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Meet William Adoasi: An Entrepreneur Funding Education In Africa Through E-Commerce

Meet William Adoasi: An Entrepreneur Funding Education In Africa Through E-Commerce

William Adoasi
William Adoasi’s business success earned him a spot in U.S. venture capitalist Arlan Hamilton’s Backstage Capital accelerator in London. Image by Autumn Keiko

William Adoasi started his first sports business at 19 years old, dropped out of university and earned around $193,400 in three years — not bad for a teenage founder.

Nearly a decade later, Adoasi owns Vitae Group with four enterprises under its umbrella including watch brand Vitae London and Vitae Photography. He has dreams of building an empire like Billionaire Richard Branson’s Virgin Group.

Vitae London watches were born out of the desire to positively transform the lives of African children who were orphaned or living in poverty.

The support comes in the form of education sponsorship financed by Adoasi’s e-commerce venture that sells watches online.

“My dad was the first in his family to learn how to read and write. He grew up in adverse poverty,” Adoasi said in an interview with annetteabena.com. “To see the power that education had on his life and ending poverty for our family really inspired me to do that for other kids.”

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The idea for Vitae London originated from South African Charity House of Wells, where Adoasi’s wife worked. The two organizations now partner in supporting children’s education.

Adoasi was one of two entrepreneurs who won an opportunity through Branson’s Virgin StartUp initiative, which involved being mentored by the billionaire.

An investment of around $8,450 plus a small loan from Virgin helped make the watch business successful, generating $181,000 worth of annual sales. Adoasi’s business success earned him a spot in U.S. venture capitalist Arlan Hamilton’s Backstage Capital accelerator in London. Backstage kicked in $100,000 in funding.

Vitae London now focuses on building a community of people that care about education in Africa and who will be willing to raise funds to support the initiative, Adoasi told Forbes.