Mark Anthony Essien (born 18 December 1980 in

Ikot Ekpene Ikot Ekpene, also known as The Raffia City, is a historic town in the south-southern state of Akwa Ibom, Nigeria. It is the political and cultural capital of the Annang ethnic group in Nigeria (Nair, 1972). The town is located on the A34 ...

Akwa Ibom State Akwa Ibom is a States of Nigeria, state in the South South, South-South geopolitical zone of Nigeria. It borders Cross River State to the east, Rivers State and Abia State to the west and north-west, and the Atlantic Ocean to the south. The state ...

) is a Nigerian entrepreneur,

software developer Software development is the process of designing and Implementation, implementing a software solution to Computer user satisfaction, satisfy a User (computing), user. The process is more encompassing than Computer programming, programming, wri ...

and startup investor. He is the founder and CEO of Hotels.ng, one of the first online hotel booking websites in

Nigeria Nigeria, officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf of Guinea in the Atlantic Ocean to the south. It covers an area of . With Demographics of Nigeria, ...

. Before he founded Hotels.ng in 2013, Essien had previously built a file sharing software called Gnumm (acquired by Snoopstar.com), followed by a language learning startup called Ingolingo.

Career

Hotels.ng

In 2013, Essien founded Hotels.ng. Spark.ng made an initial investment of $75,000 and another investment of $150,000. In 2015, the company secured additional investment funding of $1.2 million from international investors EchoVC Pan-Africa Fund, a seed-stage technology fund, and

Omidyar Network Omidyar Network is a self-styled "philanthropic investment firm," composed of a foundation and an impact investment firm. Established in 2004 by eBay founder Pierre Omidyar and his wife Pam, Omidyar Network has committed over US$1.5billion to no ...

, the investment vehicle of

eBay eBay Inc. ( , often stylized as ebay) is an American multinational e-commerce company based in San Jose, California, that allows users to buy or view items via retail sales through online marketplaces and websites in 190 markets worldwide. ...

founder

Pierre Omidyar Pierre Morad Omidyar (born Parviz Morad Omidyar, June 21, 1967) is a French-born Iranian-American billionaire and the grandson of General Mahmud Mir-Djalali. A technology entrepreneur, software engineer, and philanthropist, he is the foun ...

. Essien stepped down as the CEO of HNG Internships, a programme he founded to solve the Nigerian software engineering talent problem. He handed over to Seyi Onifade

Awards and recognition

In 2015, Essien made the

Forbes ''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine founded by B. C. Forbes in 1917. It has been owned by the Hong Kong–based investment group Integrated Whale Media Investments since 2014. Its chairman and editor-in-chief is Steve Forbes. The co ...

list of the 30 youngest entrepreneurs in

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent after Asia. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 20% of Earth's land area and 6% of its total surfac ...

. He has also been nominated for the Nigeria Future awards amongst others.

Family

On 8 April 2018 Essien married Jenni Naiaretti, who is also a developer.

Investments

In 2016, Hotels.ng co-invested with Jason Njoku and Spark in OgaVenue, an events booking platform. Essien serves as a director on the board of OgaVenue.

Public talks

Essien is a frequent TEDx speaker. He has delivered talks on leveraging networks to build a business and how Africa can lead in the global technology space, speaking at TEDxEuston and TEDxGbagada respectively.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Essien, Mark Living people 1980 births People from Akwa Ibom State Nigerian technology businesspeople Nigerian company founders 21st-century Nigerian businesspeople Free University of Berlin alumni Nigerian venture capitalists