Jason Njoku Biography: Early Life, Career, Wife & Net Worth
Jason Njoku, (born December 11, 1980) is a British-Nigerian entrepreneur best known for co-founding iROKOtv, dubbed the ‘Netflix of Africa’. He transformed the Nigerian film business by launching a global internet platform for streaming Nollywood films. After multiple business failures, Njoku eventually realised his entrepreneurial goals, establishing one of Africa’s leading online platforms for African content.
Jason Njoku Biography
Jason Chukwuma Njoku was born on December 11, 1980, in Deptford, Southeast London. Jason was born and raised in Deptford, Southeast London. His mother raised him and his three sisters and brother by herself whilst working a full-time job in the National Health Service.
He attended school in London, then moved to a village in Nigeria from the age of 12 to 15. After he returned to the United Kingdom, he attended college to complete his A-Levels before securing a place at The University of Manchester, where he read Chemistry. He graduated in 2005 with a 2:1 and launched Brash Magazine, a student publication which ran for three years before it closed in 2008.
Career
Between 2005 and 2010, Njoku failed a number of businesses, including a blog network, a T-shirt company, and a web design firm. He then returned to his mother’s house in Deptford. It was there that he came up with the concept of launching a Nollywood online distribution company.
“The West had Hulu and Netflix, but Africa had nothing,” Njoku adds. Having studied the sector from afar, he flew to Lagos with the financial assistance of his best friend Bastian Gotter, a fellow University of Manchester graduate, and began obtaining online licensing for Nollywood movies.
He operated from a two-bedroom flat in Festac Town, Lagos, and signed an agreement with YouTube in Germany to become the official channel partner for the Nollywood company.
Njoku and his former partner Bastian Gotter started NollywoodLove, a YouTube channel, which became profitable within two months of its introduction. That same year, courtesy of a piece by Sarah Lacy of Tech Crunch, NollywoodLove gained the attention of Tiger Global, a US-based venture capital group looking to expand its reach in emerging areas.
Tiger Global provided a $3 million Series A investment in 2010, and on December 1, 2011, the business launched iROKOtv, a standalone video-on-demand movie platform.
The site attracted visitors from 178 countries across the world. Njoku and Gotter have since raised an additional $22 million from international venture capitalists, including Investment AB Kinnevik and RISE Capital, and have used the funds to build an extensive film catalogue of 5,000 films, open offices in Lagos, New York, and London, and invest in the company’s technology resources. Iroko went on to make more financial investments totalling $40 million.
In 2015, Njoku opted to focus the company’s efforts on an Android mobile app rather than a streaming platform to address Africa’s internet infrastructure issues. In July 2012, Forbes Africa named him one of the ‘Ten Young African Millionaires to Watch’.
On August 29, 2013, Njoku was named the CNBC All Africa Business Awards Young Leader of the Year for West Africa. He has also been recognised as one of Fast Company’s Top 1000 Most Creative People in Business.
In August 2013, Njoku and his business partners, Bastian Gotter and Mary Remmy Njoku, founded Spark, a $2 million investment vehicle for Lagos-based Internet start-ups.
The company initially invested in 11 companies, including Drinks.ng, a real estate and property online letting agency called ToLet.com.ng, and Hotels.ng, a hotel room booking site that raised $1.2 million in venture capital from EchoVC Pan-Africa Fund and Omidyar Network.
In a blog post in 2015, Jason Njoku announced the closure of four startups that were considered failed businesses: Bus.com.ng (an online bus ticketing service), Insured.ng (an insurance comparison platform), Giddimint.com.ng (an online fashion store), and Christians.ng.
Jason Njoku Wife
On August 18, 2012, Njoku married Nollywood film actor and producer Mary Remmy Njoku at Festac Town in Lagos, Nigeria. They welcomed their first son, Jason Obinna Njoku, on July 30, 2013. Their second child, Nwakaego Annabel Njoku, was born on August 24, 2015. Their third child, Nnenna Amber Njoku, was born on August 4, 2017.
Jason Njoku Net Worth
Jason Njoku’s net worth is expected to be over $52 million as of 2024, owing to his ownership position in iROKOtv and investments in several African tech businesses through his venture capital firm, Spark.
Social Media
Instagram: @jasonnjoku
