Investment
Africa’s Tech Media are Plotting to be as Influential as the Startups They Cover By Alexander Onukwue
where household dollars prioritize food. What is the hack for sustainable influence for media startups? True media influence goes beyond news TechCabal isn’t alone in documenting African startups. In Nigeria, there’s Techpoint which hosted Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey in 2019, while iAfrikan Tomiwa Aladekomo, seated in the center, with some members of the covers the scene leadership team at Big Cabal Media. BIG CABAL MEDIA from South Africa. Weetracker, which charges subscriptions, is based in Kenya. IT STARTS AS A SCRAPPY blog of punchy hot Each of these help draw serious attention to takes by a hobbyist who gets tired of writing gadget reviews. Seven years later, it’s raising $2.3 million in African startups, yet some observers still see seed financing from venture capitalists that believe an overt focus on fundraising news that leaves it can be the most important publication covering a knowledge gap in how the world understands the business and human impact of technology in African innovation. It’s leading to new competition from Substack newsletters, including one by Africa. That’s one summary of the rise of Big Cabal Emeka Ajene, co-founder of ride-hailing app Media, a Nigerian company that publishes the Gozem that operates in francophone west and online outlet TechCabal, and Zikoko, a pop culture central Africa. “The most influential content goes beyond site that lights intergenerational Twitter fires with its blunt interviews and BuzzFeed-like quizzes. fundraising or launch announcements to showcase Tomiwa Aladekomo, the company’s CEO, says innovative or pioneering thinking that offers new the funding round is “a signal that we are building insights to readers,” Ajene, whose newsletter is something that matters,” describing his brands as called Afridigest, tells Quartz. David Adeleke, another Substacker who writes experiments in understanding the future of media Communique on media and tech (and, like me, is a consumption in a youth-dominated Africa. Experimentation has been key to Africa’s startup TechCabal alum), says “much of what tech media scene which received $5 billion from VCs in 2021. currently does is reactive.” As such, African tech But media experimentation is a tricky business publications are not doing enough of the agenda80
March-April 2022
DAWN
www.africabusinessassociation.org
