AfroCharts soars into growth mode

Startup founder Leonard Novati is having a great summer.

His company, AfroCharts, is gaining global attention. Founded in 2020, software engineer and native Burundian Novati created the only music sharing and streaming platform exclusively for African artists.

“We have reached over 100K users signed up,” Novati said. “This is a huge milestone, as users can use our app and website without having to create an account. But over 100,000 people decided to create an AfroCharts account!”

The company’s database of music is growing, along with its number of listeners. “We now have over 12,000 artists on our platform,” Novati said.

AfroCharts has also achieved a milestone on Google Play. “We also reached over 100,000 app downloads in the Google Play store for our android app,” he said.

Google recently featured the company in its #WeArePlay promotion, which highlights three companies from each state that are using Google Play as part of their business. Wisconsin’s featured businesses are AfroCharts, as well as Milwaukee-based SydeTasker and Madison’s PerBlue.

Novati is happy to be recognized by Google. “Definitely recognitions like this help us build more trust with our users. Since the Google Play feature, we have seen artists that we have been trying to convince to join our platform come back to get more information, and some of them ended up joining the platform,” he said.

AfroCharts has also been named as a semifinalist in Black Ambition’s second annual entrepreneurship contest. The Black Ambition Prize is a tiered opportunity to compete for $1 million and learn with a network of talented founders and business leaders across sectors.

Founded by recording artist Pharrell Williams in 2020, Black Ambition invests capital and resources in high-growth startups founded by Black and Latinx entrepreneurs innovating across consumer products and services, media and entertainment, healthcare, technology, and Web 3.0. During the inaugural prize cycle in 2021, Black Ambition awarded $3.2 million in funding support to 34 founders and supported an additional 250 entrepreneurs with mentorship to strengthen their ventures.

To connect with this Milwaukee-based company with a global following, click here.