TaxiTV Becomes First Nigerian Startup to Secure Seed Funding in Q3, 2018

TaxiTV, a Nigerian advertising tech startup recently closed its seed funding round led by Beta.Ventures, a Nigeria based investment company that funds early-stage startups in a bid to give tech entrepreneurs leverage in their industries.

Besides Beta.Ventures, other investors like Collin Onuegbu of SASWARE , Sam Senbanjo of Neon Ventures also participated in the funding round.  According to an undisclosed source, the funding, believed to be in the range of $ 50,000-$100,000 is the first announced round for Nigerian startups in Q3.

TaxiTV is an in-ride entertainment system startup that provides advertising channels for corporate brands and SMEs through screens inside Taxify, Uber and other ride-hailing services. The new funding will enable it to scale its operations.

The startup imports a similar ad-solution currently used by taxis across the Western world. It displays ads via touch-screen devices strapped on to the car seats for riders to view.

Most of the ads are displayed in between the entertainment content. TaxiTV says it pays content creators a share of the revenue, and drivers also get a cut. According to its website, it has screens in over 100 cars in Nigeria. With current efforts by the startup to put things in place in ensuring that the ad-tech screen feature is present in every premium taxicab operating across major cities in Nigeria by 2020.

TaxiTV was founded in October 2017 by Akinbola Asalu, CEO (Chief Executive Officer) and Dami Osiyale, COO(Chief Operating Officer). The CEO in a statement revealed his excitement about how the seed funding will help to achieve the vision we have for the company and get the product to other parts of the country.

There are 20, 000 premium cabs in Nigeria and with the time each of them spends in traffic, especially in highly densely populated areas such as Lagos, means there is a huge market awaiting us. We are currently working on collaborating with a ride-hailing service cab/aggregator, which would avail us the avenue to expand into major Nigerian cities and other parts of Africa”, the CEO remarked.

TaxiTV will expand its services to Abuja which will see it kick-start its operation around August 2018, plus launching a new feature that allows SMEs run ads for as low as ₦25,000.

Featured image: thecheckergroup