Stears was founded by Preston Ideh.

Who are Stears's investors?

Stears's investors include Cascador, Future Africa, HoaQ, MaC Venture Capital, Serena Ventures.

How much funding has Stears raised?

Stears has disclosed $3.9M raised across 2 of its 3 known rounds.

Stears

56 employees on LinkedIn · 7 known investors

Find your way into Stears

Paths you didn't know you had: your email and LinkedIn already hold routes to the Stears team. We find them for you
2nd- and 3rd-degree connections: the friend-of-a-friend routes that take hours to manually find through your inbox or LinkedIn
Answers now, not in days: momentum is everything in a raise. Skip asking around whether someone knows someone

Days of research, done the moment you sign in, with every route ranked by how warm it is.

Stears provides financial databases and market intelligence for institutional investors focused on African investments. The platform offers comprehensive data and insights for global funds seeking to invest across Africa.

Data & Infrastructure Fintech

Founders & leadership

Preston Ideh Founder · Chief Executive OfficerPreston Ideh is CEO of Stears, a financial data and market intelligence platform for institutional investors in African markets. He previously worked as a structured finance lawyer at Linklaters and in mergers and acquisitions at BP, and studied law at the London School of Economics.

Abdul Saka-Abdulrahim Co-founder & COOAbdul Saka-Abdulrahim is Chief Operating Officer and Head of Intelligence at Stears, where he oversees market intelligence operations including data collection and research focused on Africa's private capital markets. He holds background training in computer science, law, and philosophy.

Investors · 7

Cascadorlisted by CascadorLagos · $142K – $1.7M

How we know: Cascador's portfolio page · techcrunch.com · Not right? Tell us

Future Africalisted by Future AfricaLagos · $100K – $500K

How we know: Future Africa's portfolio page · open dataset · 5k.vc investor directory · Not right? Tell us

HoaQlisted by HoaQ$25K – $350K

How we know: HoaQ's portfolio page · Not right? Tell us

MaC Venture Capitallisted by MaC Venture CapitalLos Angeles · $1M – $4M

How we know: MaC Venture Capital's portfolio page · funding news · techcrunch.com · the VCSheet dataset · Not right? Tell us

Serena Ventureslisted by Serena VenturesNew York · $100K – $500K

How we know: Serena Ventures's portfolio page · funding news · techcrunch.com · the VCSheet dataset · open dataset · 5k.vc investor directory · Not right? Tell us

Also in the syndicate · 2

Melo 7 Tech PartnersOmidyar Group’s Luminate Fund

Funding

SEC filings, press & company announcements

$3.9M disclosed across 2 of 3 rounds · 2020–2026

Undisclosed amountseed roundJan 2026
Source ↗
$3.3Mseed roundOct 2022 · 2 sources
MaC Venture Capital (lead), Cascador (Empowering Economic Growth Foundation), Melo 7 Tech Partners, Omidyar Group’s Luminate Fund, Serena Ventures
Source ↗
$600KseedApr 2020 · 3 sources
Source ↗

Source: company announcements and press reports — follow each round's link for the claim.

In the news

Nigerian data and intelligence company Stears raises $3.3M, backed by Mac VC and Serena Ventures | TechCrunchtechcrunch.com · Oct 2022

Frequently asked questions

What does Stears do?: Stears provides financial databases and market intelligence for institutional investors focused on African investments. The platform offers comprehensive data and insights for global funds seeking to invest across Africa.
Who founded Stears?: Stears was founded by Preston Ideh.
Who are Stears's investors?: Stears's investors include Cascador, Future Africa, HoaQ, MaC Venture Capital, Serena Ventures.
How much funding has Stears raised?: Stears has disclosed $3.9M raised across 2 of its 3 known rounds.