Very few businesses can boast of the investment milestones made by significant number of Nigerian tech start-ups in 2016. From the first month up to the very last month, the start-ups were making positive news. Investors came from within Nigeria and outside the country drawn by the energy, passion and creativity of the start-ups.
Stakeholders in the industry who spoke to BusinessDay said there is every possibility that the trend will continue in 2017. Gossy Ukanwoke, founder of Nigeria’s first online university, Beni American University, said “The technology space will experience a lot of investments.” The investments, he said, will not come from “traditional investors, it will also come from entrepreneurs in the African technology space seeding out money to invest in smaller businesses or pulling them.”
That prediction appears to be happening already and also forms the basis of our recommendation for top funding prospects in 2017.
The first is social media funding campaign. On January 1, 2017, popular social media expert and blogger, Japheth Omojuwa began a N1 million funding campaign he themed ‘Small Business Support’. To qualify for the fund, the blogger stated that participants (mainly his followers) are to tweet the amount they need, what business they want to use the business for and two images – a munched tweet posted before December, and a picture that answers the question ‘what do you do?’. Although the fund is for small businesses, several tech start-ups have already shown their interest in the fund.
It is not the first time start-ups will leverage the social media to get funding or the first time an individual will create a funding campaign for start-ups on social media. In 2016, Regina George a Nigerian athlete heading to Rio Olympics managed to raise $3,300 out of the $4,000 she wanted in four days. You can start your own campaign or be on the lookout for such campaigns.
Second funding prospect is the N1 billion Social Innovation Fund launched in 2015 by the Co-Creation Hub in partnership with Venture Garden Group, Omidyar Network and the Bank of Industry. The bank is to encourage young entrepreneurs with solutions to local problems, with a particular focus on “next generation infrastructure”. Although applications opened in January with projection to disburse between $50,000 and $150,000 to individual start-ups, no deadline was announced. Hence, start-ups may still apply for the fund.
Finally you can apply directly to venture capitalists (VCs) for funding. VCs such as Seed Afrika and Malaik are always on the lookout for start-ups.
