Chaste Christopher Inegbedion Is Using Tech To Challenge The Idea That Relationships Are An ‘Underappreciated Asset Class’ – AfroTech

Founder Chaste Christopher Inegbedion believes that while relationships are a pathway toward opportunity, they are still an “underappreciated asset class in the world.”

Inegbedion observed this while growing up in Nigeria. He saw people build with few resources, and he recognized the true barrier to talent was access, which has continued to inform his mission across technology, public policy, and entrepreneurship.

“I kept recognizing the same pattern across Africa, the United States, and beyond. There are countless people with the capacity to solve major problems. What they often lack is proximity to the right opportunity,” he shared with AFROTECH™ in an interview.

Inegbedion has career experience that includes working with tech companies, such as AT&T and Amazon, as a program operations manager. He told AFROTECH™ that he has managed more than $1.2 million in project budgets and led initiatives benefiting thousands of individuals. He has also worked at Paycom as a product manager (SaaS, web, and mobile) and in the nonprofit space.

His career has also led him to attend and observe more than 50 events across five markets, including the UN General Assembly and the World Economic Forum. By observation, he learned that the desired incentives from being in some of the most powerful rooms — including jobs, investments, partnerships, speaking engagements, customers, board seats, and game-changing introductions — didn’t just come from showing up. It was about being intentional, whether that be through a direct intro or actions that occurred at the event’s conclusion.

“But alongside those experiences, I kept meeting brilliant founders, activists, students, and community leaders who had extraordinary ideas and absolutely no roadmap for getting into the rooms where decisions get made. They were pre-revenue founders with world-changing visions who simply lacked access to investors, media, corporate partners, and donors. That gap became impossible for me to ignore,” Inegbedion said.

ConcordeApp

This has informed his approach with the ConcordeApp, a Microsoft for Startups-backed relationship capital platform he founded that turns connections into predictable business results and revenue. Inegbedion also noted that it helps organizations track, measure, and improve partnerships that further growth and impact.

Inegbedion currently serves as head of happiness at the company. 

“We’re not [the] CEO, CFO. We’re saying as long as you can bring happiness to your client and the people who communicate or converse, focusing on the event intelligence and relationship capital, it’s really about the ease, connection, and value,” Inegbedion explained.

Semaform Foundation

In 2026, Inegbedion launched the Semaform Foundation, a nonprofit that leverages a technology called the Handshake Impact Engine. AI can match donors with nonprofits, owners, and underrepresented groups to allocate grant funding. According to its website, Semaform AI encourages “smart giving” through personalized giving recommendations, determining high-impact funding opportunities, and tracking outcomes in real time via a dashboard.

“I don’t believe AI replaces human relationships. I believe it amplifies them. AI can help us discover opportunities faster, identify alignment, summarize information, and create efficiencies. But trust remains human. The future belongs to people who know how to combine authentic relationship-building with emerging technologies,” he noted.

Handshake Summit & Awards

Furthermore, the ConcordeApp and Semaform Foundation share a unified mission to democratize access to relationships, visibility, and opportunity, Inegbedion said. This is being done through the Handshake Summit & Awards, a spinoff event held at global conferences that helps founders, investors, nonprofits, leaders, and communities find solutions to world problems. Their mission is rooted in the belief that game-changing opportunities start with a trusted introduction, he said.

“It’s all about monetizing relationships,” Inegbedion mentioned.

The summit and awards ceremony made its way to the 70th Annual Commission on the Status of Women at the United Nations, which gathered 200 leaders for the invite-only event at the United Nations Church Center, according to Bella Naija. The program has also hosted spinoff events at the World Economic Forum, and, most recently, the World Bank & IMF spring and annual meetings in Washington, DC.

According to information shared with AFROTECH™, its spinoff event at the World Bank & IMF Annual Meeting included a keynote by Oluseun Onigbinde, founder of BudgIT and also an event partner and chair of the Handshake Summit & Awards, who challenged attendees not to think of partnerships as performative. There was also a panel on real deal flow moderated by Inegbedion, which included panelists Dr. Femi Salami (managing consultant at MinePro), Kome Igbogidi (senior product manager of AI and conversational platforms at ServiceNow), and Dr. Oluseun D. Ojo (executive director of Centerbility of Maryland Inc.).

The event wrapped up with a tech showcase highlighting ConcordeApp, Semaform Foundation, Utiva, and CrossKudi, followed by an awards ceremony.

Beyond these efforts, the work continues. Inegbedion said he is working on a relationship intelligence tool that will be available in a hub via the ConcordeApp. It will include a notetaker and have a community so attendees know whom to connect with in rooms. This also could be helpful in other areas such as for carpooling, sharing rooms, setting up meetings, and more.