iROKO Partners gets USD 2 mln funding from Kinnevik

IROKO Partners, an online distributor of Nigerian feature films and music, said has secured funding totaling USD 2 million from Swedish investment company based Kinnevik. It will be used to expand iROKO Partners’ operations in New York, London and Lagos, as well as for purchasing more content for its platforms iROKOtv (films) and iROKING (music). The deal forms part of iROKO Partners’ second round of investment with US-based hedge fund Tiger Global in April.

IROKO Partners was set up in December 2010 to bring Nigerian films (Nollywood) and music to the African Diaspora. The Nollywood VoD service iROKOtv has over 560,000 registered users and moved to a subscription-based model on 01 July. IROKOtv has brought over 5,000 Nollywood films to the African Diaspora, with viewers in over 178 countries across the world. To date, over 10 million hours of Nollywood movies have been watched on iROKOtv.com.