Dear colleagues and friends,

I’m excited to launch HUSTLE & FLOW, my newsletter about business and investment opportunities in the African Entertainment sector. 

Why HUSTLE & FLOW? Well, partly as an homage to the iconic 2005 Sundance Audience Award winning film directed by Craig Brewer and produced by John Singleton. The press junket with star Terrence Howard for the release of the film was one of my very first interviews as a budding 23-year-old journalist at CNN in New York (he said he liked my outfit - I kept the tape). 

But HUSTLE & FLOW is also a reference to the entrepreneur’s hustle and the investor’s deal flow in the Entertainment sector, which are the core of what this newsletter will be about. Here I will be using the term Entertainment to encompass what is often referred to as the Cultural and Creative Industries (film, TV, animation, video games, music, fashion, visual arts, architecture and publishing), but also Sports and Hospitality, as all these sectors are related and intertwined, and present numerous synergies. 

The global Creative Industry generates $2.25 trillion annually (more than global telecommunications), is a major provider of jobs (30 million globally), and is particularly resilient to economic downturns, while the global Sports market in itself is set to reach $614 billion in 2022. But despite Africa’s undeniable wealth of raw talents, these sectors are very much under-funded and under-developed on the continent. That is the textbook definition of an untapped opportunity. 

For most traditional investors however, Entertainment is also a new, mysterious and slightly esoteric field which they perceive as very risky (“Artists don’t know how to run a business”, “There is no way to predict if a film is going to be successful or not”, “Piracy sucks out all the profit from content production”, “All football clubs lose money”, “Africans don’t have enough disposable income to spend on non-essential items”).

And yet they may have also noticed that every bar, club or festival they go to from Los Angeles to Tokyo now plays Afrobeats, that Zimbabwean-American “Walking Dead” star Danai Gurira just signed a juicy overall deal with ABC Studios, that Cameroonian designer Imane Ayissi was the talk of the latest Paris Fashion Week, or that Nigerian fighters squarely dominate the UFC.

What does this all mean? And really, where is the money? I have survived 15 years of being 15 years too early as a creative entrepreneur in Africa, during which I have launched several companies, closed down a few, advised many, and successfully exited one. These experiences have taught me what works, and what doesn’t.

In the meantime, the world has also changed and very crucially, entertainment consumption has gone truly global thanks to the explosion of content, social media and e-commerce platforms such as Netflix, Amazon, Spotify, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram or ESPN that are now connecting African talents to the world. That is a true game changer and the reason why you should be paying attention.

In this newsletter I will attempt to demystify the African Entertainment space and help you identify investment opportunities by sharing news, trends and key figures, as well as calls for projects and relevant events. Although I will link to existing articles or reports, I will also include exclusive market insights that I typically do not share widely or publicly. 

If you are receiving this email it is because our recent interactions have made me think that you might have an interest in these topics. If you know of anyone in your network who would benefit from some HUSTLE & FLOW, please have them email me. And if you would like to stop receiving these emails, just let me know ;-)

I am looking forward to your feedback, comments and questions as I work through the kinks of this new format.

Happy reading to all,

Marie 

INVESTMENT NEWS

Afreximbank makes a statement with the launch of a $500M fund to support the production and trade of African cultural and creative products over the next two years. The funds will be accessible as lines of credit to banks, direct financing to operators and as guarantees. The fund’s first investment is a $190-million facility to Kojo Annan’s Made In Africa Inc. (MIA) for the acquisition of Vlisco, the leading producer of African wax fabric whose Dutch ownership had been a source of controversy in Africa. An interesting move which can be seen as re-appropriating cultural appropriation.

Emerging Capital Partners acquires Burger King South Africa from Grand Parade. ECP, the investment firm that’s been quite successful at developing the Java and Artcaffe franchises in Kenya, believes that it can bring growth where GPI has failed.

Et ici en français dans le texte pour encore plus de details.

South African Pay TV operator Multichoice launches its Innovation Fund to invest in South African black-owned SMEs in the Video Entertainment and Technology space.

FILM

“Americanah” author Chimamanda Adichie hosted Kenyan Hollywood actress Lupita Nyong’o last weekend at Mo Abudu’s new EbonyLife Place in Lagos at a diner attended by heavyweights of the Nigerian Creative sector. Nyong’o is producing and starring in the TV series adaptation of “Americanah” for HBO which is set to start shooting soon.

FilmOne Entertainment, the leading Nigerian distributor and production company, has gone into production on the first movie of the $1 million film fund it launched with China’s Huahua Media and South Africa’s Empire Entertainment in December. FilmOne plans to eventually finance 8-10 films as part of this first slate.

The poster for 'Namaste Wahala', the Nollywood Meets Bollywood crossover movie which promises exciting images of an over-the-top Nigerian-Indian wedding, goes viral on social media. Let’s see if the film can live up to the hype when it comes out in Nigerian theaters on April 24th.

Grammy-award winning director Melina Matsoukas and British-Ugandan 'Get Out' star Daniel Kaluuya hit the red carpets of Lagos and Johannesburg for the release of their film ‘Queen & Slim’. This might look like your normal promotional tour except that it is not: US studios typically don’t bother sending their stars to promote the African releases of their films as these markets are considered insignificant. But in the past couple of years several Black Hollywood stars such as John Boyega or David Oyelowo (and Lupita Nyong’o - see above) have made the trip, pointing (just like the “Americanah” project) to growing links between Hollywood and Nollywood.

If this feels like a lot of Nollywood news it’s because A LOT is going on. I am very bullish (as you may already know) about the Nigerian film industry. I’ll have more opportunities to explain why in future editions of HUSTLE & FLOW. 

VISUAL ARTS

British-Nigerian artist Yinka Shonibare is building project spaces and artists residencies in Lekki in Lagos and on a farm in Ijebu to support what he sees as “an African renaissance”, citing the positive influence of Tokini Peterside’s Art X Lagos fair in growing the African visual art market. Less than a year ago, Nigerian-American artist Kehinde Wiley had opened his own Black Rock residency in Dakar, Senegal. Both are art world superstars who are financing their projects mostly through their own funds, but they will need financial and institutional partners to ensure their sustainability. 

SPORTS

The Basketball Africa League (BAL) announced the 12 teams (Angola, Egypt, Morocco, Nigeria, Senegal, Tunisia, Algeria, Cameroon, Madagascar, Mali, Mozambique and Rwanda) that will be competing in the inaugural season set to tip off in Senegal on March 13th. The launch of BAL shows the NBA’s commitment to growing the game on the continent. At the moment, African broadcast rights for NBA matches are still pretty cheap and basketball is clearly nowhere as popular as football, but the potential for mass adoption is real.

French development agency AFD and Paris 2024 announced a partnership to support 24 athletes to deliver social and environmental projects, both in France and in Africa. AFD is also currently building an online platform whose aim will be to promote and raise financing for sports development projects in Africa. The platform, dubbed “Sport en Commun” (Sports together), will be launched in June during the Africa-France Summit in Bordeaux.

The ‘Match in Africa’ opposing Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal in Cape Town on February 7th raised over $3.5m to support early childhood development initiatives in schools all over Southern Africa. It also hit a Guinness World Record for the highest number of people in attendance at a single tennis match – over 51,000.  

CALLS FOR PROPOSALS (ANIMATION)

The Africa Digital Media Foundation (ADMF), in association with Heva Fund, Rubika, ADMI, and the Association of Animation Artists will be supporting select East African animators to attend The Annecy International Animation Film Festival and Market, which has a special focus on Africa this year. Interested animators should apply here. 

The 4th edition of Digital Lab Africa, the platform dedicated to digital creative content, is calling all African creatives to submit their projects in animation, video game, digital art, immersive realities and music before March 1st, 2020.

See a trend here? Yes, French development agencies are very much interested in supporting the growth of the animation and gaming sector in Africa. Animation production requires big teams and the sector has the potential to create a large amount of jobs for the youth through outsourcing or original content creation. However the market for African animation is still basically non-existent, with only a couple buyers willing to pay ridiculously low prices per episode. There is a way to game the system (no quick fixes though, TIA) - hit me up if you want to hear more.

EVENTS

AfDB will be holding its Fashionomics Masterclass in Nairobi on February 26 and 27. The class will engage local creative entrepreneurs operating in the textile, apparel and accessories industries to equip them with the know-how to establish successful fashion brands from concept to execution. This Masterclass sold out very quickly - demand is very strong for this type of hands-on business training dedicated to the creative industries. There’s an opportunity here to standardize and scale - who will take it?

I will be at MIP TV in Cannes on March 30th, 31st, and April 1st, where I will be facilitating the MiP CLINIC - DRAMA on How to Producing in and with Africa, TV Drama’s Last Frontier:

With the steady rise of global platforms, the next hit TV drama can now come from anywhere. In this context, content from Africa is not only the last frontier, it also presents potential crossover appeal to audiences in Europe and America. What are the right strategies, opportunities and partners to produce the future top dramas from Africa?

Also keep an eye on the 2nd meet of the ARES Fighting Championship, the Afro-European MMA League launched by Vivendi Sports, taking place on April 3rd in Brussels. I think they are onto something - come see it for yourself if you are nearby.

And finally, mark the Africa-France Summit on Sustainable Cities in your agendas. It will take place in Bordeaux, France from June 4-6 and will feature several sessions on Sports and Creative Industries development and investment. I will be there!