Balaji Srinivasan, a high-profile crypto space figure and the ex-CTO of Coinbase, wrote a piece titled “How to Start a New Country” in the 21st century in April, which has inspired Afropolitan, a community-as-a-service company for the African diaspora, to take a bold step in bringing that vision to life.
Srinivasan’s view in the piece was that this new world — The Network State — would give millions of people a fresh societal and financial start free of historical limitations that this current world presents. The Network State is a digital nation launched first as an online community before materializing physically on land after reaching critical mass, per Srinivasan’s notion.
Despite what Srinivasan wrote being theoretical mainly to a large extent, Afropolitan is taking a bet and claims to be building the world’s first-ever internet country. The startup recently raised $2.1 million in pre-seed to kick-start its efforts — Srinivasan also joins in as an investor with 25 others, including Elizabeth Yin of Hustle Fund, Shola Akinlade of Paystack, Ian Lee of SyndicateDAO, Iyinoluwa Aboyeji of Future Africa, Olugbenga Agboola of Flutterwave, Walter Baddoo of 4DX Ventures, Jason Njoku of IROKO, Tobenna Arodiogbu of Cloudtrucks, Ngozi Dozie of Carbon and Dare Obasanjo, senior product manager at Meta.
Venture capital firms that participated in the round include Hashed, Atlantica Ventures, Microtraction, Cultur3 Capital, Shima Capital, Savannah Fund, Ingressive Capital, Audacity Fund, and RaliCap.
To understand what Afropolitan hopes to execute, let’s dive into its journey so far and break down its plans into phases.
The Awakening
Founded by Eche Emole and Chika Uwazie in 2016, through travel, events, and media, Afropolitan creates several community-led opportunities for people from Africa and the diaspora. Its events arm, fueled by Afrobeats parties, concerts, and festivals, made a statement in 2019 by participating in the Ghanaian event known as “The Year of Return.” International travelers to Ghana peaked that year at 1.13 million, up from slightly under 960,000 in 2018.
The pandemic prevented plans for a sequel the following year, but Afropolitan learned lessons from 2019 nonetheless, one of which was the awakening happening among the African diaspora, where millions desired to trace and connect back to their roots on the continent.
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The next step involved using media as a tool to address these needs. Afropolitan acquired a sizable following — it now has 50,000 followers — as the community grew thanks to Clubhouse, the perfect tool and a sensation at the time. With over 200,000 Clubhouse followers between them and their extended brands (Uwazie’s Divine Feminine has the second-largest female membership on the social audio app), the podcast and, more importantly, the founders’ prior experience building online communities were contributing factors in the company’s growth.
“We were able to show that this diaspora movement, which was physically present in The Year of Return, was also present online as we brought them together on Clubhouse,” Emole, co-founder and community lead, revealed. “What would it look like if we created a country out of it?” he added, referencing Srinivasan’s essay as an inspiration.
A Facebook-like concept, but on web3
In ways its first iteration couldn’t have fathomed, the internet’s second iteration made it possible for people to come together around shared beliefs. Social media platforms are the epitome of the internet, and Facebook is its poster child. If Facebook were a country, it would be the world’s largest.
A new narrative has emerged thanks to the advent of web3, a new internet made possible by blockchain and cryptocurrency technology. This school of thought, led by Srinivasan and observed by others like Afropolitan, holds that the next Facebook-like concept might be a fully-fledged digital republic coordinated by its own native currency and a unifying mission.
“Our argument is straightforward. The internet has allowed us to connect in ways previously unimaginable like Facebook,” said Emole. “What we’re now looking to build is the first ever internet country, one that will have its native currency and shared purpose. That’s what this boils down to.”
But why create one in the first place? Afropolitan gives two answers. First, Africa is the poorest continent in the world, home to nine of the ten nations with the highest poverty rates. Long-standing wars and gerontocrats limit the continent’s very youthful population’s socioeconomic chances. Then, Afropolitan says that this crisis manifests itself in economic stagnation, a gerontocratic elite, racial inequality, and police brutality in the U.S., where most of the African diaspora resides.
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“Ultimately, I think the problem that we’re solving for here is bad governance. The governments across Africa and globally have failed Black people in general,” said Emole.
The ex-Flutterwave CEO used the #EndSARS movement in Nigeria, where tens of thousands of Nigerians protested against police brutality in 2020, to support his claim. Contributions flooded in during the peak of the protests, especially from abroad, to cover the cost of the needs of these protesters. However, the Nigerian government attempted to thwart the movement by using its banks to impose restrictions on the accounts of some platforms that were used to accept payments for these contributions. The movement gained support from prominent international figures like Beyonce and Jack Dorsey.
“But the only thing they couldn’t shut down was bitcoin,” he said. So the idea then was if digital money is a weakness for the government, what more could you lay on top of that digital money? Can you layer a digital country on top of that, a country you can’t shut down? What would a new government look like if we can all tap into a new country, new passport, new currency enabled by web3 technology.”
A Super App And Futuristic Plans For The Network State
Afropolitan claims that with over 150 million people, the African diaspora would rank as the 10th largest nation in the world if it were a country.
“Aggregating this community into a unified state would instantly make it a significant economic power,” it said in its manifesto. “Afropolitan’s social layer will enable members to invite new members and share resources, economic opportunity, culture, and media, creating an exponential network effect as more members join the network due to its growing value.”
For the creation of this digital nation, the startup has a four-phase plan.
Continuing its media and events to communicate its vision through its events and podcast constitutes the first phase. To activate the DAO and grant its members access to events and physical spaces after that, Afropolitan plans to mint 10,000 passports NFTs.
Afropolitan will launch a super app in phase two that will house all the services in its ecosystem. Members have access to learn-to-earn initiatives, the ability to move money across borders, collect risk capital, incorporate their companies, and apply for e-residency. According to Emole, the company could either build these government-as-a-service features on its own or partner with other platforms that already provide these services in one form or another.
A minimum viable state is the next phase, according to Afropolitan. “Phase three focuses on being ready for our transition from the digital to the virtual world. At this point, our goal is to build legitimacy through state capacity, the company added. “To govern our Network, including subsidiary funds, organizations, and a developing internal economy, we will create a network of seed institutions.”
The last phase of Afropolitan is the push for full-scale sovereignty after it has attained critical mass. To embark on negotiations with partner governments for land space in their countries, the community, according to Emole, needs to have millions of people in its network.
“The way to think about that is to understand embassies being sovereign territories in different countries. And then you also have a Chinatown in major cities worldwide. If you can combine those two ideas, what you have is a sovereign city, and that’s how we’re going to look at the last phase,” he remarked.
The Nation-State of The Internet
Africans, especially its youth, is bullish about cryptocurrency. The region’s cryptocurrency usage increased 1,200% in the past year, making it the third-fastest growing cryptocurrency economy, according to data from blockchain intelligence company Chainalysis.
However, a few blockchain start-ups have entered the picture as they try to onboard millions of Africans into a “new economy,” going beyond cryptocurrency exchanges and their cross-border and remittance plays. MARA, Nestcoin, and Jambo are a few examples.
This description applies to Afropolitan, but with a twist: the diaspora element. As the real work begins, the web3 upstart hopes to become a major force pushing for this representation, according to Uwazie, head of partnership and business development and one of the few female co-founders in the field.
“We want the Black diaspora to feel comfortable and have a safe space to get educated on web3 and NFTs,” expressed Uwazie, the former CEO of Talent Base, a defunct Africa-focused HR platform. “That’s why the first year of us running this project will focus on the actual community, education, and the podcast.”
Cultur3 Capital, one of Afropolitan’s backers, is also particular about this depiction. The company backed Afropolitan because it addresses the opportunities in the “overlooked, underfunded, and undervalued” African and African diaspora markets. The company believes that crypto, via tokens, has the power to reinvent digital communities, consumers, and cultures.
“Talking about ‘community’ is easy. Building it is hard. We at Cultur3 couldn’t be more excited to support Afropolitan in its mission to serve the African diaspora’s vast and deep talent,” it noted. “This community-first approach, combined with their unmatched network of Africa’s top entrepreneurs, artists, and creators, will be the key that unlocks the region’s vast yet underrepresented talent.”
