Mubarak Muyika

Mubarak Muyika (born May 31, 1994, Western Province, Kenya), is a Kenyan American business executive, computer programmer and internet entrepreneur based in Silicon Valley.[1] Orphaned at the age of 10, at age 16 Muyika founded Hype Century, a web hosting company which he sold two years later for six figures.[2] He is the founder and CEO of Zagace, a company which runs an app store for businesses to access software for accounting, human resource management, marketing, among other uses.[3][4][5]

Mubarak Muyika
Mubarak during MEDays 2015 in Tangier, Morocco
Born (1994-05-31) 31 May 1994
Western Province, Kenya
NationalityKenyan American
EducationFriends School Kamusinga (High School)
OccupationEntrepreneur, programmer, business executive
Known forEntrepreneurship

Forbes listed him as one of Forbes Africa's 30 under 30 both in 2015 and 2017,[6][7] and he was youngest in Business Insider's list of top young entrepreneurs around the world.[8]

Early life and education

Mubarak Muyika was born in Western Province, Kenya.[1] His father was the district commissioner of Siaya, a senior civil servant, who died when Mubarak was 2, and mother a high school teacher who died when he was 11.[1] Muyika was raised by his mother's sister and her husband in the suburbs of Nairobi.[1]

While a student at Friends School Kamusinga, Muyika won two awards in Kenya's national science fair, the annual Kenya Students Congress on Science and Technology:

In the fair's 48th edition in 2010, he won for a technical whitepaper titled 'Kahunic infra-photo surveyor', which was presented as a computer talk, and was ranked first in that category. Muyika's whitepaper was based on Java, MySQL and C++ dependencies, infra-red and laser rays, and customized ray emitters to identify objects concealed behind concrete and wood, among other uses, by use of reflection and refraction.

Muyika receiving a national award in the Kenya Students Congress on Science and Technology 2011.

In the fair's 49th edition the following year, Muyika won for a database he developed to manage the flow of petrol and movement of oil tankers.[1] The project's original name in the fair was 'Techno Fibre System',[9] but it was also referred to as 'Enhanced petrol tracker'.[1] It was presented as a computer exhibit in the ICT category, and although Muyika was recognized as the best student in the category,[1] the project was ranked third nationally in the category.[9]

He graduated from Friend's School Kamusinga in 2011.[10]

Career

His adoptive parents operated a small book publishing and distribution company, Acrodile Publishers. Using online resources and technical experience gained in earlier years, Muyika built a better Website for the company.[11]

In 2011, Muyika founded Hype Century Technologies & Investments Limited, a company focused on website creation and webhosting. The following year, for his work in HypeCentury, he received the Anzisha Prize for young entrepreneurs, from the African Leadership Academy.[12]

Muyika sold HypeCentury to Wemps Telecoms in a six figure deal in May 2013.[3][10] By the time of the sale Hypecentury had 14 employees and was handling over 700 companies with 1400 domains.[10][13] HypeCentury has since rebranded and is a fully owned subsidiary of Wemps Telecoms.[13][14]

Later in 2013, Muyika founded Zagace in Nairobi with proceeds from the sale of HypeCentury, with additional funding from investors.[15][16] Zagace has since raised a number of angel investments from various investors.[6][17]

In June 2015, Zagace's parent company was restructured as a Delaware-based parent corporation of the same name,[18] with the company now based in San Jose, California.[15][19]

See also

References
  1. Afolayan, Enu (16 July 2016). "From Tragedy to Tech Triumph: Mubarak Muyika". Retrieved 19 October 2016.
  2. Horrocks, Ian (18 June 2015). "15 up-and-coming African entrepreneurs who could change the world". Africafreak. Archived from the original on 27 June 2016. Retrieved 1 August 2019.
  3. Mania, Samwel Born (10 July 2015). "MAINA: Local youth gain global recognition through innovations". Daily Nation. Retrieved 8 June 2018.
  4. Abeng, Blessing (18 January 2016). "Mubarak Muyika". Nubiaafrica.tv. Archived from the original on 23 October 2016. Retrieved 22 October 2016.
  5. Theyoung, Empire. "Mubarak Muyika: Orphaned at 11. Internet business mogul by 19". Retrieved 22 October 2016.
  6. Nsehe, Mfonobong. "30 Most Promising Young Entrepreneurs In Africa 2017". Forbes. Retrieved 6 May 2018.
  7. Kerry A. Dolan. "Africa's Most Promising Young Entrepreneurs: Forbes Africa's 30 Under 30 For 2015". Forbes. Retrieved 18 January 2016.
  8. "9 tech founders who are the 'Mark Zuckerbergs' of their countries — they're rich, successful and younger than 35". Retrieved 8 June 2018.
  9. National Council For Science and Technology Conference Proceedings (2012) "National Council For Science & Technology" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 28 June 2018. Retrieved 31 July 2018.
  10. Simon Ciuri. "Investor Shuns Harvard to pursue tech dreams". Business Daily Africa. Retrieved 18 January 2016.
  11. Okafor, Lovelyn (29 April 2014). "Meet Mubarak Muyika, The Young Web Pro That is Set to Change The World". Konnect Africa. Retrieved 18 June 2018.
  12. "Celebrating Africa's Youngest Entrepreneurs - Mubarack Muyika". Retrieved 17 January 2016.
  13. "Hypecentury Acquired by Wemps Telecoms". Wemps Telecoms. Archived from the original on 31 March 2016. Retrieved 10 June 2018.
  14. "Hypecentury Technologies & Investments Limited". LinkedIn. Retrieved 6 August 2018.
  15. "Zagace". LinkedIn. Retrieved 31 July 2018.
  16. "Meet 20 year old Mubarak who shunned Harvard scholarship to pursue entrepreneurship". TheFounder Magazine. 11 August 2017. Retrieved 10 June 2018.
  17. Jackson, Tom (7 April 2016). "Meet the Investor: Toro Orero, DraperDarkFlow". Disrupt Africa. Retrieved 30 July 2018.
  18. "Zagace Inc.". OpenCorporates. Retrieved 31 July 2018.
  19. "Zagace Inc. Branch". OpenCorporates. Retrieved 31 July 2018.
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