Founded in the London School of Economics by Preston Ideh, Abdul Abdulrahim, Foluso Ogunlana, and Michael Famoroti, Stears’ mission is to become the world’s most trusted provider of African insight and data.
Launched in 2017, Stears has grown gradually to become an important publication focused on data and information about the Nigerian economy.
The idea for Stears had been a few years in the making. While they were students, the group identified that getting data about Nigeria is difficult.
Stears is the answer company for Africa because they leverage technology to provide subscription-based data and insight to global businesses and professionals.
This information dearth makes it challenging for decision-makers, businesses, and ordinary Nigerians to understand developments in the country.
Stears Business, Stears’ flagship publication, was created with this in mind. The platform provides analytical articles about the Nigerian economy and government policies.
It also produces a long-form weekly newsletter and its number of subscribers is growing.
During the 2019 elections in Nigeria, the team developed a real-time election data center. Stears Business also developed a live COVID-19 case monitoring platform.
Until 2018, Stears Business operated a very low-cost model. It had no full-time writer nor did it pay writers to produce articles. Instead, the content was generated by its network of writers who produced articles for free.
This typically included students at various universities and domain experts in areas like economics, finance, and policy making.
In 2019 the company launched Stears Data, its analytics, and data intelligence arm. Stears Data focuses on reports, research, and a few other data products.
By 2020, the company had unveiled CoreData, its flagship data platform for the enterprise.
On its website, Stears is an example of a new generation of media companies that are challenging the traditional model of heavy advertising dependency and analog newsrooms.
The company has been aggregating and structuring data including publicly available data and its proprietary data. CoreData provides economic and demographic data on Nigeria for use by governments, development institutions, and companies.
While Stears’ platform has become quite popular, the company doesn’t run adverts. Revenue comes from selling reports and rendering exclusive advisory services to clients.
This business model required a lot of work to pull off. They had to create a publication that was of high quality and well respected with a brand that is well appreciated.
How it Works
Data
Their data helps clients understand the disruptive trends, transformations, and technologies shaping Africa, the world’s fastest-growing continent.
They use macroeconomic and financial data, analytical models, and data collection tools to answer research questions on the future of Africa.
Additionally, they provide historical and real-time data, indices, reports, whitepapers, and briefs to inform investment and policy decisions.
Their intelligence assesses how economics, public policy, disruptive technologies, and regulation affect the digital and real economy, including financial services & fintech, digital commerce, transport, energy, and agriculture.
Editorial Stance
The editorial division at Stears produces data-driven insight & analysis on African economies, emphasizing Nigeria, Africa’s largest economy.
A simple promise drives their editorial team; to provide original, analytical, well-written stories that make sense of African economies.
On top of that, their goal is to provide insight for transparent, rigorous, and coherent thinking.
They permit all inoffensive ideologies to inform their readers and also advocate the explicit revelation of the underlying assumptions, theories, and context used in all analyses, ensuring that readers understand the assumptions guiding our insight.
Submitting Articles
You can publish content on Stears Business by joining the Writer’s Network or by submitting a guest article.
The Writer’s Network is a community of volunteer contributors who are frequently published on Stears Business.
As a member, you can expect to be held to the highest standards of analysis and knowledge.
Additionally, contributors may submit one-off articles without joining the Writer’s Network.
To ensure your article follows their editorial guidelines for publishing, know that a good Stears article is heavily evidenced-based, is not an opinion piece, is not promotional or branded, and has a clear narrative.
Founders
Preston Timeyin Ideh
Preston Timeyin Ideh is the Co-Founder & CEO at Stears.
Foluso Olabode Ogunlana
Foluso Ogunlana is the Co-Founder & CTO at Stears.
Investors & Funding Rounds
Luminate Group
Stears has raised $600,000 in seed funding. The funding came from undisclosed Nigerian investors with participation from Luminate, a philanthropic organization founded by the Omidyar Group.
It will use the new funding to grow its team, collect data, and build out its media and information products by prioritizing quality.
The company is also contributing to rebuilding public trust in the media in Nigeria, while simultaneously building up a cohort of talented young writers contributing to public dialogue.
Main Competitors
SpringML: This is a data analytics company that helps its customers make informed decisions through seamless machine learning integrations.
AppLearn: It is a pioneering digital adoption company and creator of the Adopt digital adoption solution.
Global Data Consortium: This is building a process for global digital identity verification for businesses.
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