Adeyemi Ajao, the Nigerian Born Mark Zuckerberg of Spain

Nigerian born Adeyemi Ajao been described as the Mark Zuckerberg of Spain. He is regarded as the first African ever to sell his startup for $100 million on August 4, 2010, when Telefonica took controls of 85% of Ajao’s Tuenti, an invitation-only private social network site for students and young people in Spain. Tuenti popularly called “Spanish Facebook” was started by Adeyemi Ajao at 22 and four of his friends. Tuenti has over 14 million users and is the largest Invite-Only network in the world.

Tuenti, which in Spanish comes from "tu enti[dad]" meaning your identity, sounds like Twenty in English. It is rated as one of the fastest growing social network sites. Tuenti features many tools common to social-networking sites. It allows users to set up a profile, upload photos, link videos and connect with friends; recently a chat application has been added. Many other utilities, such as the ability to create events, are also offered. Unlike similar social network sites which feature banner advertisements, Tuenti has opted out of these traditional forms of "noisy" and obstructive advertising.

Zaryn Dentzel, one of its founders and current CEO, stated that they intend to focus on Spanish users more before possibly expanding to other countries.

Adeyemi Ajao was born in southern Spain to a Nigerian father and a Spanish mother. He was in Nigeria for only six years, spent two years in Italy and then moved to Spain when he was nine, growing up in the small beach town called Marbella.

Adeyemi earned a Masters in Finance from Emory, a J.D. from ICADE in Madrid, and an MBA from Stanford, and graduated at the top of his class at each university. He was elected one of the “Top 100 Spaniards of the Year” in 2009, and was invited by the U.S. Congress to the Presidential Inauguration of Barack Obama as a representative of the Spanish Commission for Accomplishments in Entrepreneurship.

Adeyemi’s father was one of the first mechanical engineers in Nigeria, who started a steel company in Nigeria. He saw his father fought hard to put his company together, but unfortunately didn’t make it in Nigeria, and left for Italy.

Ajao the Co-Founder/CEO of Identified has also launched other successful innovations such as Cabify, an application for hiring of vehicles with driver via mobile under the slogan "Move with style." Cabify requests high-end vehicles with professional drivers using technology, to bring consumers the luxury. You can ask about one of your cars from any device, be it a mobile phone, a computer or tablet. The user receives a notification with information about the designated driver, model and license plate number. On the screen of your device, you can see how the vehicle looks and can even contact the driver if needed.

Click for a Sramana's interview with Adeyemi Ajao.