Jason Njoku, the co-founder of Nigeria’s IROKOtv, has hinted at taking his company public on the London Stock Exchange to raise up to $150 million by mid-2021.
Njoku, 38, is known to be a number-cruncher and elaborated in a Medium blog post about how he thinks going public would be the next step for his Nigeria-based video-on-demand startup, as it turns a decade old.
“I try to bring extreme energy and honesty to everything I do. I’m not here for the love. I am here to win and make sure I can pay school fees,” Njoku said in the blog post.
“But more importantly to end the first 10 years of IROKOtv, I believe it’s best to take the company public,” Njoku wrote.
“Ideally we would be able to solidly beat the 10-year S&P 500 index return over their investment period. Cherry meet cake.”
Speculation surrounding an IPO has been building in the last few months since Canal+ acquired IROKOtv’s film studio — ROK — in a transaction that is considered the largest of its kind on the continent outside of South Africa.
In a recent tweet, Njoku shared a video a London Stock Exchange dashboard with the caption: “Understanding exit opportunities and IPOs at the London Stock Exchange.”
A listing would make IROKOtv the first African tech company founded within the last decade to go public, according to Tech Point Africa.
