Type Private | Industry Information technology | |
Trading name Co-Creation Hub Nigeria Founded August 2011; 5 years ago (2011-08) in Yaba, Lagos, Lagos State, Nigeria Founders Bosun Tijani
Femi Longe Headquarters Yaba, Lagos State, Nigeria | ||
Co-Creation Hub, commonly referred to as Cc-HUB or the HUB, is a technology-oriented centre located in Yaba, a district of Lagos. Founded in 2010 by Bosun Tijani and Femi Longe as Nigeria's first open living lab and pre-incubation space, it provides a platform where technology-oriented people share ideas to solving social problems in Nigeria.
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Cc-HUB received massive acclaim for hosting Facebook founder, Mark Zuckerberg, during his visit to Nigeria on August 30, 2016.
History
Co-Creation Hub was founded in October 2010 by Bosun Tijani and Femi Longe. It officially opened in September 2011 as a social innovation centre at 294, Herbert Macaulay, Yaba, serving as an open living lab dedicated to accelerating the application of social capital and technology for economic prosperity. Its methodology is said to be hinged on engaging a community of progressive stakeholders (end-users, subject matter experts, government agencies, businesses, academics, civil societies etc.) who bring their creativity and knowledge to play in co-creating solutions to social challenges faced by the average Nigerian.
At the CcHub, innovations by entrepreneurs are supported through advice, mentorship and funding through the pre-incubation and research unit. The CcHub happens to be one of the few financially sustainable innovation hubs in Africa and is the home to over 50 Nigerian startups, such as BudgIT, Wecyclers, Truppr, Genii Games, Lifebank, GoMyWay, Vacantboards, Traclist, Autobox, Stutern, Grit Systems and Mamalette.
Growth Capital by CcHub
In December 2015, Tijani announced the launch of Growth Capital in partnership with Bank of Industry (BoI), Venture Garden Group (VGG) and Omidyar Network (ON). It is an investment arm that is set to invest 1billion Naira in social tech ventures who are building technologies that make public services smarter while connecting them to citizens and/or smart technologies linking multiple public services together to make them more accessible to citizens.
GC's Managing Partner, Tunji Eleso, in an interview with Tech Crunch, stated that after supporting startups from ideation, pre-incubation to incubation for five (5) years, it became imperative to take a step forward by supporting those are maturing but still require support. The fund proffered by Growth Capital by CcHUB is meant to support entrepreneurs who are building infrastructure for Nigeria’s future. "Specifically, we are looking at products/services/technology tools that would make public services smarter and at the same time connect more citizens of Nigeria to those services", Eleso added.
According to Bosun Tijani, "Growth Capital by CcHUB started as a dream back in 2010. I still remember the first time I shared the vision with Tunji Eleso and how we ended up crafting a smaller scheme to help build our pipeline and credibility while testing the social entrepreneurship model".
GC started receiving applications in January 2016 and is set to 'support next generation infrastructure technology builders in Nigeria' between 2016 and 2018.