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African Leadership Magazine is reporting that Apple has acquired Nigerian born entrepreneur Chinedu Echeruo’s Hopstop.com.
Founded in 2005 by Chinedu Echeruo, HopStop.com makes mobile applications for both iOS and Android that covers over 300 cities and assists people in need of directions or locating nearby subway stations and bus stops. Presently the terms of the deal have not been disclosed but it is thought to be a billion dollar deal by industry insiders.
Comparison have been made between HopStop and Israel’s Waze which was recently acquired by Google for $1 billion. Apple’s acquisition of HopStop is viewed as a plan to bolster its map offering capabilities following Google’s recent acquisition of Waze.
Chinedu Echeruo, who is now Chairman of the Board for HopStop, grew up in Eastern Nigeria and attended Kings College, Lagos. The serial entrepreneur attended Syracuse University and the Harvard Business School in the United States and founded HopStop.com after working for several years in the Mergers & Acquisitions and Leveraged Finance groups of J.P Morgan Chase where he was involved in a broad range of M&A, financing and private equity transactions.
The author writes:
“He founded and raised nearly $8 million for his two U.S based internet companies; Hopstop.com and Tripology.com. Tripology.com was acquired in 2010 by American travel and navigation information company, Rand McNally. He was named Black Enterprise Magazine’s Small Business Innovator of the year and listed in the magazine’s Top 40 under 40 and is currently a partner and head of the Principal Investing group at Constant Capital, a West Africa based investment bank.
True to form, Echeruo is working on yet another venture but this time, focused on small businesses in Africa…”
Read more at  African Leadership Magazine.
This post was written by Reginald Calhoun, editorial assistant for the Burton Wire. He is a senior Mass Media Arts major at Clark Atlanta University. Follow him on Twitter @IRMarsean.
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