Media startups in Africa are increasingly getting the attention of VCs too! Following recent investments in Space In Africa and Stears, investors have again gone for Wee Media, the Nairobi-headquartered Africa-focused business and tech publication company and owner of brands like WeeTracker, AfriCo and a consumer electronics media platform Gadgets-Africa. The startup has announced it has raised $400k in a seed funding round. 

“With support from our diverse group of investors and a rockstar team, we have been able to pivot the company around in the last six months from an advertising-driven media company to a subscription-led data and intelligence company,” Rishabh Lawania, CEO of Wee Media said. 

Here Is What You Need To Know

• The latest investment came from Japanese investor Samurai Incubate; Hong Kong’s Grenfell Holdings; Texas-based asset management Knarrs Ventures; and Texas-based private investor Jim Waltrip.
• The startup will use the funding to transition from an advertising-driven media company to a subscription-led data and intelligence company.

Why The Investors Invested

Wee Media’s latest fundraise appears to have been inspired by the recent restructuring of the media outfit into a subscription-based digital media platform, away from its previous advertising model. 

Again, it also seems the startup leveraged the opportunity furnished by the focus of the Japanese venture capital firm Samurai Incubate Africa — which in January, 2020 announced the launch of their USD 18.250 Mn (JPY 2 Bn) second Africa focused fund, Samurai Africa Fund 2nd General Partnership with target on startups based in Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa. 

The ticket size for Samurai’s investments ranges between USD 50 K to 500 K for startups developing solutions for FinTech / insureTech, logistics, Medtech / healthcare, retail & e-commerce, agritech, transport & mobility, and entertainment sectors. 

The VC has previously invested in the Nigerian logistics startup, Eden Life; lending platform Evolve Credit, among others. (Startups still interested in checking out Samurai Incubate Africa may follow this link). 

“Not many investors look at Africa as a market and there is only a handful of people who think of data and intelligence as an investable space,” said Rishabh Lawania. “We have been lucky enough to attract global investors in the past and the present as we go on to raise our Pre-Series A to further strengthen our technology, expand our team and chase profitability as we enter our third year of operation soon.” 

Wee Media funding Wee Media funding

Read also: Nigerian Business News Startup Stears Business Raises $600,000 In Seed Round Of Funding

A Look At What The Startup Does

Founded in 2017 by the duo of Keshu Dubey and Rishabh Lawania, Wee Media is an Africa-focused media company. It currently operates WeeTracker.com, Gadgets-Africa.com and AfriCo.

According to Lawania, Wee Media has attracted global investors in the past, and will strengthen their technology, expand their team and pursue profitability as they raise their Pre-Series A.

“The vision of the company is to fix the broken business journalism in Africa and bridge the data gap,” he said. “For more many years, companies like Dow Jones, Bloomberg, and Pitchbook have been tracking the global private markets but African data and content are considerably ignored. There’s so much happening in the PE/VC and M/A space across the continent and we are trying to be the platform that puts Africa first.”

Charles Rapulu Udoh

Charles Rapulu Udoh is a Lagos-based lawyer who has advised startups across Africa on issues such as startup funding (Venture Capital, Debt financing, private equity, angel investing etc), taxation, strategies, etc. He also has special focus on the protection of business or brands’ intellectual property rights ( such as trademark, patent or design) across Africa and other foreign jurisdictions.
He is well versed on issues of ESG (sustainability), media and entertainment law, corporate finance and governance.
He is also an award-winning writer