iROKOtv is about to take their domination to a whole new level as they have received $19million in funding.
iROKOtv, today announces multiple deals totaling $19m, both in content development and in capital funding. French media giant CANAL+, together with existing investor Kinnevik AB, are investing in addition to iROKO’s own cash flow to give the leading African tech & entertainment company the platform to scale its operations and expand aggressively across the continent.
The bulk of the new investment will be used for the financing of local content and production, as well as some product and engineering teams in Lagos and New York. With the new funds, iROKO is aiming to produce at least 300 hours of original content in 2016 and then go on to double that by 2018.
Nollywood currently stands as the world’s second largest film industry in terms of output. Nollywood also employs one million people and constitutes about 1.04% of Nigeria’s GDP. iROKO, has previously raised $25m from international investors, including Tiger Global, Kinnevik and RISE Capital. The technology and entertainment company is a leading Nollywood film, TV, content producer and platform provider and currently has a mobile app for Africa, holds distribution deals with Canal+, BA, Emirates, Nollywood TV and Lebara and has two Linear TV channels on Africa’s Star Times.
With Netflix’s recent introduction to the African continent and iROKOtv’s new funding, it shall be interesting to see who wins the battle in Africa.