LIONESS WEEKENDER COVER STORY

habeshaview Technology and Multimedia, a fast-growing entertainment and multimedia business in Ethiopia

Tigist Kebede, co-founder of habeshaview Technology and Multimedia, is an experienced entrepreneur specializing in the media, entertainment and telecommunications sectors. Throughout her career she has been driven by a passion for the Arts and Culture and combining this with emerging technologies and the best possible user experience for customers. Tigist is responsible for leading habeshaview, one of the fastest growing entertainment services in Ethiopia and with the Ethiopian diaspora community worldwide focusing on promoting and developing the culture and skills of Ethiopian content creators and bringing them to the global community.

Outside of habeshaview, Tigist's passion is supporting charities worldwide. She is an advisor for Citizens Advice Bureau in Berkshire, UK, a trustee for Home-Start West Berkshire and a volunteer with a Cancer Charity in Berkshire. Tigist has raised significant funds for charities, orphanages and schools in Ethiopia, Indonesia, the United Kingdom, and the Philippines and continues to do so.

LoA learned more about Tigist Kebede’s business building journey and her aspirations for her media empire in the future.

What does your company do?

IPTV, Distribution, and Co-production. habeshaview has developed advanced technology and a user-friendly platform and apps to provide a premium viewing experience that includes live news channels, entertainment channels, audio channels, with a catch-up service and View on Demand (VOD). Also, original content sourced from a wide variety of studios worldwide with Amharic, English, French and Arabic subtitles at an accessible and affordable price. Besides being a streaming service, habeshaview is also the first international film distributor currently for Ethiopian-made content, taking selected films to international festivals and for theatrical release in Europe and North America to promote good quality and original Ethiopian films worldwide. habeshaview has co-produced and is building on this experience and is in the process of commissioning further original content in collaboration with talented filmmakers from Ethiopia, and in time to collaborate with the wider content creators in the rest of the continent. habeshaview is headquartered in United States of America, with offices in London and Addis Ababa, and with a technology development office in The Netherlands.

What inspired you to start your company?

A lack of dedicated service for original Ethiopian films. The lack of knowledge, respect and understanding of the Art and Culture that exists within Ethiopia by the major streamers. Being able to tell our own stories through films and documentaries without having to conform to "what is acceptable". Having a choice and giving subscribers a choice to watch homegrown content at their leisure.

Why should anyone use your service or product?

We have developed a ‘first of its kind’ dedicated platform with advance technology and user friendly service for Ethiopian content to be readily available at affordable price.

Tell us a little about your team

We have a dedicated team from six nationalities spread round the globe. As a tech company this has been more obvious to us over the past 18 months and each staff member has to be able to multi-task and lend a hand in and when required. In short: Brilliant engineers, friendly customer service team, creative social media, scary head of finance, wonderfully organised administrator and logistic manager, robust PR and communication, with outsourced marketing and advertising team.

Share a little about your entrepreneurial journey. And do you come from an entrepreneurial background?

My mother is an entrepreneur and still going strong in her late 80's. I arrived to this stage having being a teacher, volunteering in the charity sector, and taking time off to bring up a family.

What are your future plans and aspirations for your company?

To provide a dedicated space for African film makers to showcase their content, whilst at the same time generating a fair revenue for them so that they can keep telling wonderful stories which are plentiful.

What gives you the most satisfaction being an entrepreneur?

The satisfaction seen when a hardworking film maker has his / her film accepted to be shown for a theatrical release in London and attending the opening night with them. To think our company has made this possible.

What's the biggest piece of advice you can give to other women looking to start-up?

Collaborate and support each other even if you are competing in the same market - the market is bigger than you think!

Find out more

A brief discussion about Ethiopian Film Week London 2021 (Sept. 10-14) with Audrey Thomas from BBC Africa Desk and Tigist Kebede, Operations Director at habeshaview - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mMsfNSoI9Nc

The BBC Focus on Africa program interviewed habeshaview’s Operational Director and co-founder Tigist Kebede. - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FT9Dc6k8rog

VOA Interview in Amharic here