EchoVC, one of Africa’s prominent early stage and seed venture capital startup fund, has invested about $1 million in S & T Media, an Out-of-Home (OOH) company that installs its proprietary screen called AdPump (TV screens for advertising) in fuel stations, handful of shopping malls, supermarkets and restaurant across Lagos State and FCT, Abuja.
S&T Media is perhaps an opportunity for EchoVC to invest in the advertising industry. On its website, the fund states that its criteria is to invest in ‘technology intersection of consumer, media, data, & devices’. With the received fund, S & T Media will be scaling up its operations into major cities across Nigeria.
In recent years, the boom in shopping mall development and HORECA facilities, brought significant investment from the advertising industry as well as other serial entrepreneurs with influx of spectacular digital LED screens across key cities in Nigeria with Lagos as the highest hosts.
The slowdown in the Nigerian economy due to falling all prices and a depleting USD foreign reserves has negatively impacted the advertising industry. The OOH sub-sector is the worst hit, losing significant revenue as advertisers drastically cut back spending. With its opaque system and often inflated rates, OOH has lost revenue to Radio and Internet advertising. However, S&T has secured major partnerships with fuel stations and advertisers; it will be interesting to see how the hopes to strategise and use the fund wisely.
EchoVC has previously invested in Printivo, Hotels.ng and other startups.
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HORECA- Hotels, restaurants and cafe
OOH- Out-of-Home
Image Source: Techcrunch
