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Jon Gosier

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Jon Gosier
Born
Jonathan D. Gosier

1981 or 1982 (age 43–44)[1]
NationalityAmerican
Occupation(s)Entrepreneur,Philanthropist, Film financier
Known forFounder or co-founder of companies: Ushahidi, Appfrica, Apps4Africa, Audigent, FilmHedge
Websitegosier.org

Jonathan D. Gosier (born 1981 or 1982)[1] is a entrepreneur,  investor, film financier, and philanthropist.[2][1] He was named as one of Ten African Tech Voices to Follow on Twitter by CNN [3] and one of the 25 most influential African-Americans in Technology by Business Insider.[4] He was awarded a TED Fellowship in 2009 and later named a TED Senior Fellow.[5][6] Gosier is Knight News Challenge award winner for Abayima which makes crisis communications technology for disasters.[7] In 2013, Gosier was nominated as one of three Innovators of the Year by Black Enterprise Magazine for his work with data startup MetaLayer.[8]

Ushahidi

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From 2009 to 2011 Jon Gosier was the Director of SwiftRiver at Ushahidi.[9][10][11][12]

Appfrica

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Gosier is currently the founder and CEO of Appfrica. It is a technology firm based in Kampala, Uganda.[13] in 2008 in Kampala, Uganda.[14] The firm has been responsible for a number of technology initiatives responsible for promoting Africa's technology sector including Apps4Africa,[15] HiveColab, QuestionBox[16] and for helping Google Africa translate its page for Ugandan audiences.[17]

Apps4Africa

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Gosier was one of the founders of Apps4Africa, an accelerator for African technology initiatives. Apps4Africa began with a series of Challenges whose sponsors include Appfrica and the U.S. Department of State. [citation needed] The goal of Apps4Africa is to promote 'African solutions to African problems' by rewarding African technologists seeking to impact society with their inventions.[18] The competition asks civil society and citizens throughout the continent to submit local community challenges on issues like transparency and better governance, health, education and more. The project began in late 2009 with a partnership formed between Appfrica and the U.S. Department of State, Bureau of African Affairs, Office of Public Diplomacy (AF/PDPA) as part of President Barack Obama's administration's 21st Century Statecraft initiative.[19]

MetaLayer

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Gosier co-founded MetaLayer in 2011 alongside business partner Matthew Griffiths. The company aimed to empower non-technical users to conduct data-driven research—such as identifying trends in large data sets, performing predictive analytics, and creating visualizations—through intuitive, drag-and-drop data science tools.[20][21]

The company was acquired by D8A Group in August 2013.[22]

Audigent

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Gosier co-founded Audigent in 2014, which is a data activation, curation, and identity platform that specializes in leveraging privacy-safe, first-party data to enhance media addressability and monetization without relying on cookies.[23] In November 2024, Audigent was acquired by Experian. The deal was reported to be valued between $200 million and $250 million.[24][23]

Southbox Entertainment

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Jon Gosier founded Southbox Entertainment in 2017. In September 2019, Southbox Entertainment announced its launch in Atlanta, to serve as a source of capital for filmmakers and TV producers.[25]

Abayima

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Abayima is a non-profit organization that was founded to support citizens when their voices are threatened in the form of attacks on communications infrastructure.

Abayima (the Luganda word for "Guardian") was inspired by the plight of activists in countries like Uganda, Libya, Syria, and Egypt where authorities have been known to sever (or monitor) citizen access to the internet and mobile communication.[26] During these 'internet black-outs', Abayima provides solutions that allow citizens and journalists to communicate in spite of such measures. In 2011 the project was piloted by Gosier and his colleagues when government authorities in Uganda began intercepting SMS messages, a popular means for communicating in developing countries during times of crisis.[27]

FilmHedge

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Gosier is the CEO and Founder of FilmHedge, which was launched in 2020. The company provides financing for the film and television industry.[28] Since its inception, FilmHedge has facilitated over $200 million in funding for more than 40 feature films and scripted series.[29]

Awards/Accolades

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  • 2012- CNN named him as Ten African Tech Voices to Follow on Twitter[3]
  • 2013 - Business Insider named him as one of the 25 most influential African-Americans in Technology[4]
  • 2013 - His mobile app, Abayima, was awarded a $150,000 grant from the Knight News Challenge[30]
  • 2013 - nominated as one of three Innovators of the Year by Black Enterprise Magazine for his work with data startup MetaLayer
  • 2015 - TIME’s ‘12 New Faces of Black Leadership’[24][31]

References

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  1. ^ a b c Joyner, April (March 15, 2015). "Jon Gosier: Spreading the angel investing wealth". USA Today. Gosier, 33
  2. ^ Sutter, John D. (January 31, 2013). "The cell phone revolutionary". CNN.com. Retrieved October 15, 2013.
  3. ^ a b Busari, Stephanie. "Ten African Tech Voices to Follow on Twitter". CNN.com.
  4. ^ a b Dickey, Megan Rose (April 4, 2013). "The 25 Most Influential African-Americans In Technology". Business Insider.
  5. ^ "2010 TED Senior Fellows". TED.com.
  6. ^ "TED Stories for Jon Gosier". TED.com. 7 October 2014.
  7. ^ "For content distribution and publishing via SIM cards for sharing information in technologically-limited or high-risk situations". KnightFoundation.org. March 21, 2013.
  8. ^ Brown, Carolyn (July 27, 2015). "Entrepreneurs Conference: Celebrating Small Businesses Revved Up for Growth". BlackEnterprise. Retrieved October 14, 2013.
  9. ^ Hersman, Erik (December 14, 2009). "Jon Gosier joins the Swift River Initiative". Ushahidi.com.
  10. ^ "Q&A: Jon Gosier on crowdsourcing and the 'Silicon Valley of Africa'". Memeburn.com. 28 April 2011.
  11. ^ Watters, Audrey (January 3, 2011). "Crisis-Mapping Platform Ushahidi Announces Crowdmap:CI, 'Check-ins With a Purpose'". readwrite.com.
  12. ^ Kirwan, Peter (September 7, 2010). "SwiftRiver: Tagging a crisis". Wired. Archived from the original on October 15, 2013. Retrieved October 15, 2013.
  13. ^ "An Interview with Appfrica Founder Jon Gosier". WhiteAfrican.com.
  14. ^ Brennan, Andrew (September 24, 2013). "Uniting a diaspora is, by its very nature, a big challenge". TheLinkNewspaper.ca.
  15. ^ "Creators of "Apps 4 Africa" Contest Discuss the Ideas Behind It". USembassy.gov. July 16, 2010.
  16. ^ "Fellows Friday with Rose Shuman". TED.com. June 3, 2011.
  17. ^ Akinyemi, Tayo (August 18, 2009). "Bridging the Communication Gap in Uganda: Appfrica Labs". NextBillion.net.
  18. ^ Dowd, Katie (July 1, 2010). "Announcing 'Apps 4 Africa'". blogs.state.gov. Archived from the original on March 3, 2013.
  19. ^ "Africa: 'The United States – Africa Partnership – the Last Four Years and Beyond' – Assistant Secretary Carson". AllAfrica. January 16, 2013.
  20. ^ "Moving on from SwiftRiver and Ushahidi". gosdot.com. 2013-09-26. Archived from the original on September 26, 2013. Retrieved 2025-05-02.
  21. ^ Talbert, Marcia Wade (2013-04-12). "Tech Startup of the Week: MetaLayer Takes Big Data and Makes Sense of It". Black Enterprise. Retrieved 2025-05-02.
  22. ^ "The Roundup". Wall Street Journal. 2015-09-28. ISSN 0099-9660. Retrieved 2025-05-02.
  23. ^ a b Huffman, Sarah (2024-12-11). "Experian acquires Audigent, adtech giant backed early by Philly orgs, for reported $200M+". Technical.ly. Retrieved 2025-05-02.
  24. ^ a b Abraham, Tony (2015-01-19). "Jon Gosier named one of TIME's '12 New Faces of Black Leadership'". Technical.ly. Retrieved 2025-05-02.
  25. ^ "Atlanta-Based Investor Brings Film Finance Down South". www.prnewswire.com. 2019-09-12. Retrieved 2020-06-01.
  26. ^ Robertson, Jordan. "The day part of the Internet died: Egypt goes dark". The Washington Times.
  27. ^ "A Brief History of the Abayima Project". Appfrica.com. Archived from the original on 2013-01-24. Retrieved 2013-01-24.
  28. ^ Bird, Matt (2025-03-14). "Jon Gosier CEO of FilmHedge Discusses Film & TV Financing at World Economic Forum". ESG News. Retrieved 2025-05-02.
  29. ^ "FilmHedge Founders Attract Institutional Interest in Film Financing at Davos". ESG News. 2025-01-23. Retrieved 2025-05-02.
  30. ^ "Knight News Challenge". 2013-01-18. Retrieved 2025-05-02.
  31. ^ Butler, Michael (2021-07-30). "Jon Gosier found global success in tech before Philly funding brought him here. But it wasn't enough to keep him". Technical.ly. Retrieved 2025-05-02.
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