It starts as a scrappy blog of punchy hot takes by a hobbyist who gets tired of writing gadget reviews. Seven years later, it’s raising $2.3 million in seed financing from venture capitalists that believe it can be the most important publication covering the business and human impact of technology in Africa.
That’s one summary of the rise of Big Cabal Media, a Nigerian company that publishes the online outlet TechCabal, and Zikoko, a pop culture site that lights intergenerational Twitter fires with its blunt interviews and BuzzFeed-like quizzes. Tomiwa Aladekomo, the company’s CEO, says the funding round is “a signal that we are building something that matters,” describing his brands as experiments in understanding the future of media consumption in a youth-dominated Africa.
Experimentation has been key to Africa’s startup scene which received $5 billion from VCs in 2021. But media experimentation is a tricky business where household dollars prioritize food. What is the hack for sustainable influence for media startups?
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Originally published on Quartz : Original article