Nigerian Entrepreneur, Chinedu Echeruo, has sold his “HotStop” app to the technology giant Apple for an undisclosed amount. HotStop is a mobile application that offers more than 100 metropolitan areas across the globe an online transit guide. Apple is attempting to improve on its mapping software and services for their application. To achieve their target, the technology giant has acquired HotStop as well as the Israeli mapping startup Waze.
According to Bella Naija, Echeruo nursed the idea of creating HopStop when he came to the US 1995. He did not find it easy moving about the city of New York. It was this problem that led him to develop HotStop a few years later.
Echeruo who was born and raised in Lagos, Nigeria came to the US for further studies. He received a BS and MBA from Syracuse University and Harvard Business School, respectively. He also worked for several investment banks as analyst. However, in 2005, he established HopStop, which was listed among the 100 fastest growing software companies in the US in 2011.
However in 2009, the Nigerian-born entrepreneur vacated the post of CEO of the company for another person. Echeruo thinks that his decision to step down for another person who he believes has the potentials to drive the company towards the achievement of its goal and objectives is the right one.
Echeruo was able to establish two Internet companies in the US, namely, HopStop and Tripology, but now all these companies have been purchased by other companies. In 2010, Rand McNally, the American travel and navigation information company, acquired Tripology.com and now Apple has acquired the remaining one, HopStop.
The contribution of the Nigerian-born entrepreneur has been recognized in some circles. The Black Enterprise Magazine included him in its list of Top 40 Under 40 and named him the magazine’s small business innovator of the year. Currently, the Nigerian-born entrepreneur is partnering with and heading the Principal Investing Group of West Africa.
