Wowzi, a Kenyan company, has received a $3.2 million investment to help it expand its influencer campaign operations
Wowzi, a Kenyan company, has received a $3.2 million investment to help it expand its influencer campaign operations
Wowzi, a Kenyan startup that develops scalable influencer campaigns, has raised a total of $3.2 million in venture capital funding to date. In total, $2 million has been raised in seed funding, with another $1.2 million having been raised in pre-seed funding.
The seed round was led by 4DX Ventures, with participation from To.org, Golden Palm Investments, LoftyInc Capital, Afropreneur Angels, and Future Africa, among others. Also contributing to this article were Christina Sass, co-founder of Andela, as well as former Andela executives Jessica Chervin and Justin Ziegler. Wowzi also received an investment from Johnny Falla, who currently serves as the company's chief development and growth officer (CDO).
Wowzi is already in operation in Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania, all of which are East African countries, and plans to expand to more countries. With this investment, the startup intends to concentrate its efforts on West Africa, specifically Nigeria and Ghana, as well as South Africa and the rest of Africa. Aside from that, the startup intends to broaden the scope of its product offerings and features.
Influencers received $23 million
Wowzi was established in 2019 by Brian Mogeni, Hassan Bashir, and Mike Otieno. It is a digital advertising marketplace that connects brands, advertising agencies, and small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) with social media influencers at the nano, micro, and mega (celebrity) levels on social media.
The startup is primarily interested in social media users who have a minimum of 250 followers, referred to as nano influencers, and fewer than 10,000 followers, referred to as micro influencers, on their accounts. Prior to hiring these influencers to conduct marketing campaigns for brands on social media platforms such as Tik Tok, Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram, Wowzi conducts a thorough investigation of their backgrounds and social media accounts.
For its clients, Wowzi creates distributed messaging campaigns by leveraging the endorsements provided by thousands of real, everyday customers and fans who are compensated in exchange for providing authentic endorsements on the internet. In order to identify their preferred influencers, brands can use Wowzi to filter them based on their gender, location, profession, or income level.
Influencers in East Africa have already signed up for the startup, which has primarily grown through word of mouth. Additionally, it has completed 15,000 campaigns for more than 200 clients, including Netflix, according to the company. Wowzi has completed over 200,000 paid gigs, paying influencers Sh5 million ($44k) per week, for a total of Sh260 million ($23m) per year. Wowzi pays influencers Sh5 million ($44k) per week, for a total of Sh260 million ($23m) per year.
One million job oppotunities
A number of African markets, including Mauritius, Mozambique, Zambia, and Cameroon are where Wowzi has had great success with its marketing campaigns. The company's current goal is to transition from being solely an influencer marketing platform to becoming a jobs aggregation platform..
Recently, brands have been able to post market research jobs that include influencer participation in polls or surveys, which is a first for the industry.
The startup intends to expand its partnerships with local, regional, and multinational FMCG companies, telecommunications companies, banks, creative agencies, and development institutions in order to create more job opportunities for young people in the future..
