Ghanaian startup BoostMate describes itself as “Africa’s first hybrid youth activation platform”, helping brands recruit youth ambassadors to promote them physically and digitally.
Founded in 2023 after founders Augusta Addy, Emmanuel Akpe, Agnes Antwi and Ahmed Ekoume met through the MEST Africa incubation programme in Accra, BoostMate gives brands and agencies the infrastructure to recruit and onboard verified youth ambassadors – or “Boosters” – brief and coordinate them across social media campaigns and physical activations, verify task submission in real time, and deliver structured performance analytics and payout summaries at the close of each campaign.
“The hybrid model is the core differentiator. A brand running a campaign in Accra can brief Boosters to post on TikTok and show up at a physical activation point on the same platform, under the same reporting dashboard. No other platform, local or global does both. A campaign can be live in under 15 minutes,” Addy, the startup’s CEO.
“We serve two sides of a broken market – brands and agencies who cannot reach and mobilise Africa’s youth at scale with any accountability, and young Africans aged 18–35 who have audiences and energy but no structured, trusted platform to convert that into consistent income.”
Despite Africa having one of the youngest, most digitally active populations in the world, brands and agencies have lacked a reliable, accountable way to mobilise that youth base for campaigns.
“Coordination is manual – WhatsApp groups, spreadsheets, handshake deals, with no verification, no real-time tracking, and no standardised reporting. Campaigns that should take days to coordinate take weeks, and brands have no way to know if tasks were actually completed,” said Addy.
“On the other side, millions of young Africans have genuine reach and energy but face unstructured, inconsistent income opportunities with no trusted platform connecting them to brand work.”
BoostMate fills this gap, and has seen demand from the top end of the market. So far, it has onboarded over 1,400 verified Boosters, executed more than 250 campaigns, generated almost US$80,000 in campaign revenue, and driven a cumulative social reach of over 10 million across its Booster network.
“On campaign performance, our Booster-driven TikTok campaigns are averaging an 11.7 per cent engagement rate and Instagram campaigns are averaging 4.36 per cent – significantly above industry benchmarks for influencer marketing in the region. These numbers matter because they demonstrate that the community-based, ambassador-led model genuinely outperforms paid media and traditional influencer deals,” Addy said.
Growth has come through two distinct channels – direct brand relationships with clients like Bolt Ghana and UNICEF, and agency partnerships with Ogilvy Africa, Digital Mojo, and others.
“Both channels growing simultaneously is exactly the signal we wanted at this stage,” said Addy.
BoostMate received US$100,000 in funding through MEST Africa as part of its incubation, and is now raising a US$500,000 pre-seed extension to scale revenue growth across West Africa and build out its enterprise pipeline.
“We are currently entering Senegal and Nigeria – two markets with large, brand-active youth populations and strong demand for structured activation infrastructure,” said Addy.
“Senegal opens our Francophone West Africa corridor and is directly supported by our advisor Georges Charles Dieme, who has deep operational experience in that market. Nigeria is the continent’s largest consumer market and the natural next step for enterprise-grade campaign volume.”
Beyond this immediate wave, the startup’s expansion roadmap targets Ivory Coast and additional Francophone markets.
“Our five-year SOM target is US$50 million, within a US$15 billion serviceable market across West Africa and a US$50 billion-plus total addressable market across Africa-wide youth activation and campaign execution spend,” Addy said.
BoostMate operates three revenue streams. A fixed campaign management fee of US$100–US$500 per campaign, paid by brands and agencies; a platform and coordination margin structured into every campaign, covering the onboarding, tracking, and reporting infrastructure; and enterprise activation contracts for large seasonal or multi-market campaigns at significantly higher contract values.
“This is where brands like Samsung and UNICEF sit, and where our revenue per client scales most meaningfully,” Addy said.
“We are currently prioritising growth and market penetration over profitability, investing our pre-seed capital into the product, team, and market expansion that will drive the next phase of revenue.”
