EXCLUSIVE: Iroko Partners Is Working On A Massive Funding Round

[TCL]

EXCLUSIVE: After A Blockbuster 2011, Iroko Partners Is Working On A Massive Funding Round

We just got word from a reliable source that Iroko Partners, the company that brought Nollywood movies online is working on a massive funding round — close to $10 million.

I asked founder and CEO, Jason Njoku about this and he didn't comment on it. But, a source close to the transaction confirmed that the deal is about to be closed.

I'm not surprised since Njoku has been running amok far away in San Francisco and Silicon Valley for the past weeks, possibly having lunch with the Valley's heavyweight VCs and angel investors.

At the moment, we're not sure who's involved in the funding round or what the funding would be used for. But my guess is that Iroko Partners could be looking for international expansion, as it already has an office in London and could be firming up its staff strength, following a recent hiring spree.

Founded in 2010 by Jason Njoku with initial funding of $100,000 from his business partner, Bastian Gotter, the company has the exclusive rights to distribute all of Nollywood movies digitally and boasts the largest collection of movies available anywhere, organized in one place.

In 2011, Iroko Partners successfully launched, arguably, the three most exciting platforms of the Nigerian Internet entertainment space, namely, iROKOtv.com, iROKtv and iROKING.com.

iROKOtv, its Nollywood movies streaming platform, alone, attracted about 1 million visitors in its first month of launch, making it the fastest growing internet platform in 2011.

During 2011, Iroko Partners generated approximately 152 million views across its NollywoodLove, YorubaLove and short-clip channels. It is expected that this could grow to over 300 million views across its YouTube channels and movies channel.

Iroko Partners currently has over 60 staff and has made over $1 million in revenues mainly from adverts on movies on its Youtube channel, NollywoodLove alone.

No doubt, the year 2011 was a fantastic one for Iroko Partners. But it appears that it would be a super-fantastic year ahead for the digital media and entertainment company.

techloy.com