Nigerian startup Aktivate is an influencer marketing platform that helps businesses and marketing agencies find, collaborate, pay and track influencers easily.
Founded last year, Aktivate allows users to search for influencers using various criteria and parameters, while it also helps them contract and pay these influencers. It also provides data around engagement rates and other campaign results, while influencers with stronger social media profiles can find campaigns relevant to their niches as well.
Founder Akinbola Asalu said businesses and agencies face serious challenges accessing and tracking influencers, which Aktivate was trying to address.
“It typically takes multiple weeks for brands to find the right influencers, meaning KPIs are unmet. Managing multiple influencers is also a hassle, as content approval and campaign management generally are issues,” he said.
Aktivate looks to solve these problems, and uptake has been strong.
“So far, we have 13,000 influencers across Nigeria, and we have worked with more than 50 businesses and marketing agencies in Nigeria as well,” Asalu said.
The bootstrapped venture is currently fundraising, but is already at US$5,000 MRR with customers on long-term platform use contracts.
“We charge businesses US$250 per month and marketing agencies US$500 per month for using the platform fully. This provides them with unlimited search, payment and campaign management. We also charge a one per cent commission on milestone payments to influencers,” said Asalu.
Aktivate is looking to expand into Ghana, Kenya and South Africa in the coming months, but Asalu said the growth the startup has seen has not been without its challenges.
“Being from Africa, it’s difficult collaborating with social media platforms in terms of data being opened up, but we’ve been able to use our network to find a way around that,” he said. “Also, initially it was difficult onboarding influencers as it was a hard sell, but we found a way to get into their communities and provided value in terms of campaigns.”
