Local firm secures $2.1m funding from investors

TIZETI and its consumer facing brand, Wifi.com.ng which offers unlimited internet service across Lagos, Nigeria, announced that it has closed on seed funding of $2.1 million from international investors including Western Technology Investment, Social Capital, Vy Capital, Picus Capital, Ace & Company, Lynett Capital Partners, Zeno Ventures and a number of angel investors including Y Combinator’s Michael Seibel and Gabriel Hammond.

The company which operates widely as a “Comcast for Africa”, builds and operates solar-powered towers to provide reliable and affordable Wi-fi services to hundreds of residential areas and SME’s across Nigeria’s megacity. The capital injection, secured as part of this seed round, will see services extended across the city and the South-South region of Africa’s most populous country, by launching an Xfinity Wifi-like Hotspot service, as well as scaling up mobility with the inclusion of 3,000 new public hotspots across Lagos.

Founded by Y Combinator Alumni Kendall Ananyi and Ifeanyi Okonkwo of the Winter 2017 batch, Tizeti was created to address poor internet connectivity on the continent by developing a cost-effective solution from inception to delivery, for reliable and uncapped internet access for potentially millions of Africans.

Since launching, Tizeti has been building its own solar panel towers in key hubs in Lagos, therefore is not restrained by costly wholesale internet costs from large telcos who have, until now, dominated the data market. The use of solar energy also reduces overheads on generators and diesel, which are often used across the continent to run towers. Running its internet network from its own infrastructure allows Wifi.com.ng to be hyper competitive in its pricing, offering an affordable and flexible payment structure, with subscriptions from N9,500.

Kendall Ananyi said, “Today’s seed announcement allows us to grow aggressively in the Nigerian market, and we will continue to invest in building out our own solar powered infrastructure, as well as refine and expand our consumer focused product that delivers reliable, cost-effective Wifi to potentially millions of Nigerians. We aim to ‘win Lagos’ and then South West and South South Nigeria, with a view to expanding across the West African region over the next 18-24 months”.