At 28, he claims a personal fortune of half a million dollars when he made his debut in an Internet café in Cotonou, without any computer knowledge. And today he intends to democratize the creation of businesses among young Beninese via an incubator that he co-founded. A report from “Réussite”, the program co-produced by the Jeune Afrique Group, Canal + Afrique and Galaxie Presse.
Ulrich Sossou, a 28-year-old Beninese, has made a name for himself on the West African entrepreneurial scene. At 28, he created several companies and claimed a personal fortune of 500,000 dollars. Among them, Flyerco.com, a flyer publishing site specifically intended for real estate agents: 10,000 of them use it worldwide and the platform shows a growth in traffic of + 20% per month. A fortiori, it is profitable after two years and, according to its founder, accumulated a turnover of 60 million CFA francs in 2015 (914,000 euros). For the coming years, the progress target is very ambitious, at 300 million CFA francs.
The beginnings of the young computer enthusiast, who went solo in an Internet café in Cotonou, are long gone. He chained contracts there for international clients. Until an order allows him to set foot in the investment business. The prestigious American University of Stanford commissioned him to design an online course platform for its students. Amount of the contract: five million CFA francs which he will then decide to reinvest in a lasting entrepreneurial activity.
A few company creations later, Ulrich Sossou founded the Tekxl incubator in 2014, with his partner Senam Beheton. Six start-ups are currently housed there, in which Ulrich Sossou works as a consultant but also as an investor. Its equity investments in companies are between 10 and 20 million CFA francs. His goal remains to participate in the first Beninese “Unicorn” – named after these start-ups valued at more than a billion dollars.
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