Big Cabal Media Raises $3.2 Million To Expand Its Audience

2 mn read

Big Cabal Media is a leading African digital media company founded in 2013. They are the parent company of TechCabal and Zikoko Mag.

The Nigerian-based media company has raised $3.2 million in a seed funding round that will help them expand its audience and also build new verticals. The round was led by MaC Venture Capital and other VC firms including Unicorn Group, Luminate and Future Africa and some angel investors.

They raised about $620,000 in a pre-seed round between 2016 and 2020 and this brings their total funding to over $2.9 million.

Big Cabal Media was founded by Bankole Oluwafemi and Seyi Taylor in 2012. The companies under them, Zikoko Mag and Tech Cabal are among the most-read publications. Tech Cabal covers start-ups, innovators, the technology ecosystem, venture capitalists and some policy-shaping events.

Tech Cabal’s newsletter has sections like TC Events and The Next Wave that informs you of highly sought-after gatherings of some investors. Their main targets are the shareholders in the tech space.

Zikoko Mag, on the other hand, is for a different audience. The lifestyle publication was launched in 2016 and content is curated and created around the scope of African youth culture within and outside Africa.

Zikoko adopts BuzzFeed’s kind of content (witty listicles and quizzes) and they also tell stories about the everyday life of young people in Nigeria through memes, videos, content and images. At the moment, Zikoko reaches 20 million readers with their newsletter reaching about 100,000 readers monthly.

Tomiwa Aladekomo, the company’s CEO, says the new funds will help BCM invest significantly in technology and also aid in optimizing the publications’ websites. There is also a plan on the way to develop and introduce Zikoko Memes, which will be a Giphy-like product primarily focused on African memes, images and gifs.

Going forward, the funds will also facilitate them in hiring sufficient hands across the board, grow their audience and consolidate its position as one of Africa’s most influential media tech brands.