Taking The Tech To The Next Level: Honey Ogundeyi

Honey Ogundeyi is a tech entrepreneur on a mission to make life easier for people through the use of technology.

From the inception of Fashpa, the first online retail outlet for fashion in Nigeria, to the launch of Edukoya, an edtech startup providing personalized learning experiences for students, Ogundeyi has been dedicated to using technology to solve everyday problems.

With extensive experience in internet and brand management consulting, Ogundeyi has honed her skills in web commerce, online and mobile advertising, and business consulting. These skills have been invaluable in her drive to find innovative solutions to real-world issues.

Ogundeyi’s early life and education were spread across two continents. She started her schooling at Queens College Yaba in Lagos, Nigeria, before moving to Dublin, Ireland to complete her secondary education at Alexandra College. After that, she headed to the University of Birmingham, where she earned a BSc in Public Policy and Management.

Before launching her entrepreneurial career, Ogundeyi gained experience working for several top companies. She worked as a senior analyst and consultant for McKinsey & Company in Brussels and Johannesburg and as Head of Brand Management for Sub-Saharan Africa at Ericsson. She also spent time at Google as an Industry Manager, where she provided advertising solutions to clients.

As the founding Chief Marketing Officer at Kuda, one of Nigeria’s top digital challenger banks, Ogundeyi led the team to reach millions of customers in under two years. She also served as the former Country Director of the UK-Nigeria Tech Hub, where she championed the development of digital solutions to solve Nigeria’s social and economic challenges.

With her diverse experiences and a desire to create real-world solutions, Ogundeyi launched Fashpa, the first fashion online retail outlet in Nigeria. The platform aimed to provide a hassle-free online shopping experience for fashion lovers. Her success with Fashpa led her to launch Edukoya, an edtech platform that seeks to provide personalized learning experiences for students.

For Ogundeyi, technology is more than a tool. It is a means to bring practical solutions to everyday challenges. She believes that by leveraging technology, individuals and businesses can solve problems and improve their lives. Her dedication to using technology for social impact makes her a trailblazer in the tech industry, and her contributions continue to inspire a new generation of entrepreneurs.

Honey Ogundeyi’s entrepreneurial journey began with the launch of Fashpa.com in April 2014.

As a problem solver by nature, Honey had always been on the lookout for opportunities to address the challenges that people faced in their daily lives. Her work as an internet and brand management expert and consultant had equipped her with the necessary skills and experience to build a successful business.

Honey Ogundeyi was inspired to start Fashpa.com after a stressful trip to Balogun market, Lagos. She noticed that there was an accessibility and affordability problem around quality fashion.

Not everyone had the luxury of time to spend a whole day in the market looking for a certain quality of clothing or shoes. She realized that there was a need to develop a tech-based platform that could fill the gap.

With this in mind, Honey Ogundeyi launched Fashpa.com as an online retail store that would provide customers with quality and trendy fashion and accessories in Nigeria and beyond. She would later recount in an interview how she built the first version of Fashpa by herself in her bedroom.

Fashpa.com tried to connect global buyers to small and medium-sized fashion brands and artisans across Africa and became the first e-commerce platform for African Fashion. The e-commerce site also designed and sold its products online and in-store and sold fashion and lifestyle brands from the international market to Nigerians.

Fashpa was structured as a vertically integrated company that creates, manufactures, and sells its own range of clothes online, with worldwide delivery. A few years after its inception, Fashpa became a full-fledged fashion retailer, carrying high-end international brands including Zara and H&M. The major selling point for Fashpa was the wide range of options it provided at affordable rates.

In 2016, Fashpa launched the Fit Project program, which received a lot of positive feedback from customers. The Fit Project is a free service that helps customers find their perfect fit and size when shopping online.

Fashpa.com became an instant success and the pioneer of fashion online retail in Nigeria, receiving recognition from industry leaders and entrepreneurs. Honey Ogundeyi’s innovation and dedication to improving the accessibility and affordability of quality fashion paid off as Fashpa.com grew rapidly, serving customers both in Nigeria and beyond.

Honey Ogundeyi’s success with Fashpa.com has demonstrated that technology can be used to solve daily life problems and make life easier. By leveraging technology and innovation, she has made quality fashion accessible to many people who previously found it difficult to find what they were looking for.

Her entrepreneurial journey continues, and her success with Fashpa.com has inspired many other entrepreneurs to look for ways to use technology to solve problems and create value.

Honey Ogundeyi has made a name for herself in the technology space by launching several successful ventures. Ogundeyi, who comes from a family of entrepreneurs, founded Fashpa.com in April 2014, the first e-commerce platform for African Fashion in Nigeria. The site offers a wide range of affordable clothing options to customers worldwide, including high-end international brands like Zara and H&M.

After running Fashpa for about four years, Ogundeyi launched an entrepreneurial vlog called Side Hustle to Empire in 2017, sharing her journey and giving tips on starting and growing a business. She also wrote inspiring articles on her blog, sharing essential steps for Nigerian women to thrive in business.

In 2021, Ogundeyi launched Edukoya, an educational learning app born out of her personal experience in school. She attended a Federal Government secondary school where teachers were often unable to give each student personal attention.

This inspired her to create an app that personalizes the learning experience for students across Africa and gives them access to top-quality education. Edukoya offers a range of features such as 24/7 exam preparation, homework help, and personalized performance tracking systems.

Edukoya’s core product, ‘Ask Edukoya,’ is a one-to-one online tutoring platform for several subjects, connecting the best teachers to students all around the country for real-time short lessons on homework, exam preparation, or doubt-solving.

In its first month, Edukoya had over 50,000 downloads, and the company has recorded more than a million attempted questions on its app, a validation that it was solving an existent problem.

Ogundeyi’s trailblazing activities in the technology space have earned her several recognitions. In 2014, Forbes listed her as one of the Top 10 women emerging entrepreneurs to watch in Africa, and in 2016, the World Economic Forum named her one of the Top 10 innovators in Africa and one of the 10 most influential young Nigerians under 40 in Technology.

She has also been named in a list of 100 most inspiring Nigerian women by Ynaija.com and recognized as a One Young World Ambassador, a Junior Achievement Nigeria Ambassador, and a Mentor.

In 2018, Ogundeyi was appointed to Facebook SME Council for Nigeria, a testament to her entrepreneurship mentoring and vlogging activities. In June 2014, she spoke at the Africa Rising Summit in London, extensively discussing the untapped opportunities that exist in online retailing in Africa.

Edukoya has raised $3.5 million in pre-seed funding led by European VC firm Target Global.

With her impressive track record, it’s clear that Honey Ogundeyi is a force to be reckoned with in the tech industry.