We made our first investment in June 2020. With this first investment, we built traction. More people have discovered the collective and are often keen to join because we have invested in the past.

Nubi and I signed the first five or so investment documents. I wrote our internal newsletter for three years before we hired someone to run communications, and trust was and remains the foundation of the collective. Everything was (and is) verifiable for any member who wants a peek behind the curtain.

In 2020, we made more investments and deployed $100,000. A first-of-its-kind diaspora collective was born.

In March 2021, we formalised HoaQ using a bare trust structure. Over 100 investments later, we’re still going strong.

HoaQ turned five this month, and we compiled this excellent report to recap our progress.

Thank you for reading.

I’m building Borderless, the infrastructure for diaspora investment collectives, which will power HoaQ, Diaspora House, and the next 1,000 collectives investing across Africa and its Diaspora. For this, I’m closing a pre-seed. I co-founded HoaQ, the largest network of African diaspora angel investors, and helped launch Diaspora House, a community of diaspora real estate investors. I’m active on LinkedIn, so let’s connect there.