KEY POINTS

• Mr Eazi’s businesses and investments now span 18 African markets.
• His portfolio blends music, fintech, payments and real estate.
• Zagadat Capital is the hub for most Mr Eazi businesses and investments.

Oluwatosin Ajibade, better known as Mr Eazi, has long been known for music that travels easily across borders. What is less visible is the business structure he has been assembling behind that public career. His corporate footprint now spans entertainment, technology, payments, consumer goods, and real estate, with operations or investments in at least 18 African countries.

Much of this has been funded through his firm, Zagadat Capital, though several deals are anchored in brands he created himself. Taken together, they form one of the most diverse business collections owned by any African artist today. ‘

Below is a clear look at 20 ventures linked to Mr Eazi through filings, interviews, public disclosures and industry reporting.

1. emPawa Africa/emPawa Music

emPawa has become the core of Mr Eazi’s music enterprise. It operates as an incubator, label and services outfit, taking on artist development, financing, marketing and distribution. The company backs emerging African acts with advances and mentorship while building a catalogue that now shapes parts of the wider Afrobeats scene.

2. Banku Music

Before emPawa, he worked through Banku Music, an imprint tied to the distinctive sound that lifted his early career. It still appears across his official bios and remains part of the larger system that supports his touring and recorded work.

3. Africa Music Fund (AMF)

In 2020, he introduced the Africa Music Fund, targeting roughly $20 million for artists. The model uses streaming and data insights to underwrite advances, treating royalties as an investable asset in a way that sits between venture capital and traditional label financing.

4. Detty Rave and Detty December IP

Detty Rave began as an Accra concert and grew into an annual event with global pull. The brand feeds into the December tourism wave in Ghana and generates revenue through ticketing, sponsorships and hospitality deals.

5. Zagadat Capital

Zagadat Capital is the formal structure through which he makes most of his deals. Its portfolio spans entertainment, fintech, consumer products and infrastructure, including emPawa, Eden Life, betPawa, PawaPay, Ruka Hair, Vydia and other companies in Africa and overseas.

6. The Choplife Company

The Choplife Company has become the umbrella for several of Mr Eazi’s lifestyle-facing ventures. It sits at the intersection of entertainment, hospitality, philanthropy and gaming, with filings across different markets naming him as chief executive. The company runs branded experiences and public events and has quietly formed the backbone for many of the new ventures he has rolled out in the last few years.

7. Choplife Gaming

Choplife Gaming is the gaming-focused arm of the Choplife group, operating and licensing sports betting products in multiple African countries. The company has signed long-term licensing and franchise agreements with pawaTech Group to develop and expand the betPawa brand in Nigeria and other markets. Mr Eazi is publicly listed as chairman, showing how central this business is to his larger portfolio. The venture reflects his decision to take a structured, multi-market approach to gaming, a sector defined by strict regulation, high competition and strong margins for operators with the right technology partners.

8. betPawa

Beyond the licensing ties, Mr Eazi also holds equity in the parent structure behind betPawa. Across several African markets, he has been associated with the brand’s operations and expansion, often described as a key figure in shaping its on-the-ground growth. betPawa functions as one of the continent’s fastest-moving digital entertainment businesses, and his involvement aligns closely with his “chop life” lifestyle positioning. The brand sits in a booming segment where mobile money, instant payments and sports culture intersect.

9. PawaPay

PawaPay stands as one of his most significant technology bets. Based in the UK, the company provides mobile-money payments infrastructure across more than 15 African markets. The platform has crossed one billion transactions and positions itself as a core payments rail for everything from gaming platforms to e-commerce companies. Mr Eazi is widely cited as a co-founder and investor.

10. Eden Life

Through Zagadat Capital, he holds a stake in Eden Life, a Nigerian startup that offers a subscription bundle for meals, laundry and home cleaning. The service is targeted at young urban professionals who outsource time-consuming domestic tasks. Eden Life represents a structured attempt to formalise an informal sector while building predictable revenue through weekly and monthly plans.

11. Ruka Hair

Ruka Hair is a UK–Nigeria beauty brand that designs textured hair extensions and products that reflect natural curl patterns. Through Zagadat’s portfolio, Ruka is highlighted as a key consumer-facing investment. The company operates within a fast-growing global sector built around Afro-textured hair, a market underserved for decades by traditional beauty conglomerates.

12. Paisa

Paisa is a Mexican fintech that focuses on lending and cross-border financial services. His investment through Zagadat Capital shows his willingness to look beyond Africa when market conditions mirror those of the continent. Paisa targets communities dependent on remittances and informal lending systems, creating a parallel with financial inclusion challenges common across African markets. This illustrates his belief that similar problems often require similar solutions, regardless of geography.

13. Apata

Apata appears repeatedly in descriptions of his investment portfolio, positioned as an Irish startup focused on fraud prevention and risk infrastructure. Its technology responds to the rapid rise in digital payments and mobile money across emerging markets. As transaction volumes surge, identity verification and anti-fraud layers become central to financial stability. Apata gives him exposure to the often unseen infrastructure that makes digital commerce viable.

14. Shoobs

Shoobs is an events and ticketing platform operating within the entertainment ecosystem. Mr Eazi has spoken publicly about using Shoobs to handle ticketing for Detty Rave, reinforcing its operational role in his event business. His stake in the company links his touring and festival brands with a platform that benefits directly from his audience traffic. It’s a straightforward alignment: his shows create demand, and Shoobs processes the sales.

15. Vydia (exited)

His most widely reported exit came through Vydia, the U.S. distribution and rights-management platform later acquired in a major transaction by Gamma. At the height of the acquisition coverage, some online reports exaggerated the story into claims that he “sold his company for $1 billion,” though later reporting clarified he was an investor, not a majority owner. Even so, Vydia stands out as an important liquidity event for Zagadat Capital and a moment that drew international attention to his investing track record.

16. Decagon

He is also an investor in Decagon, a Nigerian engineering talent company that trains software developers and connects them to job opportunities at home and abroad. The business complements his broader tech commitments because many of the companies he backs, payments platforms, consumer apps, logistics firms, depend on a reliable supply of technical talent. Decagon positions itself as a pipeline for that demand while building careers for young Nigerian developers.

17. Cape Town Tigers

Mr Eazi holds shares in the Cape Town Tigers, a professional basketball team competing in the Basketball Africa League. The investment introduces him to Africa’s emerging sports economy, where sponsorships, merchandising and broadcast rights are beginning to build sustainable business models. It also gives him another foothold in lifestyle and entertainment sectors beyond music.

18. ADHI Rwanda

In Rwanda, he has partnered with ADHI on modular and affordable housing projects. Reports around the collaboration describe it as part of his effort to broaden his business reach into East Africa. His involvement includes both board participation and financial commitments. The partnership reflects a move into essential infrastructure at a time when several African cities face significant housing deficits.

19. Kigali housing estate

Separate from his work with ADHI, social and business reports link him to a housing estate project in Kigali. The development places him directly in the real estate sector, with investment tied to physical assets rather than only digital platforms. It underscores a strategy of pairing long-term, income-generating properties with shorter-cycle tech ventures.

20. Choplife Limited

Choplife Limited appears in emPawa and investor communications as one of the companies into which Zagadat Capital has invested. It acts as a structural backbone for the wider Choplife ecosystem, housing interests across festivals, gaming, hospitality and other ventures still in development. It functions as both a corporate shell and a staging ground for whatever new expansions the group pursues.