NewComma desires diasporan creators to be genuine and worthwhile

Lengthy gone are the times when tv, radio, and newspapers have been the dominant channels to seize the eye of an viewers. In at the moment’s digital world all one wants is secure web, some expertise, and, if doable, a sturdy advertising and marketing technique. The London-based social recruitment startup, NewComma, was based on this premise.

In Africa, the inventive sector is ready to swell to $20billion yearly by 2030 and supply an estimated 20 million jobs – figures prompting governments within the continent to arrange coverage methods to engineer GDP progress, financial diversification, and mirror the success of countries just like the UAE.

Childhood pals Natalie Narh and Nigel Atta-Mensah launched NewComma in 2020 to construct digital infrastructure for the world’s youngest continent to take part on this financial system. 

The mobile-first app connects African writers, musicians, actors, photographers, videographers, illustrators and different creatives to a world group of fellow creators and types. 

Unearthing Africa’s inventive expertise 

In the summertime of 2012, after an intensive four-day, paid images course in London, the British-Ghanaian duo, then college students at a world boarding college in Tema, Ghana, determined to share their learnings with schoolmates who didn’t have the identical alternative. That initiative and entry to a community of creatively-inclined people from completely different elements of the continent, turned a precursor to founding NewComma.

“We by no means actually had to consider Pan-Africanism as a principle,” stated Narh, NewComma’s CEO. “It was simply, ‘Oh my roommate is from Kenya, my roommate is Ethiopian and so on’, […] Naturally each concept that we considered wasn’t particular to Ghana, it was all the time particular to the continent and past as a result of that’s what was native to us.”

Nonetheless lively within the underground creative scene again dwelling in Ghana, Narh and Atta-Mensah collaborated once more in 2017 whereas attending college in England on a visible editorial collection titled, “The Cool Youngsters Undertaking”. The primary instalment of the mission featured then-emerging Ghanaian artists Darkovibes and the musical collective La Même Gang as cowl stars on mocks of prestigious trade publications like Fader, Complicated, and Paper. 

A number of years later, each musical acts landed precise options in Fader and Complicated respectively. By engineering that validation and seeing it turn out to be actual, the duo affirmed a principle they’ve had which is that African creatives usually are not usually perceived as commercially-viable till they’ve the eye of Western media.

“Particularly with African creatives, our expertise is all the time there, however folks don’t essentially recognise that expertise till we’ve garnered some Western validation,” says Narh. 

The duo launched NewComma in response, as a platform for African creatives to point out up authentically whereas in search of business viability on a world stage.

Preliminary work started on the platform in late 2019 and it launched to the general public in 2021. With it got here a user-friendly interface the place creators can arrange free profiles, have interaction with different creators on an intuitive social feed, add multimedia resumes that exhibit their abilities to different creators, potential collaborators, and employers.

Associate manufacturers can promote open roles on the platform’s job board to a distinct segment expertise pool prepared and capable of ship on tasks.

In 2023, the startup raised a £150,000 pre-seed spherical from SFC Capital, a UK-based early-stage funding agency. Following the elevate, Narh, then an Ogilvy and Billion Greenback Boy inventive govt, and banker Atta-Mensah (who’s COO), left their full-time jobs to decide to NewComma full-time.

An off-line/on-line method

Whereas platforms like Amaka, Contra, and LinkedIn have comparable choices, NewComma purports itself to be a first-of-its-kind all-in-one ‘phygital’ platform. Phygital, a compounding of the phrase bodily and digital, as Narh explains, “blends the very best of each worlds in a method that makes probably the most sense for [their] group.”

With over 60% of NewComma’s consumer base early-to-mid-level creatives, having alternatives to satisfy in-person with their potential collaborators and employers is invaluable. In June, 2025, the platform supplied 8 platinum passes for the inaugural South by Southwest (SXSW) week-long competition in London. 

Tunji Ogunoye, a model designer based mostly in London was one of many recipients of the SXSW cross. “As a newly immigrated African within the UK, being part of the group has additionally introduced me new connections which might be shortly turning into pals and collaborators,” Ogunoye says. “[NewComma] solves the group drawback, first, just about, and secondly, bodily by way of occasions and meet ups.”

NewComma operates on a freemium mannequin, providing important instruments without cost whereas unlocking superior options by way of upcoming paid memberships. Additionally they generate income from transaction charges and advert placements.

Ranging from £6 a month, creators can acquire entry to discounted occasion tickets, co-working areas, tools leases, studio time, restaurant vouchers, all issues that, for a remote-work preferring demographic, are essential for his or her creativity and incomes potential. 

Organisations that want to rent expertise can leverage NewComma’s 17,000+ creator base and over 60,000 throughout their social networks from simply £50 ($68). To this point, over 400 creatives have secured alternatives by way of the NewComma platform, based on the co-founders. 

Exterior of the normal full-time and part-time work preparations, listings on the NewComma job board can fluctuate from open requires exhibitions to arts residencies, competitions, exhibitions, and extra. Up to now they’ve partnered with main firms similar to Google, Getty Photographs, London College of Economics, Adjaye Associates, and Stratcomm Africa to supply diasporan African creators alternatives to attach and earn.  

Newly-added options like ‘Companies’ give creatives the choice to promote their abilities, and with a totally customisable ‘Undertaking Builder’, accomplice manufacturers can seamlessly sift by way of portfolios of creators all inside the app. An upgraded end-to-end applicant monitoring system additionally permits for exact reporting on dwell interactions between creators and firms.

A world stage with native acts

Regardless of being headquartered within the UK, NewComma has a world presence in key African markets with sturdy cultural dominance like Ghana, Nigeria, Kenya, South Africa, Uganda and Namibia. “We’re very a lot nonetheless continental extensive within the specific experiences that we’ve curated. For us it’s being very delicate to the assorted ways in which Africans work together with one another, digitally and bodily,” stated Narh.

It’s this community-led creativity and grounding within the wants of the viewers that offers creators a extra tactile and layered expertise, elevating connection initiated on the app. 

Since 2022, creatives on the platform have the chance each month to use for the NewComma Inventive Fund (NCF), a £100 micro grant to help their work. Within the final three years, the founders say they’ve disbursed over £8,000 to creators of their community. 

London-based anti-disciplinary artist Munotida Chinyanga who was the first-ever recipient of the grant stated, “It affirmed that my work was being seen and helped me maintain momentum throughout a difficult interval.”

Chinyanga added: “In an trade that always expects us to dilute our voices, they provide a platform that displays our complexity.”

For remote-working creatives on the continent, the place some spend as much as $15 a month, about 6% of month-to-month revenue, on information bills, these micro grants can provide a lifeline and far wanted monetary leeway to proceed creating.

Wanting forward, NewComma’s founders are persevering with a roll out of options to enhance the incomes potential of creators on their platform wherever they’re, together with a payout characteristic focused for a H2 2025 launch.

With a seed funding spherical underway, the duo are accelerating the following part of their progress plans to strengthen the standard of their core options and considerably scale their advertising and marketing efforts.

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