Wowzi CEO Brian Mogeni and Co – Founder Mike Otieno/ Courtesy
Wowzi, a Kenyan startup has raised $2million (Sh226 million) to scale its influencer marketing platform across the African market.
The firm had previously raised $1.2million (Sh135.3 million) in an unannounced pre-seed funding bringing the total amount raised to date to $3.2million (Sh361.3 million).
“Now that Wowzi has created the technology platform to efficiently distribute and manage job offers to thousands of youth at a time, brands have an opportunity to engage directly with youth and offer meaningful gig work,” said Wowzi co-founder and CEO Brian Mogeni.
The funding was raised from New York-based venture capital fund, 4DX Ventures with participation from other Nigeria and Ghana-based firms such as LoftyInc Capital, Future Africa, Golden Palm Investments, To.org and Afropreneur Angels.
Mogeni said the funds will be used to roll out the platform in Nigeria, Ghana and South Africa before the end of March next year. It is currently operating in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania.
Wowzi’s online marketplace opens up linkages for everyday social media users to work with big brands, where they earn a living by sharing the brand’s message through different social media platforms.
The tech firm plans to use the new funding to boost partnerships with local, regional and multinational companies that deal in Fast Moving Consumer Goods, telcos, banks, creative agencies and development institutions to create digital jobs for youth in Africa.
The self-serve online platform allows brands of any size or industry to create and manage massive, distributed messaging campaigns utilising thousands of real, everyday customers and fans who get paid to offer authentic endorsements online for the products they already love.
Brands like Netflix, Safaricom, Diageo, Coca Cola, P&G and Absa Bank are now designing campaigns involving 5,000 or more people at a time.
Through scalable marketing automation, brands can run massive hyper-targeted campaigns that achieve higher Returns on Investment and consistently deliver better sales leads while increasing conversions.
Since it began operating two years ago, Wowzi on-boarded 70,000 influencers across Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania primarily through word of mouth.
“Our mission is to connect capacity to opportunity and that’s precisely what the platform does for emerging creators,” Wowzi co-founder Mike Otieno said.
The firm has set an ambitious goal of creating 1 million jobs for African youth in the coming year, having already delivered nearly 200,000 jobs in 2021 through paid gigs.
“Wowzi is not just about how many followers you have but rather about the power that an individual has within a unique community,” said Otieno.
