iROKO is a Nigeria-based online entertainment platform built around Nollywood content, accessible via a website and an Android app that prioritizes downloads over streaming. Its primary product is the Android app, which replaced streaming with subscription downloads that allow users to keep films for up to a year to address slow and costly mobile data in many African countries. The platform currently hosts about 2,500–3,000 titles and plans to rapidly expand its catalog; last year it financed and produced roughly 100 hours of content. With the new funding, iROKO plans to strike content-development deals with up to 20 Nollywood studios and to localize content using voiceovers and subtitles for French, Swahili, and Zulu markets. The company is also re-encoding files to 50–100 MB and exploring battery-efficient playback to mitigate device storage, power, and Android-fragmentation challenges. iROKO expects to generate positive cash flow by the end of the year and has raised $34M since launching in September 2011.

Total raised

$19M

Funding rounds

2

Latest round

Equity

Latest activity

Jan 2016