Participated · Seed · Mar 2022

Big Cabal Media (BCM) is a Nigeria-based media company that publishes TechCabal and Zikoko and operates related businesses including Cabal Creative, TC Insights and TC Events. TechCabal is an Africa-focused tech publication reaching 300,000–500,000 unique monthly readers and more than 60,000 newsletter subscribers across over 30 countries, while Zikoko reaches up to 20 million readers in a single month and has a newsletter audience of over 100,000 monthly. BCM's primary direct revenue is advertising across websites and newsletters, supplemented by revenue from its content studio, data consulting arm and events business. The company reported revenue last year that was four times its 2020 figure and a compound annual growth rate of 225% over the previous four years. BCM plans to use new funding to invest in technology, optimize its publications' websites, build new verticals, expand audience growth, hire across teams and further develop Zikoko Memes, a Giphy-like product launched in 2020. Founded in 2013, BCM says it aims to consolidate its position as one of Africa's most influential media and technology brands. Big Cabal Media builds Africa’s media brands by producing publications, original content, and technology products for African audiences. It publishes TechCabal, a pan-African tech publication, and Zikoko, a West-African youth-culture publication, and operates Cabal Creative Studio. The studio provides strategic communications, content creation, and brand design services for clients including Coca-Cola, Google, DSTV, Access Bank, Flutterwave, MainOne, GIGM, Nestle, and ARM. TechCabal serves business professionals, investors, and entrepreneurs, while Zikoko produces high-engagement youth-focused content. BCM’s content reaches over 3 million people every month and the company has produced projects like Zikoko’s Jollof Road and Tech Women Lagos. With Platform Capital’s backing, BCM plans to accelerate audience growth, deepen investments in technology and product development, and grow its digital offerings and global audience over the next 12 months.

Participated · Equity · Sep 2021

Conexiom offers an automation platform that delivers touchless accounts-payable and sales-order processing capabilities to manufacturers and distributors. The company says its platform processes more than $100 billion in business-to-business transactions annually. Conexiom highlights a large addressable market, noting that over $15 trillion of order-to-cash and procure-to-pay transactions are manually processed in North America and Europe each year. Ray Grady is president and CEO. The company maintains offices in Vancouver, Kitchener (ON), London (UK), Munich (Germany), and Chicago. The product is positioned to reduce manual processing in B2B order and invoice workflows. Conexiom provides a software platform that automates sales order and invoice processing for manufacturers and distributors, aiming to eliminate manual order entry and deliver 100 percent data accuracy. The company claims its platform processes $100 billion in B2B sales across 22 million transactions annually. It targets reduced costs and resource burdens for customer service teams by automating repetitive tasks. Conexiom plans to accelerate platform development and invest in machine learning and artificial intelligence to extend its technology beyond order and invoice automation. The startup also intends to expand its global footprint and has offices in Vancouver, Kitchener-Waterloo, London (England), and Chicago. Conexiom was founded in 2005 under the legal name ecMarket. Conexiom provides cloud-based software that fully automates the processing of purchase orders, supplier invoices, pricing agreements and other supply-chain documents, eliminating manual data entry and delivering structured data directly into customers' ERP systems. The company emphasizes 100% accuracy in document capture and is used by customer service and inside sales teams to streamline order-to-cash and procure-to-pay workflows. Conexiom serves leading enterprises, including 10 of the top 25 distributors in North America, with a focus on wholesale distribution and manufacturing markets. Management says the company plans to accelerate customer adoption, expand geographically and enter additional verticals with similar business profiles. Luminate Capital Partners invested to support that global growth strategy. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.