Serena Williams’s venture capital firm has invested in Nigerian data and insights firm Stears Inc., in a $3.3 million seed round led by MaC Venture Capital. MaC invested $2 million as the lead investor in the round, according to Stears co-founder and Chief Executive Officer Preston Ideh. Other participants in the round included Melo7 Tech Partners LLC, Cascador, Hoaq Club and return investor Luminate Fund of the Omidyar Group.
Following Serena Williams’ retirement from tennis after the US Open in September, she has focused on investing in more African countries. Serena said one of the reasons she invested in Stears is because the company has strategically thought of how to increase the investment community in Africa. She further said that the company is aware of the complexities and have leverage with data and technology.
Stears is a Lagos-based intelligence firm offering data collection, production, advisory and analysis services. Its products include Stears Insights, the company’s flagship digital publication, which provides analysis-driven content to its subscribers. The company was launched in 2017 by four co-founders who met during secondary school at Loyola Jesuit College in Abuja, Nigeria, and at the London School of Economics and Imperial College in the UK. Stears has since grown thanks to paid subscriptions, making it a rare subscription success story in Nigeria.
In April 2020, the company closed a $600,000 (₦233 million) seed round to hire more people and build out new media and information products that will “challenge mis-information in Nigeria”. The round was led by an undisclosed Nigerian-based fund with participation from two other companies, Luminate – which is part of the Omidyar Group, and an unnamed local venture capital firm.
Stears’ successful funding round comes in a year that has been exceptionally high for African startups. The company plans to use the new funding to expand its coverage geographically by establishing a presence in East and Southern Africa. Additionally, it will expand its product breadth beyond insights to data, deepen data partnerships, and collect its own proprietary data, to which it will license access.
