Spoink is a South African social media platform where every post is six words or less. It is live on the App Store, Google Play and the web. The founder is seeking an investor or strategic partner for a minority stake of about 21%, at a US$1.2M pre-money valuation (about R19.7M). The founder stays CEO and keeps a clear majority.
The opportunity
Short posts load fast, use little data and are easy to share, which suits mobile-first audiences across Africa. The product already includes Stories, video posts, a Discover tab, search, notifications, collections, link sharing and music tagging that links to streaming apps. Next on the roadmap are daily prompts and weekly challenges to bring people back, an advertising platform, and AI-suggested six-word ideas. Because the product is already built, most of the money goes into marketing and user growth.
Where it is today
Small number of early users, all organic, with no paid marketing yet
No revenue yet. The planned model is native six-word sponsored posts, self-serve advertising and brand partnerships
A working product on Flutter, Node.js and Firebase, with analytics in PostHog
Built and run by a solo founder in Johannesburg, who took the idea from a notebook sketch to a live product.
The deal
Investment sought: US$300,000 (about R4.9M). Of this, US$220,000 goes to the company as new shares and US$80,000 (R1.3M) buys existing shares from the founder
Valuation: US$1.2M pre-money, US$1.42M post-money (about R23.4M), set by the founder from the product, the market opportunity and the team. The company is pre-revenue, and the founder is open to discussing it
Stake offered: about 21%. The founder keeps a clear majority
Structure: new shares plus a partial sale of founder shares. A SAFE at the same valuation is an alternative
Use of company funds (US$220,000): marketing and user acquisition (38.5%), founder salary (26.5%), infrastructure (15%), team (10%), product including the advertising platform (5%), legal and corporate (5%)
Ideal investor
An investor, media company or telecoms operator that wants a minority stake in an early-stage social product with an African focus, and values a small, focused team. The founder stays CEO and keeps day-to-day control.
What the investor gets
Shares in SPOINK (PTY) LTD, the company that owns the product, source code, brand and domain
A shareholders’ agreement setting out the investor’s rights, such as information rights, protection against dilution and, if agreed, a board or observer seat
Regular updates from the founder on users, product and spending against the plan
Next steps
Contact us for the full summary. The detailed figures and the cap table are shared after an NDA.
