We missed it; it turns out that Abeg which sponsored BBNaija had been acquired by PiggyVest parent company, PiggyTech, according to dnbstories: “Abeg was acquired (very secretly) by its older and richer industry peer – Piggytech, the parent company of PiggyVest. Unlike Abeg, PiggyVest is doing well and is actually one of Nigeria’s most popular savings app. In fact, PiggVest easily makes the list of Nigeria’s most valued fintech startups.” They just renamed Abeg to Pocket. I think that is a more respectable name.
Pocket (formerly Abeg) is a social commerce and payments app from Piggyvest. The company was launched officially in 2021 as a payments platform for sending and receiving money and has now evolved into a full social commerce app with payments embedded. Micro-entrepreneurs can upload items directly from their Instagram with one click, add delivery options and rates, set price, and quantity, add pictures, and videos, escrow funds and can even allow for negotiation within one secure app.
Big lesson: until you have a great product-market fit, spending $$millions on advertising will not help you. Great companies attain that product market fit first before they begin to blitzscale. That is the only way you can retain customers and get the best investors (the customers) to support your mission. Otherwise, you can spend $$millions on BBNaija and still struggle.
Abeg spent heavily on promotion but it struggled to have a great product market fit at a point it could make money. Of course, great companies could be sold, and that does mean that even extremely amazing companies can decide to exit the market. It could be that Abeg has generated great value and wants to cash out! But I will not vote on that, at this phase of its growth.
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The name was Abeg, they were still begging but at the same time throwing wild parties, renting biggest stages; with someone’s money…
This is the sort of thing politicians do greatly – spending other people’s money, now the supposed entrepreneurs have mastered the art.
It’s only customers’ money that can validate you as a business, no amount of investors’ money can do that for you.
The illusion continues…
Piggyvest has always owned Abeg
Abi o
Nah, they bought it last year. It was on the news.
I never saw this coming.
they bough abeg way before the BBNaija show. So it’s actually piggyvest spending on BBN not Abeg
My favorite apps.
I think so too.
Piggy bank my favorite app…
Never underestimate the power of a name. It’s not just a name!
I honestly never liked the name. From the first second I heard the name, I was like “who names a company abeg?” The value had to be “Wow” for it to overshadow the name
There is something subconscious about the name that just didn’t cut it for me.
It has a subtly condescending aura about it.
I totally agree with the writer. Product-market fit is very important. The moment all the marketing buzz dies down, the customers fizzle away with it.
They were just shouting all over the place.
I can see myself using the app now with the name change.
My thoughts exactly, I have been using PiggyVest for about two years, when they incorporated the abeg in their app and requested we linked, though it was optional, I refused to link mine.
Despite their sponsorship of BBN, I just didn’t see the relevant of the app. It functions weren’t just unique to me.
Good PiggyVest acquired it. Now I can now start using pocket. Lol*
Piggy only renamed it – words on in the street was they already bought Abeg before BBN
There is a game going on here. If PiggyVest had bought the company way before the BBN show then they are trying to cover up something. Trying to spread disinformation or or what?
Abeg was use to lauder money as a fintech company. If u know d real owners u wud know how far.