The Nigerian startup matchup - Which of the Nigerian startups would you invest in today

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Hi Everyone - Round 1 of the Nigerian Startup Matchup ended yesterday and here are the results of the First round.

Hotels.ng TKO’d Jovago in Round 1 and will now be squaring up to Wakanow in Round 2, Konga also whupped Jumia by 70% - 30%, actually it wasnt a good round for all AIG (rocket internet companies) only Hellofood made it to the next round. Paystack went up against Simplepay and won the popular vote with 71% of people voting for them. Talentbase had a good comeback, but was too late to stop Andela’s speed. The closest fight was between vconnect and kaymu with the latter edging over by 2% to win, Printivo had the most popular votes beating Podozi at 92%, will be facing off with Cheki at the next round

The next round should be interesting……voting is now open and it’s pitting the popular heavyweights against each other.

The Startup Match is a simple, fun, game. We’ve matched two Nigerian startups against each other, put your “investing FILA” on and pick one startup in each pair that you’ll like to invest in.

Would love to know your predictions for the results of the next round
Konga vs ACE :boom:
Paga vs DealDey :key:
Paystack vs Jobberman :eyes:
Wakanow vs Hotels.ng :fire:
IrokoTV vs Prepclass :battery:
Cheki vs Printivo :hammer_and_pick:
Suregifts vs Vconnect :exclamation:️
Andela vs Hellofood :crossed_swords:

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What are the connection points for the matchups?
I would think Paystack should be matched with Paga instead of Jobberman.

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We made it :slight_smile:

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Which of the companies are you?

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Printivo Sir.

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Interesting! Nice concept.

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Generally the selection criteria were companies that have raised money from institutional investors or were part of an incubator.

In the first round we matched Paystack with Simplepay & Jobberman with PushCV. However not all matchups have a clear sector link e.g. Printivo & Podozi in Round 1.

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Predictions:
Semi Final Left side = Konga and Paystack = I will go with Konga
(If Paystack can successfully bully the rest with their growth hack techniques, maybe I’ll change my mind)

Semi Final Right side = Iroko and Andela = I will go with Andela (My investment preference)

Final Andela and Konga = I will go with Konga (Market size)

Yele, please make the email address field not important.

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Thanks for the explanation.

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Cool but I’d rather get busy so that my startup will be on the “who is who” list of Nigerian startups.(No disrespect).

EDIT: List of companies :slight_smile:. Thanks @ukay

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List of startups or list of companies?

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There’s no growth hack technique going on here baba. I couldn’t participate in the first round as the form insisted I pick a company in all the categories (some of which would have been a random pick if I decided to go ahead). Anyway, we’ll probably lose to Jobberman on this round.

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We are only a day into Round 2 and it’s a lot closer this time round. Already looking like there will be one or two upsets when it’s over

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It is definitely a fun game to observe. In general, it will weigh brand popularity over any fundamentals/potential, which is actually a real basis for many (most) investors… So, results will very likely reflect true investor sentiments.

The takeaway will be that PR/marketing is important if you want to play the fundraising game with the big boys. Guessed the first round results solely based on popularity, and called everyone correctly. Guessed the Jumia/Konga correctly based on the general anti-rocket stance of the tech community. R2 definitely tougher to call.

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I hope we scale R2 :slight_smile: but a fun game all da same, keep voting.