Frequently Asked Questions

Oduma Corp is Africa's innovation and investment platform. It connects innovators — people with ideas, inventions, and projects — with investors who are looking for opportunities to fund and collaborate. Users can share projects, exchange messages, attend virtual meetings, and build professional networks.

Click Register on the homepage or login page. Fill in your name, email, password, and select your role — Innovator or Investor. Your username is auto-generated from your name. After registering you'll land on the main feed, and a guided tour will start automatically to help you get around.

Use the top navigation bar to access main sections. On mobile and tablet, tap the menu icon to open the sidebar drawer which lists all pages. Key sections include:

• Feed (/app/) — Posts and updates
• Innovators — Browse innovator profiles
• Investors — Browse investor profiles
• Inbox — Direct messages
• Dashboard — Manage your projects or investments

Yes! New users get an automatic tour right after registering. You can also restart it anytime by going to the sidebar menu → Platform Tour, or by clicking the purple map button that appears in the bottom-right corner after scrolling down on any page.

Yes. The platform is fully responsive and works on all screen sizes. On phones and tablets, the navigation moves into a slide-out sidebar drawer accessible from the menu icon in the top-left corner.

Go to Edit Profile from the sidebar menu or by visiting /edit-profile/. You can update your name, bio, industry, company, profile photo, and contact information. A complete profile significantly increases your visibility to other users.

Your username is auto-generated from your first and last name when you register (e.g. john.doe). You can see it in your profile. At this time, usernames cannot be changed manually — contact support via the feedback button if you need assistance.

Visit Edit Profile and click the profile picture area to upload a new photo. Supported formats are JPG, PNG, and GIF. Your photo appears on your profile, posts, messages, and search results.

There are two main roles:

• Innovator — Creates and showcases projects, patents, and inventions. Can receive investment proposals and collaborate with investors.
• Investor — Browses projects, sends investment proposals, expresses interest, and collaborates with innovators.

Your role determines which dashboard you see and which actions are available to you.

You can start a conversation in several ways:

• Visit someone's profile and click the Message button.
• Click Message on an innovator or investor card in the browse pages.
• From the Inbox, use the New Message panel to search for and message any user.

All conversations are stored in your Inbox.

All your conversations are in the Inbox. You can access it from the top navigation bar (the envelope icon with an unread badge) or from the sidebar menu. Unread messages are highlighted and counted in the badge.

Yes. In the chat window, your sent messages show a single grey checkmark (✓) when delivered and a double green checkmark (✓✓) when the other person has read the message.

The chat polls for new messages every 4 seconds automatically. New messages from the other person will appear without you needing to refresh the page.

You can schedule a meeting from multiple places:

• Click Schedule Call on any user's profile page.
• Click the Call button on an innovator or investor card.
• Click the video camera icon inside any chat conversation.
• Go to Meetings and click New Meeting.

A modal will appear letting you choose an Instant Call or schedule for a specific date and time.

Meetings are powered by Zoom. When a meeting is created, a Zoom room is automatically generated. The meeting host receives a Start (Host) link and participants receive a Join link. Clicking either button opens Zoom in a new tab or the Zoom app. The other participant also receives a notification with the join link.

Visit Meetings from the navigation. Your dashboard also has a Meetings tab showing your recent meetings with status, participants, and quick join links.

Cloud recording is enabled by default on all meetings. After the meeting ends, the recording becomes available through the meeting details page. Click Check Recordings to view, play, or download the recorded session.

Go to your Dashboard and click + Add New Project. Fill in the title, description, industry, and status. You can also add photos and documents. Projects appear on your profile and in the feed where investors can find them.

Your projects appear in the main feed, on your public profile, and in the Recommended for You section of investor dashboards. Projects with more likes, ratings, and interested users get ranked higher in recommendations. Make sure your project description is detailed and your profile is complete.

When an investor sends a proposal, you'll receive a notification. Go to Notifications to view it, or check Proposals for a full list. Click Reply to open a direct chat with the investor. After replying, you can hide the notification using the Hide button.

Projects can have the following statuses: Draft (work in progress, not yet ready), In Progress (actively being developed), and Completed. You can filter your dashboard by status and update it as your project evolves.

Browse the main Feed for posts and projects. Your Investor Dashboard shows a Recommended for You section with promoted projects ranked by engagement. You can also browse Innovators and view their project portfolios directly.

On any project post in the feed, click the Send Proposal or Collaborate button. Fill in your message, proposed amount, and terms. The innovator will be notified and can reply via chat. You can track all your proposals from the Investor Dashboard → Proposals tab.

Your Investor Dashboard has dedicated tabs for Proposals, Involvement (collaborations and patent requests), Interested Projects, and Pending items. The Meetings tab shows all your scheduled and past video calls.

Visit any user's profile and click + Connect. They will receive a connection request notification. Once they accept, you'll both appear in each other's network. You can also see pending requests in your Notifications.

Go to My Network from the sidebar menu. Here you can see all your connections, pending requests, and people you may know. You can also disconnect from users from their profile page.

No. You can message any user on the platform directly without needing to be connected first. Connections are for building your visible network — messaging is open to everyone.