Uzoma Orchingwa

Uzoma Orchingwa is a Nigerian-American technologist. He is a co-founder and CEO of Ameelio, as well as co-founder of Emerge Career. He was named one of MIT Technology Review's Innovators Under 35 in 2022, and recognized as one of Fast Company's Most Creative People in Business 2021.
== Education ==
After earning a B.A. in philosophy, and sociology from Colby College, Orchingwa received a Gates Cambridge Scholarship to study in England, where he was awarded an Master of Philosophy in criminology from the University of Cambridge. Orchingwa then attended Yale Law School, and Yale School of Management.
== Career ==
Orchingwa co-founded Ameelio, with Gabriel Saruhashi, while attending law school in 2020. Ameelio is nonprofit technology company that builds tools to reduce the size of the American criminal justice system, and transform the millions of lives negatively impacted by it. It is estimated that nearly half of all adults in the United States – nearly 113 million people – have an immediate family member who is either formerly or currently incarcerated.
As a result of Orchingwa's lived and educational experiences—the incarceration of many of his childhood friends, his study of the history and economic impact of mass incarceration while at Cambridge, and his volunteer work with a reentry nonprofit in New Haven while attending Yale Law School—a clear view of the incarceration crisis and its potential solutions came into focus. Poverty drives mass incarceration in America, and in turn, the prison industry. A study by the Brookings Institution found that, "[i]n the 8 years leading up to incarceration, about half of people in prison had no income," and in "the year before [incarceration] the percentage jumps to 80%."
Worsening this socioeconomically driven crisis is the fact that "[a] handful of American businesses [dominate] almost every aspect of prison life, raking in billions of dollars every year for products and services—often with little oversight." Chief among them is the prison phone industry, which is dominated by just two companies—Viapath (also known as Global Tel Link) and Securus Technologies—and generates billions by charging exorbitant calling fees to the incarcerated and their families.
Orchingwa founded Ameelio to disrupt this predatory industry. These companies not only drive one in three families with incarcerated relatives into debt, but they actively contribute to America's high-rate of recidivism. Research has shown that maintaining close ties with family through phone calls and other mediums reduces recidivism, and increases "the likelihood of an inmate’s successful reentry into society." Through Ameelio, Orchingwa aims to break the grip of this duopoly, and "create a more humane and rehabilitative corrections system for the over 2 million people incarcerated and their 27 million [family members]."
In 2022, Orchingwa along with Gabriel Saruhashi, founded Emerge Career—a technology company focused on up-skilling low-income people out of poverty. Emerge Career raised $3.2 million in seed funding led by Alexis Ohanian’s 776, with participation from Y Combinator, SoftBank Opportunity Fund, Pioneer Fund, Michael Seibel, Deborah H. Quazzo, Lenny Rachitsky.
== Awards and honors ==
* 2022 MIT Technology Review's Innovators Under 35
* 2021 Fast Company's Most Creative People in Business
* 2017 P.D. Soros Fellowship
* 2015 Gates Cambridge Scholarship
* 2013 Harry S. Truman Scholarship
Category:American venture capitalists
Category:American criminologists
Category:Prison reformers