iROKOtv CEO Jason Njoku and co-founder Bastian Gotter (Photo: Courtesy iROKO Partners)

After pioneering iROKOtv, the website that brought Nollywood movies into the digital-streaming age, CEO Jason Njoku and business partner Bastian Gotter are now bringing opportunity to young, Nigerian entrepreneurs with a new company that seeks to build Nigeria’s next Internet sensation.

The company, SPARK, has already ushered in the creation of 13 startups ranging from property rental to Christian dating, and Njoku says the company is still on the hunt for seven more companies to begin developing by the end of this year. Njoku told Black Enterprise:

“The launch of iROKOtv took me all around Africa, and I met a lot of young, creative, talented people all thirsty for a chance at being an entrepreneur. They had one thing in common; no access to capital and no means of actually starting a serious business. Awesome ideas from talented young people were going to waste, which is where SPARK enters. Bastian and I, having seen the huge potential of the Internet and tech space in Nigeria, decided to set up a company that helps build companies — like iROKOtv in its earliest days — to become awesome Nigerian businesses of the future.

People should come to us via www.spark.ng with big ideas, energy, passion, an in-depth understanding of the market they want to conquer, and ... a means of monetizing their ideas. In the West, VCs and angel investors will fund ideas that don’t have an immediate revenue model. We don’t have this luxury in Nigeria, so the people we work with must have a business brain as well as creative talent. We don’t insist upon qualifications, although many of the people we’re working with have gone through the University route. We don’t do huge PowerPoint decks; (Who has the time to go through 90 pages of pictures, key objectives and graphs?) Instead, we like having a series of conversations with people to find out how we can work together.”

Read the full story here.

BET Global News - Your source for Black news from around the world, including international politics, health and human rights, the latest celebrity news and more. Click here to subscribe to our newsletter. 

Get ready for the BET Experience, featuring Beyoncé, Snoop Dogg, R. Kelly, Erykah Badu, Kendrick Lamar and many more. Go here for more details and info on how to buy tickets.