Amid the revenue growth chaos that has knocked leading streaming platform, Netflix, off balance, Africa’s Wi-flix is recording ground-breaking growth.

Launched just over a year ago, Wi-flix, Africa’s fastest-growing video-on-demand streaming platform has passed the one million plus paid subscriptions and 300k plus customer milestone.

The online streaming platform has grown quickly in recent months with more content and distribution partnerships and more titles being added to its library resulting in major customer attraction.

To celebrate this milestone, Wi-flix is offering the first 1000 customers to use the code WIFLIX1MILLION, a FREE access for 48 hours to binge all their favourite movies, series, kids content, and live tv shows.

Co-Founder and Chief Commercial and Technology Officer at Wi-flix, Louis Manu highlighted his delight at the strides made over a short period in operation.

“We hit the 1,000,000th paid subscription milestone on the 3rd of March, 2022 exactly 12:13 GMT+1 by Elue, our valued customer from Nigeria. We placed a call to Elue to share this special moment and thank him specially for being a loyal customer.

“To reach 1 million-plus subscriptions by over 300k plus customers in just a little over a year is a remarkable benchmark for any streaming platform that we don’t take for granted. We have recorded a 51% and 61% growth in revenues and subscriptions simultaneously in Q1 of 2022. Daily customer re-subscription turnover stands at an average of 22x in the past 3 months as against an average of 9x in 2021,” he said.

“We believe in the unbeatable product proposition we offer to our customers and the incredible team of experts we assembled since we launched however reaching this milestone in this short while affirms that indeed we are on the right track to greater achievements,” he added.

Wi-flix plans to expand its services to other African markets including South Africa, Lesotho, Kenya, Democratic Republic of Congo, Mozambique, Zambia, and Tanzania soon after its launch in Ghana and Nigeria offering exciting and diversified African entertainment content to customers.

Governments across Africa have been advocating local content inclusion, and for companies like Wi-flix, it’s a good strategy to win consumers.

“On the back of positive feedback from our esteemed customers so far has also ignited the need to continue the roll-out of innovative features, original titles, and a host of developments in the pipeline. Here’s to many more milestones for the Wi-flix family,” Manu said.

Bright Yeboah, Co-Founder and Chief Operations Officer said the company plans to offer “multi-angle content” that would include contents from Africa.

“We are very thrilled to be hitting these audacious numbers in a little over a year in operations bringing in more contents shuffling across a variety of playlists like blockbuster movies, documentaries, drama series, animations, Live TV and music videos.

“We can assure our customers all around the world of our promise to expand our offerings of multi-angle content, including Wi-flix originals and more quality content from renowned filmmakers from Africa and around the world,” he said.

Revenue in the Video Streaming (SVoD) segment is projected to reach $82.43 billion in 2022. Revenue is expected to show an annual growth rate (CAGR 2022-2026) of 8.89%, resulting in a projected market volume of $115.90 billion by 2026, according to data from Statista. With Wi-flix’s rapid growth rate, the newbie is expected to grab a large share of this lucrative future, dominating African movie streaming market.

Elon Musk has racked up a host of investors to back his $44 billion Twitter acquisition, which he pulled off with a personal fund and backing from Morgan Stanley. Musk’s Twitter takeover, which is centered on free speech, faced resistance from Twitter board and criticism from a large section of people who believe it would heighten racial hatred, disinformation, bullying among other social media vices.

Having scaled the hurdles by defeating Twitter board’s poison pill and securing the funding, Musk is now receiving interest from individuals and companies willing to bet big to support his aim.

Equity investors have provided $7 billion according to a SEC filing. Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison, who is also an investor in Tesla through the Lawrence J Ellison Revocable Fund, leads other investors with $1 billion. Other investors include Sequoia Capital with $800 million, VyCapital with $700 million, Binance with $500 million and Andreessen Horowitz with $400 million amongst others.

Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao told the Financial Times on Thursday that the half a billion dollars that the crypto exchange is investing is a blank check as he has not heard so much as a business plan from Musk.

“We, from our friends, heard that [Musk] was looking for third party investors, and are we interested?,” he recounted to the British newspaper. “We immediately said that we are. He didn’t have a plan for Twitter. There isn’t, like, a business plan. So it wasn’t that type of discussion.”

Zhao said that Binance will support Musk however he chooses to use the funds and is especially excited about the potential of a cryptocurrency tie-in with Twitter.

“It’s more of a blank check,” Zhao told the outlet. “After the investment…Elon will figure out what he wants to do, and we’ll be supportive of that.”

“We hope to be able to play a role in bringing social media and web3 together and broadening the use and adoption of crypto and blockchain technology,” he said in a tweet on Thursday.

Other investors have also expressed optimism that Musk’s takeover will turn the fortune of the bird app around for investors. Musk has a pedigree of running successful companies. Having started many successful companies, including Paypal, SpaceX and Boring Company from scratch, the world’s richest man doesn’t need much words to convince investors.

Musk said on Tuesday that he plans to monetize Twitter in a way that it will serve casual users free while governments and businesses will be charged a slight fee.

The new infusion of funds will certainly reduce the $12.5 billion margin loan he had received from Morgan Stanley and other banks, cutting it down to $6.25 billion. He also increased his total equity commitment to $27.25 billion.

Meanwhile, Orlando Police Pension Fund has sued Musk and Twitter over the acquisition. The proposed class action filed in Delaware Chancery Court is seeking to stop the acquisition on the ground that Delaware law forbade a quick merger.

Per Reuters, the Police Pension Fund said Musk had agreements with other big Twitter shareholders, including his financial adviser Morgan Stanley and Twitter founder Jack Dorsey, to support the buyout.

The fund said those agreements made Musk, who owns 9.6% of Twitter, the effective “owner” of more than 15% of the company’s shares. It said that required delaying the merger by three years unless two-thirds of shares not “owned” by him granted approval.

Morgan Stanley owns about 8.8% of Twitter shares and Dorsey owns 2.4%.

The lawsuit, which includes Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey and CEO Parag Agrawal as defendants, also seeks to declare that Twitter directors breached their fiduciary duties, and recoup legal fees and costs, according to Reuters.

Dorsey has openly supported Musk’s bid to acquire Twitter, saying he is the “singular solution” he trusts to lead the company. Musk is said to be in talk with Dorsey for a possible investment in the acquisition.

Sanlam, the largest non-banking financial services company in Africa, and Allianz, one of the world’s leading insurers and asset managers have agreed to combine their current and future operations across Africa to create the largest Pan-African non-banking financial services entity on the continent.

With this collaboration, customers across Africa will benefit from the expertise and financial strength of two respected and well-known brands. The joint venture will house the business units of both Sanlam and Allianz in the African countries where one or both companies have a presence. Namibia will be included at a later stage and South Africa is excluded from the agreement.

The combined operations of Sanlam and Allianz will create a premier Pan-African non-banking financial services entity, operating in 29 countries across the continent. The joint venture will be the largest Pan-African insurance player and is expected to be ranked in the top three, in the majority of the markets where the entity will operate. The entity is expected to have a combined total group equity value (GEV) in excess of 33 billion South African rand (approximately 2 billion euros).

Sanlam and Allianz will leverage each other’s strengths to unlock synergies and provide customers with best-in-class, innovative insurance solutions and technical excellence. The joint venture will create value for all stakeholders through greater economies of scale, broader geographic presence, larger combined market share, and a more diversified product offering.

Combining Sanlam’s expertise in Africa with Allianz’s global capabilities and insurance solutions, particularly for multinational businesses, the partnership aims to increase life and general insurance penetration, accelerate product innovation and drive financial inclusion in high-growth African markets.

“In line with Sanlam’s stated ambition to be a leading Pan-African financial services group, the proposed joint venture will enable us to take a significant step towards realising that ambition. It will also strengthen our leadership position in multiple key markets that are core to our Africa strategy, building quality and scale where it matters. We are delighted to have Allianz as partners and believe their expertise and financial strength will add tremendous value to our businesses,” said Sanlam Group CEO, Paul Hanratty.

Member of the Board of Management of Allianz SE, Christopher Townsend said among other things, the joint venture will help the Allianz to find a foothold in key markets.

“In accordance with our enterprise strategy to expand our leadership position through scale and new partnership models, Allianz is pleased to accelerate its growth in this important region through a partnership with the undisputed market leader. Sanlam’s capabilities extend our local reach and market penetration, and the joint venture allows us to establish leading positions in key growth markets for Allianz.

“Further, Sanlam shares our company values, our purpose of securing the future for our clients, and our long-term, generational approach to growing in new markets, he said”

The chairmanship of the joint venture partnership will rotate every two years between Sanlam and Allianz. The CEO of the entity will be named in due course. The agreement is subject to certain conditions precedent, including but not limited to the receipt of required approvals from competition authorities, financial/insurance regulatory authorities and any customary conditions that Sanlam and/or Allianz would be required to fulfill for each jurisdiction.