Kenya-based AIfluence closes $1m in Seed Funding to accelerate the expansion of its AI-powered marketing platform
Africa’s first AI-driven Influencer Marketing Platform, AIfluence Inc, has successfully raised $1 million in a Series Seed funding. The round was led by Dubai-based EQ2 Ventures, and joined by Antler East Africa, Nigerian VC OUI Capital, ArabyAds and a European family office. The funds will be used to expand into the rest of Africa, Middle East & Asia by the end of 2021, and to further invest into AIfluence’s tech and SaaS platform.
NAIROBI, 15th July 2021
AIfluence, an AdTech solution that emerged from Antler East Africa’s initial cohort in late 2019, was fully launched as Africa’s first AI-powered influencer marketing platform in April 2020. A year after its first client pilots, it is already running campaigns across 13 countries in Africa and Asia.
AIfluence is solving the major pain point experienced by brand marketers when trying to accurately measure the ROI and efficacy of influencer marketing campaigns. By leveraging advanced Machine Learning algorithms, the platform can precisely match influencers with a target demographic through its audience-first strategy. It further allows advertisers to onboard and co-ordinate hundreds to thousands of micro & nano influencers per campaign, generating authentic peer to peer conversations and superior conversion. AIfluence’s unique data-driven approach has already gained the trust of numerous regional and global advertisers across FMCG, banking, travel and electronics.
According to Patrick Thiriet CEO of EQ2 Ventures “People are the new media in today’s digital world, and AIfluence is uniquely positioned to turn this reality into tangible results for advertisers. We’ve been impressed by the team’s obsession to use data in order to spread authentic and relevant messages to the right audience. This is what advertising should always be. We’re looking forward to AIfluence’s journey ahead.”
Melalite Ayenew, Antler East Africa’s Partner added “We are excited to see local founders with deep expertise in the African market take a global problem head on, and in a short time demonstrate a tech solution that is fast attracting demand in Africa and beyond”.
AIfluence was founded by Nelson Aseka (CEO), George Issaias (CMO), Lamusia Anzaya,CFA (COO) and Ankit Jindal (CTO).
In an eventful first year, other notable highlights for AIfluence included winning the highly competitive US-Africa Tech Challenge as well as being awarded its first campaigns outside Africa - in Indonesia, India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Thailand and the UK.
AIfluence Co-founder and CEO Nelson Aseka, a former Marketing lead at Pernod Ricard, remarked ‘We are at the cusp of a revolution, globally the way marketing works is changing. We find ourselves at an intersection of advanced technology and the fastest growing region in the world in terms of digital and social media penetration. It’s an exciting place to be. Africa’s rich tradition for storytelling is alive and kicking. We simply enable such stories to be shared between peers who know and trust each other, and can place our brand messages into the heart of this communication ecosystem. We believe anyone can be an influencer. Our guiding philosophy is that influence is not a profession, it’s an outcome’
For more information and inquiries, you may reach AIfluence at;
nelson@ai-fluence.com - For investor related inquiries
george@ai-fluence.com - For sales related inquiries
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