With an investment model built on revenue-share and IP equity and an image rights licensing platform in development, Lagos-based GAAGA World is not pitching a better agency. It is pitching a new category.
The pitch for GAAGA World is not subtle. Africa’s creative economy is heading toward $2.6 trillion by 2030, according to the African Development Bank. The global creator economy is already valued at around $500 billion, per Goldman Sachs. And yet, the operational infrastructure that would allow African creators to capture a meaningful portion of either figure has never been built. GAAGA World, founded in Lagos in 2025 by Damilare Adeyemi and Alese Ayomide Salban, is the company that says it is building it.
Digital Creators’ Awards night in Lagos last week
The comparison the founders reach for most often is Y Combinator: not the specific mechanics of a batch programme, but the institutional function. A company that the most ambitious people in its space choose first, because it is built to take their ambitions seriously and has the infrastructure, the capital, and the network to help them execute. What YC became for technology startups globally, GAAGA World intends to become for African creative talent. It is a large claim. The architecture behind it is more specific than the headline.
