Meet Odogwu Ekene Enefe, founder of Lokats who aspires to give Facebook a run for its money

Facebook tops the list of leading social media platforms with over three billion users worldwide. YouTube, with two billion and five hundred million users, comes second. Instagram and WhatsApp each have two billion users. TikTok comes in at number five with one billion and six hundred million users.

The social media space is lucrative, rewarding, and challenging. The burn-out rate for start-ups in the sector is very high. The statistics are staggering. The failure rate for new startups is generally 90%. From this number, 10% of new businesses don’t survive the first year. However, first-time startup founders have a success rate of 18%.

With all these in mind, a 23 year-old Nigerian man Odogwu Ekene Enefe is bracing the odds and has launched a start-up social media platform known as Lokats on the first of August 2025. He spoke to Dr. Uche Nworah about what’s driving him and the unique features of the platform

About Him

My name is Odogwu Ekenedilichukwu Enefe, the founder and CEO of Lokats. I am from Ogbunike in the Oyi local government area of Anambra State.
I hold a B.Sc in software engineering from the Nile University of Nigeria.

Reason for setting up Lokats

I started Lokats because I kept seeing the same problem: people have memories, photos, and moments that connect them to others, but no simple, respectful way to turn those memories into reconnections. I wanted to build a human-centered platform that helps people find and reach out to long-lost friends and family based on memories, places, and shared moments while protecting privacy and consent.

The uniqueness of Lokats compared to other social media platforms

Lokats is built for reconnection, not for passive scrolling. Key differentiators are: memory-tag search (search by photo, place, event, or memory), map recall to retrace where people were last seen, and a two-step privacy consent that requires approval before personal info is shared. Those features, plus instant reconnection alerts and a design that foregrounds meaningful contact, make Lokats uniquely suited to respectfully reuniting people.

Why should people leave Facebook and other social media platforms and migrate to Lokats?

We are not asking everyone to abandon other platforms. Instead, Lokats provides a focused tool for one thing those large platforms do not do well, which is to help people reconnect based on memories while prioritizing privacy and consent. If you want a quieter, more intentional place to find old friends and rebuild real relationships, Lokats is purposely built for that.

Response and uptake so far

Early response has been encouraging. Beta users tell us they appreciate the privacy-first approach and the memory-search mechanics, and we have seen steady organic interest from communities and alumni groups.

Major challenges if any facing Lokats

Our biggest challenges are typical for early-stage social platforms: raising enough capital to scale product and moderation responsibly, acquiring our first large cohorts of engaged users efficiently, and building robust moderation and privacy processes that scale globally. From a technical standpoint, delivering fast, reliable matching and map features at scale is also a continuous engineering focus.

Would he consider selling?

Our focus today is on building a product and community that delivers real value. We are open to strategic partnerships or offers that accelerate the mission and protect user privacy and product integrity. Any decision to sell would require alignment with our long-term vision and with the needs of our users.

Vision for Lokats

We want Lokats to become the world’s most human-centered reconnection platform: the place people come when they want to find someone from their past or build meaningful new ties rooted in shared moments. Long term, we see Lokats powering safe reconnections across cultures and geographies while setting new standards for consent, privacy, and emotional utility in social apps.

Be among the first to experience the future of human connection. Download Lokats today on the Play Store and App Store.