Nigerian data and intelligence startup Stears has announced they have raised a $3.3 million seed round to scale and expand its operations.
The seed round is backed and led by several venture capital firms that include MaC Venture Capital. Serena Ventures, Omidyar Group’s Luminate Fund, Melo 7 Tech Partners and Cascador (Empowering Economic Growth Foundation).
The startup was co-founded in 2017 by London School of Economics and the University of Oxford graduates while studying in England – Michael Famoroti, an economist; Bode Ogunlana, a software engineer; Abdul Abdulrahim, a data scientist; and Preston Ideh, a corporate lawyer.
How did the company start?
Stears started as a media publication focused on financial news and insights in Nigeria. Its flagship subscription insights product, Stears Premium, contains content ranging from news and opinion pieces to investigative pieces and deep dives, educating the general public on issues around business and finance, economy, government and policy in Nigeria.
“We have a strong understanding of the kind of information people need. So our focus is on standardizing information dissemination and building with the customer in mind,” Ideh told TechCrunch in an interview.
“An essential part of our business model is pushing out high-value subscription data products, for instance, proprietary forecast models. Conversely, the low-value end will be news, so customers’ willingness to spend changes as they go along the spectrum.”
One of the investors MaC VC believes that Stears is uniquely positioned to offer data and intelligence in the African continent.
“Africa is home to the first humans and is now the next frontier for business,” said Marlon Nichols, co-founder and managing general partner at lead investor MaC Venture Capital on the investment.
“Many multinational corporations and governments understand this to be a reality. They also appreciate that several African countries are subject to unique business processes and are primarily cash-based economies, which results in understated GDP, among other things. Stears is uniquely positioned to provide the proprietary and accurate data needed to unlock trade and deeper business relationships with African countries and companies.”
According to Ideh, one of the co-founders of the startup, he hopes Stears can become the next Bloomberg of Africa.
“Bloomberg, at its core, is a data company; we love how they approach elections and our approach in 2019 was driven by them,” adds Ideh.
