Michael Ajereh, popularly known as Don Jazzy, recently announced a partnership deal involving millions of dollars with Kupanda Holdings, an investment firm capitalising pan-African companies.
In 2017, legendary music producer, Don Jazzy—CEO of Mavin Records Limited—joined Flobyt Technologies Limited—a company providing free WiFi in public spaces—as a Co-founder and Director leading their creative content strategies.
Over the past decade, Mr Ajereh has grown his music enterprise from a local record label to a continental one and with this new investment, he hopes to take it global.
Our mission is to grow Mavin Global into the music powerhouse of Africa.
Michael AjerehPresident, Mavin Global
Yes, Mavin Global. Mavin Global is the name of the joint-venture between Kupanda Holdings and Mavin Records Limited, for which Mr Ajereh is the President.
Prior to founding Mavin Records in 2012, Don Jazzy had previously co-founded Mo’Hits, the record label behind the smash hit “You Bad” by Wande Coal ft. D’banj—Mo’Hits co-founder.
Don Jazzy’s not-so-new record label, Mavin, is home to locally-raised stars like Tiwa Savage (1st African female Pepsi Ambassador), and Korede Bello. With the new investment, they hope to attract international artist to the new company.
…Mavin is now ready to grow our artist roster across the continentand partner at a global scale…
Tega Oghenejobo—Chief Operating Officer, Mavin Records Limited
Speaking on the investment, Bobby Pittman—Managing Partner, Kupanda Holdings—showed his trust in Don Jazzy’s leadership.
Between Don Jazzy’s legacy of defining the sound of modern Afrobeats and developing top African artists, Mavin Global has a unique advantage and opportunity to build the record label that will accelerate bringing African popular music to the world.
We are impressed by the Mavin team’s experience and are pleased to partner with them in their next phase of growth.
Bobby Pittman—Managing Partner, Kupanda Holdings
Existing Mavin members have shown their optimism about the partnership signalling that their music to reach a more global audience faster.
I’m overjoyed to be part of this new era for Mavin. With the support of this team, I’m excited to release new music for my fans and connect with even more music lovers across the world.
Korede Bello, Mavin artist
Even though this feels like such a good time to be a part of the Mavin’s crew (as they sometimes like to be called, see Dorobucci), one of the artists announced his departure from the label just last month.
Michael Ajereh (aka Don Jazzy) has clearly dipped his hands in a couple of entrepreneurial waters (core tech and music business), however, what remains to be seen is how he hopes to combine this bigger goal with his involvement at Flobyt.
Currently, it feels like American multinational, Google, has cannibalised Flobyt’s eyed-lunch; to deploy free wifi in public spaces—via their Google Station initiative, which came months after Flobyt announced their WiFi business launch. However, their approach is different. Google is targetting heavily-visited central public spaces like airports, malls and campuses, while Flobyt started from partner locations like Restaurants, and Cafes.
Still, there have been questions about Flobyt’s business model and growth trajectory. While we cannot verify how his tech business is going, we wish him all the best of luck in his new-ish endeavour, one he has a lot more experience in running.
