TruSpot: Africa gets its own Spotify

Ikenna "Ike" Ouizo is the founder and CEO of TruSpot, a service he describes as the "Spotify for Africa". Truspot, which offers Africa-specific content, is run out of Texas, but will move to its conceptual birthplace, Nigeria, later this month.

The groundwork for TruSpot came in the form of a podcast Ouizo started five years ago, but only became the streaming and play-listing platform it is today late last year.

"I started the podcast in December 2006," Ouizo tells TechCentral. "Then it became live streaming radio shows in 2007 and 2008, and at the time it was a game changer in that there were no live shows for African music online then."

Ouizo and a friend had the idea for a podcast of African music and registered the domain after noticing Yahoo had a US$9 domain name sale. Ouizo says it was the best investment of his life. He said the idea of venture capitalism and other investment was a foreign concept when he was starting the site at just 19.

"I didn't know you could walk up to investors in Silicon Valley and get funding. I've been funding it myself from the start, and it's only this year that I'm starting to get interest from potential investors," he says. "I'm looking for investors now. I want African ones where possible, because I think they'll understand the vision better."

Read the full story on www.TechCentral.co.za