(Business in Cameroon) - Cameroonian start-up Will & Brothers has just succeeded in raising financing amounting to 200,000 dollars (about FCfa 124 million), at the end of an operation to mobilise funds whose initial requirement was 300,000 dollars (a little more than FCfa 185 million), we learned officially. Details of this operation have not been revealed.

However, according to William Elong, sponsor of this start-up specialised in economic intelligence and technological innovation, the funds raised will enable the implementation of a drone manufacturing project in Cameroon. To do this, we learn, Will & Brothers, who moved into their new premises in the economic capital of Cameroon, has recruited staff ; its workforce has risen from “4 to 22 people with four nationalities and spread over two continents”.

“Too often, young people launch ideas, create a buzz and go missing. We hope to inspire other young people and motivate them by letting them know that we have not abandoned anything. The light at the end of the tunnel is near and we count on putting our country on the map of drone manufacturers in the world”, confided William Elong, who aims to complete his new project “as soon as possible”.

As a reminder, Will & Brothers developed the application DroneAfrica, which will offer the very “first civilian drone service” in Cameroon. Thanks to this application, a drone equipped with a miniaturised camera can be remotely piloted, in order to capture unprecedented images over very broad areas.

According to its developer, well beyond the sense of entertainment that it appears to procure at first sight, the concept DroneAfrica has revolutionised many things. This is the case for the promotion of tourism, thanks notably to its unique pictures ; the creation, at reduced costs, of maps on mining projects and urban development; better coverage of major events such as fairs, cultural events or football tournaments ; gathering pictures in disaster areas or simply areas difficult to reach, etc.

This discovery earned the young William Elong, aged 24, 7th position in the top 30 of the most promising Young African Entrepreneurs in 2016, a ranking published by the famous American magazine Forbes. Youngest graduate of the École de Guerre Économique of Paris at age 20, this Cameroonian genius was the first and one of the two nationals from Central Africa (with the Gabonese Mark Doumba, co-founder of Clikafrik Group) in this ranking largely dominated by Kenyans, South Africans and Ghanaians.

Brice R. Mbodiam