Startupinsight

By Linda Obi After 2,810 applications, she says the barrier is paper, not ambition. Linda Obi Serial entrepreneuer Linda Obi spent more than twenty years in oil and gas, renewable energy, infrastructure, technology and consumer goods across sub-Saharan Africa and Europe, as chief executive of AfriHealth, Global Head of Strategy at Zenith Chain and Head of Digital Transformation at Tolaram. She built ZCN because the baseline numbers for female capital allocation were unacceptable, and closing the gap required hard commercial infrastructure rather than just advocacy. Today she leads Zuri Circle Network, a verified community of 1,426 women across three countries. At its centre is a compliance gate that checks three things before a business joins a programme: verified registration, financial documentation and confirmed operations. “We needed to move beyond exploratory networking and build an ecosystem where a ‘yes’ from a bank is backed by verified operational data,” said Obi, Founder and ...

   Lagos spent ₦129 billion on entertainment and nightlife in five weeks last December. The gap between that and what shows up in formal ticketing data is the market a new generation of platforms, including Gruve, is fighting over. In December 2025, 3.6 million people took part in Lagos's Detty December season and spent ₦396.5 billion in 55 days, ₦129.55 billion of it on entertainment and nightlife, according to figures reported by BusinessDay. Asake sold standing tickets for ₦300,000. Burna Boy's global tour grossed $30.46 million across 302,801 tickets. Yet PwC's Africa Entertainment and Media Outlook records Nigeria's live music ticket revenue at just $1 million for 2024, against $76 million for South Africa. Both are correct. PwC counts what flows through formal, reportable ticketing channels, and in Nigeria that is almost nothing. Tickets move through bank transfers, WhatsApp confirmations, forwarded PDFs and promoters' own websites. One of the continent's ...

 After selling more than 300 apartment units in five years, Smartease Properties CEO Lateef Aromire is taking the company into a new chapter of property development.  For Lateef Aromire, Chief Executive Officer of Smartease Properties, real estate has always been about more than selling apartments. It is about understanding people, understanding the market and helping buyers make decisions that make sense for their long-term goals. That approach has helped Smartease Properties sell more than 300 apartment units over the past five years, building a growing presence among homeowners and property investors. Now, the company is taking another significant step forward with the development of Luma Apartments in Yaba, its first outright developer project. The move represents a natural progression for a company that has spent years working closely with property buyers and investors. “After several years of working closely with buyers and investors, you begin to understand what the mar...

  Babatunde140 and Noku Dlamini share a powerful message of unity through ‘Ubuntu’, a soulful Afro-fusion collaboration inspired by community and human connection. Afro-fusion artiste Babatunde140 has teamed up with Noku Dlamini on “Ubuntu,” a soulful collaboration inspired by the African philosophy of Ubuntu — “I am because we are.” The song, which blends rich African rhythms with heartfelt vocals, delivers a message centred on unity, human connection and the importance of community. “Ubuntu” is scheduled for release on October 7, 2026, and will be available across major streaming platforms through Prime Music Partners. Speaking on the inspiration behind the track, Babatunde140 said, “Ubuntu is a reminder that none of us exists in isolation. Our strength comes from the people around us, the connections we create and the way we support one another.” He added, “With this song, we wanted to celebrate that sense of togetherness and remind listeners of the power that comes when people ...

     Juriska, led by Chijindu Umunnakwe, CEO, Juriska, is developing a business-facing platform designed to help companies organise contracts, corporate records and legal obligations before problems become emergencies. A supplier agreement is approaching renewal, but nobody is tracking the date. An investor requests corporate documents, and the team begins searching through email accounts. An employee dispute arises, and the business discovers that its records are incomplete. These situations illustrate a familiar weakness in business administration: legal work exists, but there is no consistent system for managing it. Entrepreneurs often give accounting, sales and operations regular attention. Legal matters can receive attention only when a transaction stalls or a disagreement becomes urgent. By then, missing documents and unclear responsibilities may make the problem harder to resolve. A virtual legal department offers a way to bring legal administration into the everyd...

  Kanyin Palmer, Founder and Product Owner of Excluvia, has called for African creators to retain more of the economic value generated by their content, knowledge and communities as the continent’s creator economy continues to expand. “African creators are already creating enormous value through the audiences and communities they build. The next step is making sure more of that value returns to the people creating it,” Kanyin said. His position reflects a growing concern around what happens after creators attract an audience. While views, followers and engagement can create visibility, they do not always give creators enough control over how that attention becomes income. For Kanyin, the next stage of Africa’s creator economy should focus less on audience size alone and more on giving creators the infrastructure to build sustainable businesses around the communities they have already created. “The talent was never the problem. The plumbing was. We built the plumbing,” Kanyin said. ...

   What began at his father’s dining table, alongside his co-founder, Emmanuel Obi, has grown into a bold journey of building a creative company in Nigeria. But building a business in Nigeria is rarely a straightforward path. It means navigating changing consumer behaviours, economic realities, rapidly evolving technology and an increasingly competitive industry.  For Tseyi Agharaye, CEO and Lead Director of Bloom Digital Media, these challenges have become part of the journey of building one of Nigeria's emerging multidisciplinary media and communication companies.  As Bloom celebrates five years, Tseyi is looking beyond the traditional agency model.  His ambition is to build a company that sits at the intersection of media, technology, creativity and communication.  Over the past several years, Tseyi has led Bloom's growth from a digital marketing-focused business into a broader organisation providing strategic communication, digital marketing, media and ...

  One of Nigeria's leading brand is offering competitive opportunities for African AI workers while helping businesses put automation to practical use. On the vanguard of this initiative is serial and activist Anthony Sule who is constantly adocvating and building an AI company in Nigeria  but it does come with obvious question focused both commercial and personal: how can skilled people gain access to international work and earn pay that reflects the quality of their contribution? That question sits at the centre of Trinity Intelligence Solutions, a human-in-the-loop AI training company registered in the United States and based in Nigeria. The business is working to connect African talent with international AI projects, while helping businesses understand how automation can make their everyday operations less demanding. Human-in-the-loop AI training keeps people involved in developing and improving artificial intelligence. It can include preparing and labelling data, assessin...

Paul Adedayo Clement, professionally known as Success Muzik, is a Lagos-born and Lagos-raised Afrobeats and Afropop artist and songwriter whose music is rooted in personal experience, self-discovery, and the vibrant energy of his environment. Growing up in a Christian home, Success Muzik discovered his passion for music through the church, where he developed his early musical knowledge and began building the foundation for his artistry. Over the years, he has worked on several musical projects, continually evolving his sound and creative identity. In 2023, Success Muzik released his EP Dirty MINDSET, followed by the 2024 single Picture Perfect. After the release of Picture Perfect, he took a break from releasing music to return to music school, where he further developed his knowledge of music production and the music business. The experience gave him a deeper understanding of both the creative and professional sides of the industry. Now, Success Muzik is returning with a new chapter i...

  The report reaching us is that the Nigeria Assisted Parenthood Forum has hosted the Fertility Choices Women’s Brunch in Abuja and is preparing to bring its programme of practical education on assisted parenthood to London in October. The Fertility Choices Women’s Brunch took place on 19 September 2026 in Abuja and online. The Nigeria Assisted Parenthood Forum UK will follow from 16 to 17 October 2026 at Coram Campus in central London, with online participation also available. Organised by Ôka’mara Law & Consulting, the programmes bring together medical, legal and emotional perspectives on fertility treatment, fertility preservation, donor conception, surrogacy and adoption. Both events form part of the Nigeria Assisted Parenthood Forum , an education and advocacy initiative created to address the information gap facing people navigating infertility and different paths to parenthood. Fertility Choices Women’s Brunch, Abuja The Abuja brunch provided a private setting in which ...

Strengths Africa Limited has been re-accredited by The Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria (CIBN) as a Training Service Provider for the Banking and Finance Industry. The three-year re-accreditation took effect on June 25, 2026, following the firm's initial accreditation in March 2023. The accreditation covers Finance and Financial Management; Leadership and Strategic Management; Human Capital Management; AI Adoption and Governance; Personal Effectiveness and Team Building; Project Management and Business Excellence; Service Excellence; and Pre-Retirement. Managing Partner, Dr. Oluseye Taiwo Adepoju, described the development as both recognition and responsibility. “Our focus is not training for training's sake. It is helping organisations develop capabilities that strengthen leadership, execution, adaptability and institutional performance,” he said. Strengths Africa provides learning and development, organisational transformation, advisory, coaching and strategy interve...

    In a recent event nearly  51,000+ people gather in Lagos for record-breaking screening of Black Market_ The event, held September 26th, 2026, saw 51,258 people came together at Tafawa Balewa Square in Lagos, Nigeria, to watch Black Market, making history in the process. The screening of Black Market, a Nigerian film produced by Nora Awolowo and presented by Rixel Studios, Switch Visual Limited, and Damilola Osikoya, earned a new Guinness World Records title for the largest attendance at a film screening. The screening surpassed the previous record of 43,624 viewers, set in 2015 during a screening of Felix Manalo in the Philippines. For PUMA and Persianas Retail Limited (PRL), PUMA’s official partner in Nigeria, the partnership with Black Market was an opportunity to support a project that brought together film, fashion and community on an extraordinary scale. As part of the partnership, PUMA created a limited edition PUMA x Black Market collection, bringing the world ...