Nigerian online city transit guide HopStop has been bought by Apple to boost map development.
Founded by Nigerian techpreneur Chinedu Echeruo, HopStop.com creates mobile applications for both iOS and Android for navigation around 500 cities towards transport facilities.
Compared to the likes of Israeli Waze, Apple’s decision to bag HopStop seems to be a response to Google’s purchase of Waze for US$1.1 billion.
No further details about the deal have been disclosed.
HopStop is ranked as the seventh most popular navigational tool in the Apple app store.
Focused on small businesses in Africa, Echeruo boasts approximately US$8 million-valued online companies HopStop.com and Tripology.com.
Tripology was sold previously to United States (US) travel and navigation information company Rand McNally.
Bearing the title of Black Enterprise Magazine’s Small Business Innovator of the Year, the entrepreneur is planning to embark on a new project soon.
“There is no reason why every entrepreneur should have to reinvent the wheel every single time in all the countries in Africa,” he said at a TedxTalk in 2012.
“My idea is to essentially to have one place where a budding entrepreneur can access a template for starting a business, and then customize it to suit their own situation. Essentially a business-in-a-box.”
