Adelanwa Adesanya was born in 1990 in Nigeria. Known as the co-founder of Moving Analytics, Adesanya leads the incredible telehealth company that helps people thrive after heart disease.
Early Life
Adelwanwa Adesanya is an entrepreneur and digital health specialist. He follows in the steps of his entrepreneurial father, who started his first IT company from their apartment when Adesanya was three years old. His father’s company’s growth from a startup to the leading utility software company in Nigeria played a big role in his career choices. Adesanya moved from Nigeria to America to pursue higher education.
“I came here to go to college. I’ve always been fascinated with America. I think very early on in high school, I learned about Bill Gates and Steve Jobs, and so I got very enamored with the idea of Silicon Valley. I read a lot about them and I hoped that one day I would go to Silicon Valley and do something there.”
Education
Adesanya obtained an Electrical Engineering Degree from the University of Houston. Following his undergrad, Ade co-founded his first entrepreneurial venture Givepals.com: a social marketplace for students to sell or trade goods with one another, including, phones, textbooks, and furniture. As a self-proclaimed private person, Ade attributes this characteristic to mistakes he made in this business venture as it prevented him from gaining alternative perspectives from friends and colleagues.
“After my undergrad, I had a startup and that failed, so I decided to go back to grad school.”
He then obtained a Master’s degree in Engineering and Industrial Management from the University of Southern California in 2013.
Early Career
As an immigrant from Nigeria, Ade was a part of the STEM stream of the Occupational Practical Training program (OPT), which gave him three years to find a job under the US government. After graduate school in June 2013, he co-founded Moving Analytics and used the OPT program to get the company up and running, before applying for a work permit through his entrepreneurial venture.
Despite his company having raised $1.5 million dollars at that point, and making it to the US government permit lottery process, Adesanya’s work permit was denied.
“My lawyer told me I had 15 days to leave the country.”
In hopes of maintaining his start-up’s integrity, Ade fired himself from the company and went back to UCLA to pursue a certificate program to get back on a student visa. He pursued five classes, while juggling his unpaid work in supporting his company, as after a fifth class, he could do an internship at his own company.
Moving Analytics
Despite the challenges faced in these early stages of his career, Ade remained firm in his passion of why he co-founded Moving Analytics: to globally improve outdated cardiac rehabilitation systems. Moving Analytics is a virtual cardiac rehab program that brings in new technologies to empower people with tools to adopt healthy lifestyles.
Founded in 2013, Moving Analytics has helped thousands of patients access life-saving cardiac rehab after they have experienced cardiac complications like a heart attack through Movn, an innovative app-based virtual cardiac rehab program. Adesanya’s company, built in conjunction with Standford, has reduced readmission rates through 300%+ improvements in cardiac completion rates
In paying homage to his Nigerian identity, in January 2019, Ade started the non-profit, Multicultural Angel Investor Network to address the lack of diversity in technology and create a culture of angel investing amongst multicultural professionals.
“When you think of cardiac health, communities of color tend to have poorer outcomes. The national participation rate in cardiac rehab is 20%. When we look at it within communities of color and women, it’s probably less than 10%,”
Moving Analytics has raised a total of $31.5M in funding over 13 rounds.
Philanthropy and Awards
Adesanya serves on the External Advisory Council, in the Department of Physical Therapy, at Chapman University. He is also a recognized Board Member of the Sickle Cell Transplant Advocacy and Research Alliance, focusing on how to cure sickle cell. Adesanya was named a 2018 Forbes 30 Under 30. He is also the winner of the National Startup Pitch Competition at the Louisville Innovation Summit in September 2015.
“For me success is … about building lasting relationships that help me achieve my full potential and use my resources to make the world a better place in a way that outlives me.”
Adelanwa Adesanya is the definition of not letting barriers of any form stop your passion and dreams.
Adelanwa Adesanya is part of our Black Founders50 Series. Download the complete 2023 BBVA Founders50 list here.