Innovation in Africa has continued to grow with more funding coming in last year despite the pandemic where many expected it to make funding plunge. In 2020, entertainment startups in Africa had a great year raising $13.9 million in funding which is 19 times more than what they received in the previous year.
Speaking of African startups, fintechs are highly popular and remain the kings in funding majorly because Financial technology has changed how people transact and have now become the backbone for many businesses in Africa today.
Also read: African tech startups with most capital in Africa are making remarkable strides in Africa.
List of entertainment startups in Africa
Mdundo is a Kenyan based platform that allows users to download their favourite African music to their phones. The music can be paid for with local mobile money payment methods. Local artists can sign up and upload their music to the platform. It raised the most funding among the entertainment startups in Africa with $ 6.4million from IPO and Kepple Africa Ventures.
Mdundo was established in 2013 by Martin Nielsen, a Danish expat, it provides access to the continent’s favorite music to more than 6 million monthly active users. It was started to mainly fight piracy and pay content creators fair and transparent royalties.
Carry1st is a mobile gaming company founded in South Africa serving the first generation of African smartphone users that has so far reached over 1.5 million users across the region.
According to Disrupt Africa, the company plans to partner with international studios to launch multiple games in 2020 and scale its audience to over one million monthly active users, and with that in mind has banked US$2.5 million in seed funding to recruit top-tier talent, invest in platform technology, and publish new content.
Founded in 2017, StarNews Mobile is a network of mobile video channels that allows celebrities and brands to monetize their fan bases in Africa. The Ivory Coast-based startup raised $1.8 million in funding last year from I&P and Expert DOJO.
StarNews Mobile has figured out how to adapt video streaming to the African mass market by working with top local and international celebrities to create subscription-based short-video content, delivered directly to consumers’ mobile devices. StarNews Mobile has enjoyed tremendous growth and reached over 1 million subscribers within 9 months of pilot deployment.
Sea Monster, a South Africa based startup secured $1 million in funding in 2020 from Edge Growth’s Vumela Fund. The animation and gaming company was founded in 2011 and uses AR/VR technology to develop new and advanced methods of communication and education solutions for corporations.
Eksab is a fantasy sports platform founded in Egypt that secured $500,000 in funding that it believes will help it reach more football fans across the Middle East and Africa. It was founded in 2017 and has over 80,000 users making around 6.5 million predictions.
Eksab is a Daily Fantasy Sports (DFS) platform that allows football fans to join competitions, predict real-world football matches and challenge their friends and win prizes through a mobile application.
The gaming startup based in Egypt raised a total of $400,000 in funding last year. Founded in 2015 by Youssef Mohsen, Anubis is an esports team that participates in competitive video game tournaments (for different game titles) at the regional and international levels. The startup said it is the current regional champions of Crossfire and are in the playoffs for the world championship, which it said, makes it the first team in the history of Africa to reach such a high placement.
Other entertainment startups in Africa.
Entertainment startups in Africa are however not in the spotlight as much as their other colleagues and yet they continue to play a huge role in the entertainment industry in Africa. If prioritized, they could revolutionize the entertainment industry in Africa and worldwide.