According to YNaija, Nwaogu is one of the “100 Most Powerful Young Nigerians in 2021.” He has also been described by Legit.ng, as one of the “8 most outstanding business personalities in Nigeria in the Startup sector in 2022”. Nonetheless, Chidi Nwaogu is an experienced entrepreneur, entrepreneurial ecosystem builder, and software engineer. He started his entrepreneurial journey at 16 as an indie video game developer. Today, Nwaogu is a Senior Program Manager at Zarttech, a dynamic venture-building firm dedicated to driving innovation and fostering growth in technology-driven startups across various sectors.
In 2020, Nwaogu co-founded Savvy, a global business incubation and acceleration company for aspiring and early-stage entrepreneurs passionate about solving some of the world’s most pressing problems. Savvy has been recognized by HundrED.org as one of the “100 most impactful and scalable innovations in education in 2022”. In 2017, he co-founded Publiseer, a digital distribution company for independent African content creators, which has been recognized by Ernst & Young as one of the “100 most meaningful businesses in the world in 2023”.
Since Nwaogu was 19, he has co-founded, grown, and sold two successful tech companies, including LAGbook, a social network that garnered over 1 million registered users within 3 years and was acquired in 2013. As a way to give back, Nwaogu mentors and supports entrepreneurs through platforms like Seedstars, the Founder Institute, Startupbootcamp, the Tony Elumelu Foundation Entrepreneurship Programme, and the Investment Readiness Program by the United Nations.
Nwaogu is an Acumen Fellow 2020 (West Africa), Alibaba eFounders Fellow 2020 (Hangzhou), French-African Foundation Young Leader 2021 (Paris), Dalai Lama Fellow 2022 (Virginia), THINC Fellow 2023 (Beijing), Westerwelle Foundation Young Founder 2019 (Berlin), One Young World Ambassador 2021 (Munich), and Queen’s Commonwealth Trust Young Leader 2022 (London). He is a winner of the $1.5M Africa’s Business Heroes Prize 2021 by the Jack Ma Foundation, the Migration Entrepreneurship Prize 2020 by the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (FDFA), the $15K Roddenberry Foundation Catalyst Fund 2021, and the $25K ITU/UNOSSC Global South COVID-19 Digital Innovation Challenge 2021.
Nwaogu is the author of a 586-page book, titled “Dear Entrepreneur”, which contains a series of open letters to entrepreneurs, written from his experience, and designed to be a daily companion.