The African startup StarNews, specializing in the field of mobile video, carries out its first fundraising with Investisseurs & Partenaires, a pioneering group of impact investment dedicated to small and medium-sized enterprises in Sub-Saharan Africa, through its fund I&P Africa Entrepreneurs 2.

A stated ambition: to become the first mobile video network focused on local content in Africa
StarNews started its activities in 2017 in Ivory Coast. The company is positioning itself in a unique niche and specifically adapted to the African context to unlock the market potential of mobile video content creation on the continent. StarNews was designed and developed as a digital platform for creating, producing and distributing video content to mobile subscribers on various themes (celebrities, culture, cuisine, sport, humor, religion, beauty, events, etc.).

Guy Kamgaing, founder and director of the company, started from this observation: if the African mobile market is currently experiencing the fastest growth in the world, a large majority of African consumers unfortunately do not have access to video content. relevant, for lack of offers adapted to the realities of the local market. A market that Guy Kamgaing knows well: this Cameroonian entrepreneur has more than 20 years of experience in the mobile telephony sector.

“Despite the generalization of smartphones and increasingly wide access to mobile internet, the offers of value-added services are very little Africanized and even when this is the case, the content only comes from international players. It was necessary to highlight this rich and original local content and allow these players to monetize it as it should. Hence the idea of a distribution platform deployed in partnership with mobile operators,” says Guy Kamgaing, director of StarNews.

Now launched in Côte d'Ivoire, Cameroon, Democratic Republic of Congo and South Africa, StarNews has partnered with major pan-African mobile operators such as MTN and Orange to directly distribute exclusive video content and quality to users who can subscribe via their mobile to the various channels offered. Monetization is one of the key challenges of the model: the startup offers content creators a stable source of income through the sharing of generated revenue.

StarNews began by collaborating with local and international African celebrities such as Fally Ipupa, Serge Beynaud, Lady Ponce or Davido and has been moving since 2019 towards the development of new themes.

A pan-African company with great potential
StarNews carries out a first fundraising with the Investisseurs & Partenaires group, and more specifically its I&P Afrique Entrepreneurs 2 fund, launched at the end of 2017 to support the emergence of a new generation of responsible African companies. The company fully falls within the investment mandate of the IPAE2 fund, due to its unique and relevant positioning in a booming market and its strong impact on the promotion of African talent.

“We are proud to support a talented and experienced African entrepreneur who demonstrates a real commitment to deploying a pan-African and innovative solution. We share StarNews' ambition to promote African artists and produce a greater diversity of quality local content, with high added value for end users," explains Nouss Bih, Investment Manager at the I&P group, based in Côte d'Ivoire. of ivory.

The I&P Afrique Entrepreneurs 2 fund continues to invest actively in Sub-Saharan Africa, and particularly in Madagascar, West Africa and East Africa. Starnews is the fund's ninth investment. By 2022, IPAE 2 aims to finance around twenty additional African SMEs, for amounts of up to 3 million euros (2 billion FCFA).