Urbex Africa: Safer Property Development for Africa & Its Diaspora through Tech

The dream of owning property in Africa can turn into a nightmare. Many in the diaspora and even on the continent have experienced the pain of losing hard-earned money to fraudulent schemes. Perpetrated by family and friends or technicians and professionals.

Trustworthiness in property development in Nigeria is a major issue. Urbex Africa’s goal is to provide peace of mind for both seasoned and first-time developers throughout their property development endeavours.

Founded by Adekunle Adeyeye, Urbex Africa merges the worlds of tech and real estate. The Urbex Africa team entered into 2024 with the intention of seeing major progress in the growth of the promising problem-solving application. We reflect on the journey so far as we approach the last month of the year.

Before Urbex Africa was founded, Adeyeye already co-founded TEXTNG communications, a mobile communications provider in Nigeria and was a founding member of Marasoft Pay, a fintech solutions provider in Nigeria and Kenya.

In this interview, I intend to provide readers with a glimpse of the progress Urbex Africa has made in the year 2024 and her intentions for the coming year.

• What is Urbex Africa?

Urbex Africa is a software company that offers construction management solutions for Africans at home and abroad. These solutions enable them to carry out and supervise their building projects remotely and seamlessly.

• The name of a company is the first thing people come across. How was the name “Urbex” coined and why did you decide to go with it?

Funny cause I always have cool stories behind other stuff I have done, but not Urbex. We had built the solution and were ready to launch so I was brainstorming with my Girlfriend and she suggested it. So, I guess that’s a cool story. Urbex stands for Urban exploration generally and to us it is more like innovation in urban development.

• How did the idea for Urbex come along?

I met someone named Akin Thompson randomly at an airport. I was wearing a branded shirt for my other company and he asked me what we do. So, we got talking that day about my field of work and his field of work and the lapses currently in the industry. We exchanged contacts and a couple Google meets later, Urbex was born.

• Upon initiation of building operations, what was the team onboarding process like? Was it based on people you had worked with before?

At the time, I was always shuffling between Abuja & Lagos. So, I assembled a new team in Abuja, this was December 2022. We worked remotely most of the time. At the end of each month, we had physical meet-ups to chat about stuff. Based on that, we retained some members of the team and along the line, I included some of the best guys I had worked with before. There is someone named Johnpaul Okeke who is a senior developer at TEXTNG and a very great guy, one of the best developers you will find. He joined us and became CTO (Chief Technical/Technology Officer) at Urbex Africa

• What expected and unexpected roadblocks have been encountered?

A major roadblock was communicating our value and solutions in such a way that people who need us are aware of us and can find us. Because we were building something new, we needed to position ourselves in the right way without wasting too much money.

• What did you do to move past the roadblocks?

We had support early enough from the angel round we did in March. So, we had to maximize our resources when it came to experimenting with various marketing options. We made sure to establish the right partnerships. I myself became more vocal about what we are building which is not really in my nature.

• What stage of operations are you at right now?

Well, we are in the “making money” stage. We have established partnerships with realtors, real estate developers and other key players in the real estate space as a way of expanding our reach.

• What is 2025 looking like for Urbex?

I am really excited about it. We have set our targets and are working aggressively to achieve them. We will launch a lot more value offerings which we have in the pipeline, like the Urbex exchange scheme. A system where people who live in the UK and earn in pounds, for example, can build in Nigeria without having to source for naira. We have an investment service in the works as well, where a group of people can come together to finance real estate projects if you have the land. The end goal for us with these new products is to make it easy for people to take on real estate projects, and have the construction supervised through the Urbex App.

• In a business of this kind, many hands are needed on deck. What is the vetting process like when trying to find people who can be trusted?

I’ve always been lucky in choosing people to work with. I try not to look at your qualifications but the actual work and the energy I get from you.

• For those interested in working with you, how would people know when you are hiring?

Follow our social media.

Urbex Africa’s Website: https://urbex.africa/home/

App Store: https://apps.apple.com/ng/app/urbex-app/id6587576244

Play Store: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.successhy.PMPmobile&hl=en

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