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US-based Aries Media Ventures has launched Aries Media Ventures Fund I, an early-stage venture fund investing in media-tech startups serving sub-Saharan Africa.
The fund has begun deploying capital, with initial investments in three startups: Aktivate, a creator marketing platform operating in Nigeria; HustleSasa, an events commerce platform based in Nairobi, Kenya; and Book Mahali, a venue booking and hospitality platform operating in Kenya.
Aries Media Ventures originated as Aries Media Project, a professional network that launched in 2023 to connect media and entertainment startups in emerging markets to investors, operators and industry experts concentrated in global media centres such as Los Angeles, New York and London. After three years of facilitating introductions between early-stage founders and executives at global media companies, Aries evolved its model to invest directly in the founders and businesses it believed were building the future of media.
Founding general partner Alykhan Kaba has spent more than a decade working across media, entertainment, technology and corporate development at companies including Live Nation, Entertainment One, Activision Blizzard and NBCUniversal.
“Throughout my career, I was struck by how often the largest media companies were looking globally for growth while overlooking some of the most interesting innovation happening in emerging markets,” said Kaba. “Aries takes a different approach: identifying exceptional founders building for markets that are often underserved by traditional venture capital, and bringing them the capital, industry expertise and relationships they need to thrive.”
Aries Media Ventures Fund I invests at the angel, pre-seed and seed stages, with a focus on tech-enabled businesses operating at the intersection of media, entertainment and commerce.
The fund sources companies through two complementary approaches. First, Aries identifies founders who are already building businesses addressing significant opportunities in their markets. Second, the firm partners with established media companies to identify the operational and commercial challenges they face when expanding into international markets. It then connects those problems with founders who are capable of building solutions around them.
“Media is becoming increasingly global, but the capital and networks available to media entrepreneurs remain highly concentrated,” said Kaba. “Capital bears the burden of going where the innovation is, not vice versa. Our goal is to close that gap.”
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