Big Cabal Media (BCM), Nigeria-based media company and parent company of TechCabal and Zikoko, has announced a $2.3 million Seed funding round, to accelerate its mission to build motivating and innovative media products and brands.
The seed round, which follows a $620,000 angel and pre-seed round raised between 2016 and 2020 by Big Cabal Media, bringing its total funding to over $2.9 million, included new investors such as MaC Venture Capital who led the round, Luminate Capital Partners and existing investors; Unicorn Capital Partners, Future Africa, and several angel investors participated.
BCM was founded by Seyi Taylor and Bankole Oluwafemi in 2013. Tomiwa Aladekomo, the company’s CEO, took over from Taylor in 2018.
With this new funding, BCM plans to develop its product serving, staff, and audience. “We are expanding our video production by exploring docuseries and short films,” Aladekomo said. “We will be transforming our studio into a community hub for creatives, and introducing 3 new tech products, including the Zikoko app and Zikoko Memes 2.0, which first launched in 2020. We will also be building out new audiences while offering competitive wages.”
Asides the media firm’s thriving platforms, TechCabal, which targets stakeholders in the tech space and Zikoko, which creates and curates content around African youth culture for Gen Zs and millennials within and outside Africa, BCM houses other arms serving different clients and generating revenue for the company.
One of such includes Cabal Creative, an in-house content studio that has produced content for global brands such as Google, Uber and Coca-Cola. Another is TC Insights, a data analytics consulting service, works on research, data and industry strategy on different projects. There is also TC Events, a significant revenue driver for the company. BCM affirms that the revenue raised last year was 4x what the company recorded in 2020 while maintaining a CAGR of 225% over the previous four years.
According to Aladekomo, this new investment helps BCM invest significantly in its technology and optimize publications’ websites. It also plans to further develop Zikoko Memes, a Giphy-like product focused on African memes, gifs and images the company launched in 2020. Lastly, the new funds will be used to grow its audience, make hires across the board, and consolidate its position as one of Africa’s most influential media and technology brands.
