Last month, Paisa, a Mexico-based lending fintech startup, closed a $600,000 seed round to help it on its mission to bridge the financial, gender, and digital gap left by traditional financial services. One name stood out on the roll call of international venture investors: Mr. Eazi, the Nigerian Afrobeat star who has racked up hundreds of millions of streams across music platforms, with hit songs like \u201cDoyin,\u201d \u201cSkintight,\u201d and \u201cLeg Over.\u201d Although it was his first investment in Latin America, Paisa is just one of a growing list of tech companies Mr. Eazi has backed over the last two years, as the hitmaker explores the potential of tech made for the creative industry.<\/p>\n
Since bursting onto the music scene in 2013, Mr. Eazi, whose real name is Oluwatosin Ajibade, has emerged as one of Nigeria\u2019s most popular global exports. The award-winning artist has spent the last five years on the global charts with international stars, including Nicki Minaj, Burna Boy, Major Lazer, Colombia\u2019s J Balvin, and Puerto Rico\u2019s Bad Bunny \u2014 Spotify\u2019s most-streamed artist for the last two years.<\/p>\n
But in the last couple of years, Mr. Eazi has been spending much of his energy not just on making new music, but on solving problems for the African creative sector by building and investing in a range of vehicles inspired by the global tech sector.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe way I look at music, I see artists as startups, and every song as a product, and record labels as VCs,\u201d Mr. Eazi told Rest of World in an interview following the release of his latest single \u201cLegalize\u201d last month.<\/p>\n
Mr. Eazi took the startup founder path himself before his music garnered widespread appeal. He launched Phonetrader.ng, an online marketplace where Nigerians could sell and trade used phones, in 2014. The digital business was selected for a startup incubator program by 440NG, a partnership between venture firms 88mph and L5Lab. \u201cWhen I look back, that time was one of the most influential periods of my life and it prepared me for where I am now,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
At the incubator, he met prominent Nigerian tech ecosystem players Chika Nwobi, the founder of developer training company Decagon, and Iyin Aboyeji, co-founder of Andela and Flutterwave, who he said have helped shape his thinking about the potential of the tech industry ever since.<\/p>\n
In 2019, the 31-year-old musician decided to repurpose his tech lessons for the creative industries. While contemporary African music, Afrobeat, has achieved global prominence today, early African music promoters who championed the genre struggled because \u201cwe didn\u2019t have our own ticketing platform for African events,\u201d Mr. Eazi said.<\/p>\n
He launched EmPawa Africa, a talent incubator designed to accelerate the careers of young, up-and-coming musicians, including Joeboy, a fast-rising Nigerian artist. Today, EmPawa Africa has since been remodeled into a fully-fledged music services organization providing music publishing, distribution, and marketing services to independent artists and record labels. \u201cWe want to have as many creatives come and plug in, and we aggregate. By incubating talent, I want to prove the model and the business case,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Over the last two years, EmPawa has worked with regional record labels to promote hit music while helping African artists collaborate with other talent on the continent and abroad, such as on Bad Bunny\u2019s single \u201cEns\u00e9\u00f1ame a Bailar,\u201d which included vocals from Joeboy.<\/p>\n
Mr. Eazi is at the forefront of a broader transformation of the modern African music industry, thanks to online tools and distribution platforms which digital technology has enabled over the past two decades. More African artists have been breaking through by building their own fan following on social media platforms like TikTok. \u201cI don\u2019t think there\u2019s a talent or quality gap in Africa for the creative economy,\u201d Mr. Eazi said. \u201c[But] I think there\u2019s only a funding gap.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you look at the changes that have happened in music and art over the years, it\u2019s a consistent democratization of infrastructure and global music IP [where multiple artists can now self publish],\u201d Aboyeji told Rest of World. \u201cMr. Eazi is using technology not just to aggregate local music rights, but to optimize them for the global markets.\u201d<\/p>\n
EmPawa, which secured an undisclosed seed round early last year, is currently raising a seed extension of around $5 million to support more musicians and record labels.<\/p>\n
But EmPawa is not Mr. Eazi\u2019s primary vehicle for venture pursuits. In 2020, he launched a $20 million Africa Music Fund to invest in the continent\u2019s musical newcomers. And in 2021, he made a number of tech investments through his investment syndicate Zagadat Capital. Through Zagadat, whose name references one of his musical catchphrases, Mr. Eazi backed several African-focused startups, including PawaPay, an African mobile payments company; Talent City, an urban development startup started by Aboyeji; and Eden Life, a Lagos-based food delivery and lifestyle startup. Since 2017, he has been an investor at BetPawa, an online betting company led by a former 440ng executive, and has been the face of the brand, frequently appearing in promotional materials.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery time I\u2019ve engaged with Eazi, he\u2019s been incredibly thoughtful and intelligent about the African music business and its trajectory with tech,\u201d said Obi Asika, the Nigerian music business veteran and executive producer of the Afrobeats documentary, Journey of the Beats. \u201cTo be honest, he\u2019s more of a tech-first artist.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mr. Eazi is not the only newly-minted Afrobeats global superstar to have backed local startups. Davido, one of Nigeria\u2019s most prominent artists of the last decade, has invested in at least one startup \u2014 Bitsika, a cryptocurrency exchange. Two other singers, Ajebutter22 and Falz, invested in tech training startup TalentQL last year. Industry insiders privately say there are more deals involving pop stars, but that these are often done as advertising or marketing promotions in exchange for minority stakes.<\/p>\n
But for Mr. Eazi, investing is about much more than opportunistic stakes or friendly deals. \u201cI like to invest in stuff that I can bring some value to \u2014 whether knowledge, business development, marketing \u2014 and stuff that can scale and touch my community.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
After recording global hit songs with everyone from Nicki Minaj to Bad Bunny, Eazi has a plan to make hit investments in Africa\u2019s startup hubs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12963,"featured_media":11629,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,31],"tags":[7,14,32],"class_list":{"0":"post-11632","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"category-music","9":"tag-apie-project","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-music"},"yoast_head":"\n