Itana, formerly known as Talent City, has successfully raised $2 million in a pre-seed funding round, bolstering its vision to establish Africa's inaugural Digital Free Zone. This initiative is aimed at enhancing the ease of doing business, attracting foreign direct investment, and stimulating employment opportunities.

Itana is envisioned as a fully digital jurisdiction tailored to the needs of the digital economy, offering optimal policies, business services, and technology infrastructure for global digital and service enterprises to remotely operate and scale across Africa effortlessly.

Founded by CEO Luqman Edu, founding investor Iyinoluwa Aboyeji, and COO Coco Liu, Itana intends to facilitate global tech and service companies in establishing their African operations in Nigeria. It also offers globally competitive business policies and incentives to attract and support these enterprises. By 2027, Itana plans to be integrated with an environmentally conscious startup district in the Alaro free zone located in Epe, Lagos.

The pre-seed funding round, totalling $2 million, was led by prominent global venture capitalists, including LocalGlobe, Amplo, Pronomos Capital, and Future Africa. These partnerships bring together a wealth of industry expertise and technical knowledge, with a track record of supporting digital societies such as e-Estonia and developing scalable products.

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Luqman Edu, CEO of Itana, expressed his excitement about the funding, highlighting its alignment with their vision to facilitate investment and operations in Africa's digital economy. He emphasized the untapped potential of the African market and Itana's role in providing an ideal online business environment for global and pan-African digital and service companies to use Nigeria as a base for operations across the continent.

Iyinoluwa Aboyeji pointed out that Itana would empower entrepreneurs to build globally respected businesses within Nigeria's first digital free zone, granting them benefits that were traditionally reserved for industries like manufacturing or oil and gas in Nigeria's free zones.

He elaborated that within the Itana digital free zone, startups would enjoy the advantages of a stable policy environment, tax incentives, and the freedom to operate remotely without the need for an extensive physical presence within the free zone. Aboyeji expressed anticipation for the emergence of global businesses from Nigeria through this initiative.