Jason Njoku

Last updated

Jason Njoku
Jason Njoku 01.jpg
Njoku in 2020
Born
Jason Chukwuma Njoku

(1980-12-11) 11 December 1980 (age 43)
London, England
Occupation Entrepreneur
Known forFounder of iROKOtv
Spouse
​
(m. 2012)​
Website jason.com.ng

Jason Chukwuma Njoku (born 11 December 1980) is a British businessman. He is the co-founder and CEO of iROKOtv, a video-on-demand service for Nigerian movies. [1] [2]

Contents

A self-proclaimed serial entrepreneur, iROKOtv was Njoku's 11th attempt at starting a business. He came up with the idea of launching a new distribution platform for Nollywood whilst living at home with his mum, aged 30, after a number of failed enterprises. [3]

Early life and education

Jason was born and raised in Deptford, Southeast London, his mother raised him and his three sisters and brother by herself, whilst working a full-time job in the National Health Service. He attended school in London, then moved to a village in Nigeria from the age of 12 to 15. After he returned to the United Kingdom, he attended college to complete his A-Levels, before securing a place at The University of Manchester where he read Chemistry. He graduated in 2005 with a 2:1 and launched Brash Magazine, a student publication which ran for three years before it closed in 2008. [4] [5] [6]

Career

iROKO

After a number of failed enterprises between 2005 and 2010, which included a blog network, a T-shirt business and a web design company, [7] Njoku moved back home into his mother's house in Deptford. It was there that he came up with the idea of starting a Nollywood online distribution business, "The West had Hulu and Netflix – Africa had nothing", notes Njoku. [8] Having studied the industry from afar, he flew to Lagos, thanks to the financial help of his best friend Bastian Gotter, a fellow University of Manchester graduate, and started purchasing the online licenses of Nollywood movies. [9] He worked from a two-bedroom apartment in Festac Town, Lagos, [10] and struck a deal with YouTube in Germany to be the official channel partner for Nollywood company. [11] [ failed verification ]

In 2010, Njoku and his former partner Bastian Gotter [12] launched NollywoodLove, a YouTube channel, which was profitable within two months of launch. [13] That same year, thanks to an article by Sarah Lacy who worked at the time for Tech Crunch, NollywoodLove caught the attention of US-based venture capital fund Tiger Global who were interested in expanding their reach in emerging markets. [14]

Series A investment of $3 million was secured from Tiger Global in 2010 and the company launched a stand-alone video-on-demand movie platform, iROKOtv, on 1 December 2011. The site drew in viewers from 178 countries around the world. [15] Njoku and Gotter have since gone on to raise an additional $22 million from international VCs, with inclusion from Investment AB Kinnevik and RISE Capital [16] and have used the investment to build an extensive film catalog of 5,000 movies, [17] launch offices in Lagos, New York, and London and invest in improving the company's technology resource. Iroko has gone to make other funding investment totaling $40 million [18]

In 2015, Njoku decided to focus the company's attention on an Android mobile app, [19] [20] rather than a streaming platform to combat broadband infrastructure problems that Africa poses.

In July 2012, he was cited by Forbes Africa as one of the 'Ten Young African Millionaires to Watch'. [21] On 29 August 2013, Njoku was named as the CNBC All Africa Business Awards Young Leader of the Year for West Africa. [22] [23] He has also been named as one of Fast Company's Top 1000 Most Creative People in Business. [24]

Spark

In August 2013, alongside his business partners Bastian Gotter and Mary Remmy Njoku, Njoku launched a $2 million investment vehicle for Lagos-based Internet start-ups called Spark. [25] The company initially invested in 11 companies, including a drinks distribution company called Drinks.ng, a real-estate and property online letting agency called ToLet.com.ng, and a hotel room booking site, called Hotels.ng, which has gone on to raise $1.2 million in VC investment from EchoVC Pan-Africa Fund and Omidyar Network. [26] In 2015, Jason Njoku in a blog post officially announced they're letting go of four startups considered failed businesses: [27] Bus.com.ng (an online bus ticketing service ), Insured.ng (an insurance comparison platform), Giddimint.com.ng (an online fashion store) and Christians.ng, an online dating platform for Christians.

Personal life

Njoku married Nollywood film star and producer Mary Remmy Njoku in Festac Town, Lagos, on 18 August 2012. [28] [29] They welcomed their first son, Jason Obinna Njoku, on 30 July 2013, [30] a second child, Nwakaego Annabel Njoku, was born on 24 August 2015 [31] and a third child, Nnenna Amber Njoku born on 4 August 2017. [32]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Meltwater Entrepreneurial School of Technology</span> School in Accra, Ghana

The Meltwater Entrepreneurial School of Technology (MEST) is an Africa-wide technology entrepreneur training program, seed fund, and incubator headquartered in Accra, Ghana. The three-phased institution was founded in 2008 to provide training, investment, and mentoring for aspiring technology entrepreneurs with the goal of creating globally successful companies that create wealth and jobs locally in Africa.

iROKO Partners is an online media distribution company focused on the Nigerian entertainment industry. The company was established in September 2010 and is headquartered in Lagos, with a branch in London, United Kingdom. The company is led by its co-founders Jason Njoku (CEO) and Bastian Gotter along with major investor Nazar Yasin. iROKO Partners offers a range of online media products including its movie streaming website named IROKOtv focused on Nollywood Film productions, and 'iROKING', a Nigerian music streaming platform. Other web brands are NollywoodLove and YorubaLove which operate on the YouTube video platform.

irokotv Web platform

irokotv is a web platform that provides paid-for Nigerian films on-demand. It is one of Africa's first mainstream online movie streaming websites, providing access to over 5,000 Nollywood film titles. irokotv is a part of iROKO Limited, which is one of Africa's entertainment companies.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">AngelList</span> Website connecting startups, angel investors, and job-seekers

AngelList is an American software company for fundraising and connecting startups, angel investors, and limited partners. Founded in 2010, it started as an online introduction board for tech startups that needed seed funding. Since 2015, the site allows startups to raise money from angel investors free of charge. Created by serial entrepreneur Naval Ravikant and Babak Nivi in 2010, Avlok Kohli has been leading AngelList as its CEO since 2019.

Konga.com is a Nigerian e-commerce company founded in July 2012 with headquarters in Gbagada, Lagos State. It offers a third-party online marketplace, as well as first-party direct retail spanning various categories including consumer electronics, fashion, home appliances, books, children's items, computers & accessories, phones and tablets, health care, and personal care products. The company also has a logistics service (EXPRESS), which enables the timely shipment and delivery of packages to customers.

Rok Studios is a Nigerian film production company. Its production studios is based in Anthony Village, Lagos. The company was founded in August 2013 by Mary Remmy Njoku. In addition to its numerous films, Rok Studios has produced over 12 TV series.

Poisoned Bait is a Ghanaian drama television series which debuted on IROKOtv on February 14, 2015, and Africa Magic in 2015. The 30 minute series is directed by Leila Djansi and produced by Turning Point Media and licensed to IROKOtv. It stars Gideon Okeke, Marie Humber, Mary Remmy Njoku, Adjetey Anang, John Dumelo, Ama K. Abebrese and Edward Agyekum Kufuor.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Blossom Chukwujekwu</span> Nigerian actor

Blossom Chukwujekwu is a Nigerian actor, who made his professional acting debut in 2009. In 2015, he won the Best Supporting Actor Award at the Africa Magic Viewers Choice Awards.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hotels.ng</span> Nigerian travel websites

Hotels.ng is a Nigerian online hotels booking agency which was launched in 2013. The platform was founded by Mark Essien who hails from Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria and claims to list over 7,138 hotels from 320 cities in Nigeria.

Co-Creation Hub, commonly referred to as Cc-HUB or the HUB, is a technology-oriented centre located in Yaba, a district of Lagos. Founded in 2010 by Bosun Tijani and Femi Longe, it provides a platform where technology-oriented people share ideas to solving social problems in Nigeria.

Mark Anthony Essien is a Nigerian entrepreneur, software developer and startup investor. He is the founder and CEO of Hotels.ng, one of the first online hotel booking websites in Nigeria. Before he founded Hotels.ng in 2013,Essien had previously built a file sharing software called Gnumm, followed by a language learning startup called Ingolingo.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">PayU</span> Fintech company that provides payment solutions to online merchants.

PayU is a Netherlands-based payment service provider to online merchants. The company was founded in 2002, and is headquartered in Hoofddorp. It allows online businesses to accept and process payments through payment methods that can be integrated with web and mobile applications. As of 2018, the service is available in 17 countries. The firm is owned by the Naspers Group, which also owns a stake in one of its sister companies, Tencent.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mary Njoku</span> Nigerian actress (born 1985)

Mary Remmy Njoku(born 20 March 1985) is a Nigerian actress, producer, content creator and founder of the ROK TV Channels and CEO of ROK Studios, which she founded in 2013. With a catalogue of over three thousand (3000) hours of original content produced, that includes movies and TV series, ROK has in a short span become a leading producer of family friendly content and entertainment.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chukwuemeka Fred Agbata</span> Nigerian technology entrepreneur and TV presenter (born 1979)

Chukwuemeka Fred Agbata Jnr. also known as CFA is a Nigerian journalist and a former television presenter at Channels TV. He is into digital marketing and known as a technology entrepreneur with focus on business coaching and public speaking. He hosted the first virtual telehealth conference of Nigeria’s telemedicine company, CareClick with the theme ‘The Future Of Healthcare Today’ on 24 September 2020. He was involved in various ICT-related companies that contributed to the development of the Founder Institute. He is known as the founder of Pacer Venture and has links with Climate Action Africa. He is the MD/CEO of Anambra State ICT Agency.

Dele Bakare is a Nigerian software developer and entrepreneur from Ibadan, Oyo State in Nigeria. He is the founder and CEO of Findworka, a Nigerian startup that hires software developers and builds custom software products. He formerly served as a senior software developer at Infinion Technologies and technology lead at BudgIT. In 2016, he was nominated for the Future Awards Africa Prize for Science and Technology.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Onyeka Akumah</span> Nigerian businessman

Onyeka Akumah is a Nigerian technology entrepreneur with a focus on transportation, agriculture, real estate, and media sectors. He is popularly known as the founder of Treepz Inc. Prior to founding his company in 2019, Onyeka Akumah was the CEO of Farmcrowdy. He is credited to have been involved in the success of various tech and e-commerce companies in Africa where he held positions and contributed to their growths.

Tizeti is a fixed wireless broadband Internet service provider operated by Tizeti Inc, using Wireless to provide unlimited internet to residential and small business customers in Africa. It is also used to connect its base stations to customer buildings. Tizeti currently operates within Lagos, Ogun, Port Harcourt, Benin, Oyo, and Accra.

Shola Akinlade is a Nigerian software engineer and entrepreneur. He is the co-founder and CEO of Paystack, the company that he founded with Ezra Olubi. Paystack was acquired by Stripe in 2020 for $200m.

The uLesson Group commonly known as uLesson, is a Nigerian edtech company, also operating as an online education platform through uLesson Education mobile application for primary and secondary E-learning. It was founded in 2019 by Sim Shagaya.

Kobo360 is an African tech-enabled digital logistics platform, headquartered in Lagos and connects cargo owners to truck owners, with a physical presence in 6 African countries, including Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, Burkina Faso, and Ivory Coast.

References

  1. ↑ Okwumbu-Imafidon, Ruth (30 April 2022). "After failing many times, Jason Njoku finally built a multimillion-dollar company". Nairametrics. Retrieved 4 October 2024.
  2. ↑ "Jason Njoku: The Iroko Man Grows Blackbet – THISDAYLIVE". www.thisdaylive.com. Retrieved 4 October 2024.
  3. ↑ BBC African Dream – Jason Njoku
  4. ↑ BBC – Making a fortune by distributing Nigerian films online
  5. ↑ "Nigeria's film industry: a potential gold mine?". Africa Renewal. 11 April 2013. Retrieved 11 February 2021.
  6. ↑ "JASON NJOKU, A SUCCESS STORY". Techgist Africa | Africa Leading Tech News, Reviews and Tips. 17 July 2017. Archived from the original on 30 September 2021. Retrieved 11 February 2021.
  7. ↑ Tech Loy – "Moving Back In With My Mum Was Kind Of Humiliating" – Jason Njoku
  8. ↑ Akilah Net – iROKOtv’s Millionaire Founder on Starting a Company, Staying the Course, and Sailing Past Failure
  9. ↑ "Iroko's Jason Njoku Is Creating The Next Netflix in Nigeria". Fast Company. 18 March 2013. Retrieved 19 July 2017.
  10. ↑ "Has Nollywood streaming lost its appeal? – Ventures Africa". VenturesAfrica.com. 10 May 2015. Retrieved 19 July 2017.
  11. ↑ Forbes Africa – Jason Njoku: South London’s Mr Nollywood Archived 1 December 2017 at the Wayback Machine
  12. ↑ "IrokoTv Co-Founder Bastian Gotter Leaves Company To Pursue Startup Investments". Forbes. 30 January 2017.
  13. ↑ "Iroko Partners: Demand proves insatiable for Nollywood on the net". Financial Times. Retrieved 19 July 2017.
  14. ↑ Lacy, Sarah (14 May 2011). "You Think Hollywood Is Rough? Welcome to the Chaos, Excitement and Danger of Nollywood – TechCrunch". TechCrunch.com. Retrieved 19 July 2017.
  15. ↑ Reuters – Nigerian films get boost from UK-based online startup iROKOtv
  16. ↑ Dow Jones Venture Wire – Africa's Answer to Netflix, iROKO Raises $8M to Scale
  17. ↑ IT Web Africa – Interview: iROKO CEO Jason Njoku Archived 24 February 2020 at the Wayback Machine
  18. ↑ Oluwafemi, Babakole (25 January 2016). "iROKOtv Just Raised $19 Million, Total Funding Now At $40 Million". TechCabal.com.
  19. ↑ Jason.com.ng – .Com. Goodbye Archived 21 August 2015 at the Wayback Machine
  20. ↑ "App-Only iROKOtv is live – TechCabal". TechCabal.com. 2 July 2015. Retrieved 19 July 2017.
  21. ↑ Nsehe, Mfonobong (11 July 2012). "Ten Young African Millionaires To Watch". Forbes. Retrieved 19 July 2017.
  22. ↑ Human IPO – iROKOtv CEO wins CNBC award
  23. ↑ Okwumbu-Imafidon, Ruth (30 April 2022). "After failing many times, Jason Njoku finally built a multimillion-dollar company". Nairametrics. Retrieved 31 August 2023.
  24. ↑ "Most Creative People in Business 1000: The Complete List". Fast Company. 29 January 2014. Retrieved 19 July 2017.
  25. ↑ Pando Daily – Pando Daily – Nigerian movie mogul raises $2 million more for local angel investing Archived 28 June 2015 at the Wayback Machine
  26. ↑ Shu, Catherine (26 May 2015). "Nigeria's Hotels.ng Grabs $1.2M To Expand Listings Across Africa – TechCrunch". TechCrunch.com. Retrieved 19 July 2017.
  27. ↑ "Jason Njoku pulls the plug on 4 more SPARK-invested startups". Techpoint.ng. 18 June 2015. Retrieved 22 March 2017.
  28. ↑ "8 things you didn't know about Jason Njoku, founder of iROKOtv". TechPoint.ng. 3 March 2017. Retrieved 19 July 2017.
  29. ↑ "Wedding Photos: Mr and Mrs Jason Njoku". LindaIkeji.Blogspot.co.uk. August 2012. Retrieved 19 July 2017.
  30. ↑ Bella Naija – It’s a Boy for Tech Media Mogul Jason Njoku & Nollywood Actress Mary Remmy | Meet Baby Jason Obinna
  31. ↑ "Jason Njoku of IrokoTV & Wife Mary Remmy Welcome Baby No. 2!". BellaNaija.com. 25 August 2015. Retrieved 19 July 2017.
  32. ↑ "COVID-19 isn't spiritual – Nollywood actress Maryremmy Njoku". P.M. News. 19 January 2021. Retrieved 11 February 2021.

Commons-logo.svg Media related to Jason Njoku at Wikimedia Commons

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.