IROKOtv’s 3-year Death Dance & the People who Saved us. The Real Story…

Nollywood is all drama. This is pretty dramatic as it can get I think in startup world. In September 2016 we had just completed a gruelling 4 month due diligence process and we were due to sign our biggest pure cash fundraise yet. We had other interested parties but this investor, this deal, was the deal to shake the world (at least our little world). This was the deal of deals. Then it didn’t happen. Just like that. They pulled the term sheet. Naira devaluation spooked the investor and our dreams turned to ashes. From that moment onwards, and up until the ROK acquisition, IROKOtv has been in a near constant death dance to stay ahead of her likely demise. I have said too many times — this Market is BRUTAL and only the toughest have a mild chance of surviving. Just this week in SVOD news…

Iflix: the ‘emerging market Netflix’ limps towards an anti-climactic IPO

The Netflix-like service for emerging markets has — fittingly for a platform for drama — had a rollercoaster ride in the past 18 months. Its African business sold. Layoffs. And now, it’s rushing to IPO before the year ends.

A former employee described the African business’ traction among consumers as “pitiful,”.

Early last year, when we went out to raise capital for IROKOtv (we spoke to EVERYONE but ultimately failed) the African money mens’ bets were with Kwese & Iflix. Maybe they turn it around… Econet Media / Kwese won’t get that chance as they shut down last weekend with $150m in debt.

It’s easier to tell these stories now that we have more money in our bank accounts than we have ever had in our entire 8 year history. We can look back as war weary veterans talking about how we made it out, whilst many didn’t. You know, pour a little liquor for the fallen comrades and express hopes for the future. There were times when only divine intervention kept us in the game. Nah God do am. Overly celebrating success has never really been my thing. What I prefer is to throw a little context behind the reality. For the last 6 months, I literally spent 50% of my time on cash flow management. Begging, cajoling, scheduling payments with Sheri our financial controller just to stave off insolvency. We pretty much owed every supplier. To say it was scary was a massive understatement. But we survived. Last week we paid back $1.20m to the Bank Of Industry. Just like that. No shaking. That was a good feeling. Actually we paid back ALL our outstanding and overdue bills (>$2m). It’s a fucking fantastic feeling. For BOI, only 18 months after securing the facility, we had paid the entire thing back. All N434m. This is the same loan that I needed to publically attack the banks 6 months prior to bring them to the table. I had no choice. Special thanks to the young vibrant and supportive team at BOI. Okechukwu Madu and Tejumade O. Ajasa — they really were patient in walking us through the entire BOI process.

N271.6m via FCMB to retire BOI loan

N180.5m to retire Zenith BOI loan.

But this wasn’t a natural linear path of excellence. This was bare bones brawling. Just getting pummelled and still finding a way to get back up and back into the fight. As the Great Cap said. ‘I could do this all day’

I remember 23rd February 2018, we drew down the N500m without which there was no way we could have afforded to create the content to launch the ROK2 channel. No way. There are a few people who require a special mention who definitely guided me and saved us from certain death.

François Thiellet Founder of ThemaTV, Fabrice Faux current CEO ThemaTV, Clementine Tugendhat Egasse SVP of Internal channels ThemaTV and me (in 2017 when I was carrying extra weight) — Mipcom in Cannes

Clementine and François are the reason why Nollywood is massive in France and French Speaking Africa. Simple. They took a huge financial gamble to dub at considerable expense (think 7-figures) Nollywood into French. Before IROKO even launched in 2008, they developed multicultural television packages, such as « Le Bouquet Africain » (The African Bouquet) which is today composed of 24 TV channels and has 150,000 household subscribers in France. Not only that, Clementine and François were always open, honest and gave guidance to me on how to structure channels, content deals and essentially I learned the dark arts of distribution in their offices in Paris. And it didn’t even stop there. Thema have been the #1 customer and champion for IROKO and then ROK (ever finding ways to manage my annoying self). Post Canal+ acquiring the then 10-year Thema, they went on to champion IROKO within the halls of Canal+ and they were instrumental in bringing Canal+ into IROKO as strategic investors. Fabrice Faux, who at the time was CFO of Canal+ International, essentially led the big round we announced so gallantly in 2016. IROKO board members Jacque du Puy and Nazar Yasin, inasmuch as they would prefer I listen more, have been constant supporters (within reason) over this bruising SVOD reality. They, like me, share the unpopular belief that someone will figure out SVOD in Africa. And whoever does will build a really big business. No doubt their bets are on us.

Success has many fathers whereas failure is an orphan. As we move forward into the next phase of IROKOtv, I actually want to take some time to mention all those who were instrumental in the successful guidance, growth and exit of ROK. I hope to maintain these relations even as IROKO transitions out of channel, distribution and content creation.

Nigerian banks can be pretty useful when nudged.

Ladi Balogun CEO FCMB Group and I Ikoyi Boat Club (July 19)

Mr Ladi Balogun, since we randomly met at Harvard (in 2012), has been a quiet supporter of IROKO ever since. When I wrote the scathing article, he reached out immediately and over the last 3 years has become the primary bank for IROKOtv in Nigeria. They have been open, honest and super supportive and ultimately led the N300m invoice-backed guarantee which enabled us to secure the BOI loan.

Peter Amangbo CEO of Zenith Bank, Mrs Kelechi Ogbuaku, Zenith Bank Zonal head, Tony ‘we need something tangible’ Mmaduabuchukwu

The Zenith team have tried to make amends and have been super supportive of IROKO ever since too. CEO Peter Amangbo actually invited me to their offices and spent an hour understanding our business ambitions and found a way to structure a supportive N200m BG also helping us secure the full BOI loan.

Desperation never does a good deal

Side note. One crazy thing I had to do to clinch this BG was accept to personally guarantee the entire N500m ($1.39m). Yup that's right. Even though I am a minority shareholder at IROKO, there was no other option than to accept this. I would have cautioned everyone (but myself) to never be stupid enough to do this. Madness. Mrs Njoku burst into tears when she realised I was serious about signing, but ultimately supported. Bastian and Lauren Miller (IROKO CFO) strongly argued and urged for me not to do it. It completely defied logic. But I did it. Foolishly and most definitely something I will not do again (got school fees now) is take the crazy illogical yet evangelical risk of personally guaranteeing $1.39m to Nigerian banks. But at the time my response was simple. What's the alternative? Shutting down IROKOtv? Nah. Not even an option (this thing better blow, o). The very existence of ROK and her prodigious cashflow was to support the investments we were making in IROKOtv. Even at her own expense. Without that, as I have said many times before, it would have been lights out a long long time ago. I always refer to these graphs to remind myself and quietly marvel at how far we have come.

But here we are. Smiling. There are so many people who supported and guided me during this time. My friend, mentor and champion at Naspers John Kotsaftis (former CEO of Showmax) — he taught me so much about SVOD in Africa and was always available whenever I needed advice. I still speak to him every other week about something or the other. David Booth (former Chief Content Officer at Multichoice) is a big reason why ROK was given the chance on the DStv platform. The day the StarTimes deal was announced, he called me, told me if I was ever unhappy I should give him a call. Two years later, I took a crazy 14 hr flight from London to Dubai (for 2 hours) then onto Lagos just to have a 50min breakfast with him.

Olivier with the Njoku’s during the French president's visit to Nigeria

Olivier Laouchez Founder Chairman & CEO of Trace Group, who has invited me into his home on many occasions and has been instrumental in helping me understand the media landscape and opportunities in Africa and beyond. Joseph Hundah President & CEO of Econet Media who for almost a decade has been a confidant and super supportive. Tonje Bakang Founder Afrostream — we met in the very early days of Afrostream and we shared our fears even to the very unfortunate end. We are like brothers from other mothers now. Michael Dearham MD of Media Division at StarTimes who gave us the first shot at building linear channels and found a way to steer us clear of termination threats when we messed up the early days. Marie Lora-Mungai, Founder and CEO, Restless Global who introduced me to so many people and even drove me around LA on my first visit years ago.

This is the week I met Tonje founder of Afrostream. We have been friends ever since. w Saira Sow (head of content Econet Media)

John Ugbe CEO Multichoice Nigeria, Mrs Njoku and I — Federal Palace Nigeria (July 2019)

John Ugbe, CEO Multichoice Nigeria, My chairman of chairmen. He has saved IROKOtv more times than he even realises and is someone we can count on by being crazy supportive of us and helping when we were in absolute dire need of cash flow. ‘This is like please pay months early or we can’t meet payroll.’ and the money arriving the following week. It will take pages to go into details how important he was over the last 12 months

Greg Hamburger and I, Nelson Mandela Square, Sandton (July 2019)

Above is Greg Hamburger . I call him the wizard of Randburg aka Lord Hamburger aka ‘let’s have Nandos’. I would fly to JoBurg, turning up in the Multichoice, reception just to get time with him to solve one crisis / problem I was always having. I have literally done this a dozen times. And he has always been gracious and patient with the little ,constantly desperado, that was IROKO.

For me business is ALWAYS personal. In the end it is a collection of people and how they interact to create things and try and impact the world. The above isn’t exhaustive (you will have to buy my book for that 11/12/2020) but I always like to reflect and appreciate how far we have come, before I launch myself into a new phase and future. For 3 years straight IROKOtv stared into the face of death. And everyday we told him. Not today. But without the support of all of the above and the management team at IROKO, it most definitely wouldn’t have been possible.

As always, special thanks to Mrs Njoku for somehow believing in me enough to allow me take these crazy batshit risks with not only my life but our entire family and futures… No words can describe.