ToLet.com.ng Raises $1.2 million

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Investors bullish despite recession?

http://www.forbes.com/sites/mfonobongnsehe/2016/09/20/nigerian-classifieds-startup-tolet-com-ng-raises-1-2-million-from-frontier-digital-ventures/#5c38ca017465

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In terms of dollars raised, has any seed fund out-performed Spark in Nigeria?

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These guys are the quintessential example of the quote “work hard in silence and let success make all the noise”.

You only hear of tolet.com.ng when @Jason_Igwe_Njoku mentions them in his blog posts and they have silently grown to become a force to reckon with.

A big congrats to Fikayo and co, spark.ng and ultimately, Nigeria’s tech industry.

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Nope, I don’t think so

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True Spark has raised 1.2M each for hotels.ng and tolet.com.ng and who knows, something may be in the works for drinks.ng but it’s still too early for you and spark to beat your chests.

Don’t know about the stats at M5Labs/440NG but those guys have powerful startups.
There is also the case of the Venture Garden Group - they have the likes of suregifts, cashenvoy, prepclass etc.

The industry is still young. The first person to start a race does not always finish first/end it.

But notwithstanding men, Spark is doing a tremendous job. :slight_smile:
Much respect to the “Igwe” Jason Njoku. :sunglasses:

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Nobody raised for us. I raised by myself and ToLet raised for themselves. Spark did not raise money on the behalf of the companies - that’s not how it works.

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You are measuring the wrong thing mate. See below:

A “mark” is a point in time accounting estimate that often varies by firm and does nothing to tell an LP what a company’s ultimate value at exit will be. Cash or stock actually realized and distributed to LPs is the only real, non-manipulable measure of a firm’s interim success.

Source: When is a ‘Mark’ not a ‘Mark’? - by Andreessen Horowitz L.P. No pun intended, of course :wink:

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@techscorpion well, one thing you can be sure of is that the value of these companies exceeds the amount the raised. Most likely double or more. So from there you can already extrapolate the value of the portfolio as of now. Based on that, one could perhaps know what seed fund is doing well and what is not.

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Fair point mate. Time is the ultimate arbiter I guess. Ultimately, the real story is about toLet.com.ng and the extra runway they’ve gotten to hopefully grow faster and broader. It’s a good day for them, Spark, and the broader eco-system. Let’s all wish them well and hope they have strong legs. Their race may have just started.

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Alright, duly noted sir. However, I still think it’s too early to posit that Spark startups have raised the most money.
One startup from another seed fund can raise up to 10M dollars and dwarf the whole of Spark put together. The industry is still young in my opinion.
But you guys should keep up the good work.

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Can you raise the value of your company?

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“From inception till date, ToLet.com.ng has facilitated over 8 million dollars in transactions value and currently boasts of roughly 20,000 listings online from a growing number of just over 3,500 real-estate agents.”

Well done to the team.

Btw: The white shirts though :slight_smile:

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Awesome!! Congrats team Tolet.com.ng :slight_smile:

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Has this been online only?

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are the people online also, are the properties online?.. what works is what works… every other thing na stori

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For you, I guess the only thing that matters is profit

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To be honest, there are only two numbers that matter in a fund:money raised and money returned. The rest are vanity metrics. You of all people should know to avoid consoling yourself with fairy numbers

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Doesn’t matter I guess.

Personally, I have my reservations for this type of business model.

In my opinion, a marketplace, in particular, a real estate classified marketplace is not tough enough for raising a major investment unless investors are willing to commit large funds to develop recognisable brand customers can trust…This has been the key success for start-ups like Jumia et al.

The major concerns I have regarding classified business model is:

  1. Expiration of adverts - 90% of all listings will become obsolete within a year. 1 million classified adverts mean nothing really. The contents have no real value aside SEO.

  2. The worthiness of publishers - Rating does not eliminate the typical real estate fraud. Publishers are not unique i.e no royalty or exclusivity for contents. If a publisher can publish the same advert on multiple platforms without a penalty then I have no USP. Anyone can start this business tomorrow (or even copy and paste data entry personnel).

  3. Difficult to maintain brand - Constant monitoring of activities and brand improvement – you cannot create and go to sleep. A lot of people will be dissatisfied (or cheated). You will need to constantly monitor, follow up on activities regarding your business.

  4.  Revenue System - apparently, there are two major revenue streams that can be created from a classified listing. The first is getting publishers to pay a token for listing an item and the other model is a commission on the sale. Of course, Google Ads and many other types of sponsorships can easily generate extra revenue but a business cannot solely rely on a third party as the only source of revenue unless it is a private or personal business.

In addition, recent data from a major e-commerce online business has shown that heavy marketing initiative does not necessarily bring more sales. However, ToLet can leverage on early brand development and awareness to become a major real estate brand in Nigeria just like we have RightMove in the UK. The first mover of any business is always going to be the biggest winner.

A case in point - Interswitch.

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You can play the skeptic all you want. Worse case, the news is sign of good health for the fund. Period.

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Money returned. What’s that?

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