Aubrey Niederhoffer

BusinessDay reported on April 27, 2026 that Aubrey became interested in Africa as a child through the online geography game GeoGuessr. By age 15, Aubrey had founded a recruiting firm focused on labor opportunities in Eswatini. The profile also says Aubrey was accepted into the Thiel Fellowship, which awards $250,000 to promising young founders to forgo traditional education.

In August 2025, after a freshman year at Berkeley, Aubrey co-founded Swoop in Eswatini with partner Edwin Ruiz. WeeTracker adds that the company was formerly known as Thumo. BusinessDay says the platform gained 6,000 users in its first month, which convinced Aubrey to drop out, accept the Thiel grant and move the operation to Nigeria. It describes Swoop as a 28-person startup.

BusinessDay reported in April 2026 that Swoop, co-founded by Aubrey, raised $7.3 million in seed funding. Investors included Long Journey, Variant, Version One, Dune Ventures and Soma Capital. BusinessDay says Swoop has just launched food delivery operations in Yaba, Lagos, using an asset-light approach built on independent riders who keep 100 percent of delivery fees. Revenue comes from restaurant commissions and a modest customer handling fee of seven percent.

BusinessDay says Aubrey and Nigerian country manager Demola Adesina position food delivery as merely the entry point. Adesina argued that success could make Swoop the central node for groceries, ride-hailing and financial products. The article says Aubrey and Adesina draw inspiration from Asian super apps such as WeChat and Kaspi of Kazakhstan. In the April 2026 coverage, only food delivery in Yaba is described as launched; the other services are future ambitions.