Irokotv
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| Owner | Jason Njoku |
|---|---|
| Website | http://irokotv.com/ |
| Launched | 1 December 2011 |
| Current status | Active |
irokotv is a web platform that provides paid-for Nigerian films on-demand. It is one of Africa’s first mainstream online movie steaming websites, giving instant access to over 5,000 Nollywood film titles. irokotv is a part of iROKO Partners which is one of Africa’s leading entertainment companies, housing brands such as iROKING, an online music platform and its YouTube website, Nollywoodlove.
irokotv was launched on 1 December 2011. Its parent company, iROKO Partners, was founded by Jason Njoku and Bastian Gotter in December 2010, with its headquarters in London, United Kingdom. irokotv which has been dubbed the ‘Netflix’ of Africa, is the world’s largest legal digital distributor of African movies.
The irokotv website was launched on 1 December 2011 by iROKO Partners, who are the largest licensors and distributors of Nollywood movies. Jason Njoku, the company’s CEO and Bastian Gotter, now COO, met whilst students together at the University of Manchester together.
Njoku made several attempts to set up his own companies in the immediate years after university, but failed on each attempt.
Njoku was inspired to start the company when he found it difficult to obtain Nollywood movies online for his mother, who he was living with at the time. Having researched the Nollywood industry, and noting the lack of infrastructure in place for international distribution of the movies, Njoku flew to Lagos, Nigeria, and purchased the online licenses of Nollywood movies directly from the producers. Having struck a deal with YouTube in Germany, he used the Google-owned platform to stream the licensed Nollywood movies, for free, on his channel, Nollywoodlove. The channel became hugely popular and was profitable in a short period of time and was the focus of a number of press features in international press, including CNBC, CNN and Techcrunch. The success of Nollywoodlove led to a successful investment from US-based hedge fund Tiger Global, who led a two-round investment totaling US$8 million, making it one of the biggest single investments into a West African Dot-com venture. A further investment round of $2m, led by Swedish-based hedge fund Kinnevik, followed in July 2012. The company has, in total, raised $25m of investment, making it one of the most well funded West African internet companies to-date.
irokotv works with most of Nollywood’s top film production houses and purchases the exclusive online licenses to their films, In an attempt to distribute Nollywood films to a global audience. The company’s audience is predominantly in the Diaspora, with top five countries including the US, UK, Canada, Germany and Italy.
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