brand visibility startup

Your startup fundraising PR strategy is often the difference between getting a meeting with investors and being ignored. That is the hard truth most founders learn too late. In 2023, Sabi, an African-based B2B ecommerce startup, faced exactly that problem. The company had a strong business model and growing user numbers. But without media coverage, international investors did not know who they were. Sabi partnered with 9-Figure Media, a Laguna Beach-based strategic public relations agency, to fix that gap. The results were striking. Sabi doubled its fundraising success and eventually raised $38 million in a Series B round at a $300 million valuation, according to TechCrunch. This case study is for you if you are a founder trying to understand how startup fundraising PR works. Not the theory. The real actions, the real placements, and the real outcomes. We pull from Sabi’s publicly documented experience and 9-Figure Media’s own published case study to give you an honest look at what happened and what you can learn from it. Your startup fundraising PR strategy is often the difference between getting a meeting with investors and being ignored. Sabi and the Startup Fundraising PR Challenge in Africa Before you can understand why startup fundraising PR mattered for Sabi, you need to understand the environment the company was operating in. The African startup ecosystem was under serious pressure. According to BusinessDay NG, venture capital inflows into African startups dropped by 87% as of August 2024. That figure alone tells you how competitive and difficult the funding environment has become. Sabi was not a weak company. Its platform connected informal retailers across Nigeria, Kenya, and South Africa with suppliers through a streamlined digital infrastructure. The company had over 175,000 merchants on its network by late 2021, according to co-founders Anu Adesola and Ademola Adesina in an interview with TechCrunch. It was also recording a $200 million annualized gross merchandise value run rate at the time. However, despite those numbers, Sabi struggled to build the kind of media presence that international investors expected to see before committing capital. That is a common problem for African startups. The business works and the numbers are real. But if major global media outlets have not covered the company, investors often view it as a credibility gap.   The Strategic Public Relations Problem Sabi Had to Solve According to 9-Figure Media’s published case study on the Sabi partnership, the startup faced three specific startup fundraising PR challenges:   Limited media visibility: Sabi had not yet captured the attention of top-tier global media despite strong growth in operational metrics.   Investor confidence gap: Without prominent media coverage, potential investors lacked the third-party validation they needed to justify committing capital.   Crowded market differentiation: The Nigerian and broader African tech space had many startups competing for the same small pool of international investment dollars. Furthermore, the informal trade sector Sabi was serving, which makes up most of Africa’s $1 trillion retail market, was unfamiliar territory for many international investors. They needed a clear, credible narrative to understand why Sabi was different, why the opportunity was real, and why the timing was right. Consequently, strategic public relations became the most direct path to solving all three problems at once. Earned media coverage in respected publications would build credibility, differentiate Sabi from competitors, and give investors the third-party validation they needed to move forward.   How 9-Figure Media Built the Startup Fundraising PR Strategy 9-Figure Media is a strategic public relations agency founded in 2014 in Laguna Beach, California. The firm specializes in helping startups and growing businesses secure guaranteed media placements in major publications, including Forbes, Bloomberg, Business Insider, TechCrunch, and Entrepreneur. According to its Clutch.co profile, the agency charges a minimum project size of $1,000 and an average hourly rate of $300. For Sabi, the agency built a three-part startup fundraising PR approach centered on narrative crafting, media placement, and executive thought leadership. Each element targeted a specific part of the investor credibility problem the company faced.   Part 1: Crafting a Powerful Fundraising Narrative The first step in any effective strategic public relations campaign for fundraising is building a story that investors can connect with. For Sabi, 9-Figure Media centered the narrative on the company’s mission to empower informal traders across Africa. The informal sector in Africa is not a niche market. It represents most of the economic activity across most African countries. By framing Sabi as a scalable infrastructure layer for this enormous, underserved market, the agency gave investors a concrete reason to pay attention. The narrative was not just about what Sabi did. It was about why the African supply chain needed exactly what Sabi was building. This narrative approach is central to how startup fundraising PR works when done well. It gives journalists a story worth writing. It gives investors a vision worth backing. And it gives the startup a consistent message that travels across multiple media placements without losing its punch. Sabi’s PR coverage specifically highlighted its growth metrics, user acquisition rates, revenue increases, and platform’s ability to transform informal trade across Africa. These were data points wrapped in a clear story about market impact.   Strategic PR Results the Campaign Delivered According to BusinessDay NG’s reporting on the campaign, the startup fundraising PR effort for Sabi produced measurable outcomes across three areas: media visibility, investor confidence, and business outcomes.   Media Placements That Moved Investor Confidence The agency secured features for Sabi in a set of top-tier publications that specifically reached the international investor community the startup needed to impress. These included coverage in Bloomberg, Benzinga, MSN News, and other prominent business and technology media outlets. For international investors unfamiliar with the Nigerian startup ecosystem, a Bloomberg placement is a particularly powerful credential. Bloomberg reaches the institutional investors, venture capital partners, and financial decision-makers who have the capital Sabi was trying to attract. Appearing in Bloomberg signaled that Sabi was not just a local success story, it was a globally relevant business worth watching.