100m series global founders tiger stripes

IROKO has had its fair share of success however, halting its African business in 2020 to focus on its diasporan market showed worrying signs. Cheki sold its businesses in Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya and Uganda to Autochek after slowing sales. Wakanow underwent financial struggles and was in a midlife crisis before new leadership came to turn the tides. The firm would’ve probably wanted its portfolio companies to dominate their respective markets over the next decade before becoming billion-dollar investments, like their contemporaries in China and India. But it might not have felt the same to Tiger Global. The likes of Jobberman and Takealot would’ve thought of themselves as winners following acquisitions by Ringier One Africa Media (ROAM) and Naspers, respectively. And the bets from Tiger Global - and other investors such as Goldman Sachs, which backed Jumia in 2014, and Kinnevik AB, a Swedish firm that invested in IROKO and Konga - was that they would become big winners in the next 10 years.īut if the African tech scene has taught onlookers and participants anything, running consumer internet businesses in Africa is a bit of a nightmare - and a constant juggling act. This crop of consumer internet startups targeted industries across media and services such as jobs, commerce and travel. “Back then, a lot of people were not on the internet, so it was really about consumer services to get people on the internet,” said Opeyemi Awoyemi, whose company, Jobberman, received $1 million from Tiger Global.

Tiger Global’s earliest portfolio investments on the continent were in consumer internet companies. Its portfolio startups from this period include Nigerian companies - Jobberman, a job listing site Wakanow, a travel booking platform car marketplace Cheki IROKOtv, a video-on-demand platform for Nollywood content - and South African e-commerce platform Takealot. However, Tiger Global limited its activity in Africa from 2009 to 2014. In the aughts, Tiger Global participated in just 30 deals, according to The Generalist, a newsletter on topics around tech and crypto.īut in the next decade, Tiger Global increased its pace and deployed checks across 450 deals globally. Its lead investment in Flutterwave, which valued the fintech at $1 billion in March 2021, was a return from a long hiatus in investing in Africa. Of this lot, five were African startups: payments unicorn Flutterwave, credit-led neobank FairMoney, open finance startup Mono, card-issuing API Union54 and SMB credit provider Float Float’s round was announced in January but closed in late 2021. From that fund, Tiger Global made more private investments than any other firm last year - about 340 as of late December - roughly one investment per day, according to CB Insights. Last year, the New York-based firm, known for its famous bets on Stripe, JD.com, Meituan and Roblox, raised $6.7 billion for its Private Investment Partners 14 fund. But in terms of influence, speed and number of investments made since 2021, Tiger has led the pack alongside Sequoia. You can count on one hand the number of funds bigger than Tiger Global.

100m series global founders tiger stripes