Get Inspired! – Read Jason Njoku’s Success Story

Jason Chukwuma Njoku (born 11 December 1980) is a British-Nigeria businessman. He is the co-founder and CEO of iROKOtv, a Video on demand service for Nigeria movies

A self-proclaimed serial entrepreneur, iROKOtv is 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.

After a number of failed enterprises between 2005 and 2010, which included a blog network, a T-shirt business and a web design company, 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

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 licences of Nollywood movies.

He worked from a two-bedroom apartment in Festac, Lagos, and struck a deal with YouTube in Germany to be the official channel partner for Nollywood company

In 2010, Njoku and his former partner Bastian Gotter launched NollywoodLove, a YouTube channel, which was profitable within two months of launch. 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

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. 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 and have used the investment to build an extensive film catalog of 5,000 movies. 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 totalling $40 million

In 2015, Njoku decided to focus the company’s attention on an Android mobile app, 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’. On 29 August 2013, Njoku was named as the CNBC All Africa Business Awards Young Leader of the Year for West Africa He has also been named as one of Fast Company’s Top 1000 Most Creative People in Business.

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. 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 hotel.ng which has gone on to raise $1.2 million in VC investment from EchoVC Pan-Africa Fund and Omidyar Network. In 2015, Jason Njoku in a blog post officially announced they’re letting go of four startups considered failed businesses. 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.

As the founder of iRokoTv Partners and IrokoTv, the leading online streaming platform in Africa, Jason Njoku’s principle is simple. “I am trying to make people happy,” he says. Njoku admits that starting on YouTube in 2010 and building a successful global media empire has brought its challenges. “I make more mistakes than I make good choices. My only saving grace is that the choices that I make are better and more significant.” Now a venture capitalist, his current obsession is funding local entrepreneurs.

Reference: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jason_Njoku, entreprenuer.com