Here’s The 2018 Funding Report For Nigerian Startups And Only Two Media Startups Have Been Funded So Far

Here’s The 2018 Funding Report For Nigerian Startups And Only Two Media Startups Have Been Funded So Far

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+ Our friends at Tech Point has released the 2018 funding report for Nigerian Startups and only two media startups have been funded so far.

The startup growth in Africa is coming up and taking shape as they keep attracting international investors from VCs to Angel to Grants.

For 2017, the total amount raised in Africa alone reached US$560m as reported by Partech Ventures in 2017 with these three countries taking the larger share – South Africa, Nigeria, and Kenya accounting for 76% of the total funding.

One of the top tech blogs in Nigeria, Tech Point, released a 2018 funding report for the second quarter with a focus on the Nigerian startup scene, which is a follow-up to the Q1 report earlier released.

According to the report, "a total of $73,685,003 was raised by 41 startups, mostly from foreign investors. In value, grants make up about 13.9% of the total amount raised".

According to the report, grants is still the number one form of funding in Nigeria with the other funding model coming behind.

Comparing the amount raised by other sectors to that of the media and entertainment industry and the frequency they got funded, it is immediately clear how much more the media and entertainment industry has to do.

The two media startups are Asoko Insights and Touchabl that raised US$3.6m and US$20k respectively, which is about 3% of the total Q2 funding. 

Fintech and Agriculture are at the forefront of being funded the most and it shows no sign of slowing down.

Two years ago Big Cabal, a media and entertainment startup, owners of the Tech Cabal and Zikoko brands were able to raise money from the Lagos Angel Network and the Green Capital is also an investor.

Since then, Big Cabal has gone ahead to expand their offerings, including setting up their in-house video content production studio, even though they kind of hit some roadblock that caused flying questions if they’re shutting down. Anyway, they are back now for good and has restructured, bringing onboard a new CEO – Tomiwa Aladekomo from Ventra Media Group where he was the Managing Director to forge a new direction for the media startup - Big Cabal.

Recently, Facebook teamed up with Afrinolly to train over 3000 content creators and 2000 journalist as part of their plans in moving into the video content space to rival YouTube and the other OTT platforms.

This is a good move and we need more recognition for the media and entertainment industry. And we do not want all the money flowing into the industry be done in the dark.

For instance, Linda Ikeji launched her VOD, Linda Ikeji TV mobile platform with over N500m. That’s some huge sum there but was she the only investor or there are other investors hiding their faces behind her brand?

The whole 'Koko' (meaning crux of the matter) is that more investors should start looking more into funding startups in the media and entertainment space so they don’t die of loneliness building their companies alone.

You can download and make sense of the 2018 Q2 funding report by Techpoint here.