Why This Checklist Matters Now
If you’re building a startup in Nigeria today, chances are you’re already thinking about raising funding—whether it’s from angel investors, local VCs, or international syndicates. But here’s the hard truth: just having a big idea and a slick pitch deck doesn’t cut it anymore.
The VC world has matured. Investors are no longer chasing vibes—they’re scrutinizing numbers. In 2025, Nigerian startups raised over $100 million in Q1 alone, but that money went to founders who could prove they had real traction, efficient operations, and a roadmap backed by data.
This isn’t about theory. The most funded companies—from LemFi in fintech to Winich Farms in agritech—are tracking the same set of core metrics investors everywhere now demand. If you want in on that capital, you need to build your startup around what matters most: your metrics.
This article is your guide to doing just that. We’ll walk through the key categories VCs care about, break down what metrics actually mean in practice, show real Nigerian startup examples, and give you a step-by-step process to build your own customized VC checklist.
Understanding VC Focus in 2025
In 2025, VC activity in Africa—especially in Nigeria—is no longer driven by hype. Investors now care more about how startups are performing on hard, verifiable metrics that can forecast scalability, sustainability, and returns.
Over the past three years, African startups raised over $5 billion annually. But in Q1 2025, Nigeria alone secured over $100 million in deals, despite tighter global capital flows. That’s not luck—it’s evolution.
VCs are now focusing on:
-
Unit Economics: What does it cost to acquire a customer, and how much value does that customer return over time?
-
Retention & Churn: Are people sticking around and continuing to pay for your product?
-
Regulatory Compliance: Are you building in fintech, healthtech, or logistics? VCs now verify if you have the licenses and legal structure to scale without regulatory friction.
-
Capital Efficiency: Investors want to see that you can stretch a dollar—not just burn through cash.
-
Team & Execution: Do you have the right leadership mix? Do you have a succession or delegation plan?
-
Market Size: Are you building in a billion-dollar addressable market, or is your growth capped by geography or policy?
-
Revenue Growth: It’s not just about traction anymore—it’s about sustainable and repeatable growth.
Founders who can track and speak confidently about these themes are the ones getting funded.
The Seven Core VC Metrics Every Nigerian Startup Must Track
Revenue and Financial Performance
MRR/ARR: Monthly and Annual Recurring Revenue. Recurring revenue is king in SaaS, fintech, and subscription models.
Burn Rate: How much are you spending monthly, and how fast will you run out of money?
Runway: How many months of operation do you have left before needing more capital?
Profit Margins: Are you keeping enough from each sale after costs?
Gross vs Net Revenue: Marketplaces and e-commerce must show both.
Customer Metrics and Unit Economics
CAC (Customer Acquisition Cost): What does it cost to acquire each customer? Track both organic and paid.
LTV (Lifetime Value): How much does a customer bring in during their engagement with your product?
LTV:CAC Ratio: Healthy benchmarks are 3:1 or higher.
Churn Rate: How many customers are leaving each month?
NPS (Net Promoter Score): Measures customer loyalty and likelihood to recommend.
Market Opportunity and Traction
TAM, SAM, SOM: Total Addressable, Serviceable, and Obtainable Market.
User Growth: Month-over-month growth rate (ideal is >15–20% MoM).
DAU/MAU Ratios: A ratio above 20% is a good sign of user engagement.
GMV/TPV: For marketplaces or fintechs, track gross and total processed volumes.
Customer Segmentation: Who exactly is buying, and where?
Technology and Product Readiness
Tech Stack Documentation: Scalable and secure?
IP Ownership: Ensure code, content, and algorithms are properly assigned.
Product Maturity: MVP vs Version 3.0—VCs want to know how evolved your product is.
Security Standards: SSL, SOC2, or ISO compliance? Especially critical for fintechs.
Legal, Governance, and Compliance
Cap Table: Are shares, SAFEs, and convertibles well documented?
Regulatory Licenses: Do you hold the right permits (e.g., IMTO for remittance, NAFDAC for health products)?
Contract Integrity: Are employment and IP contracts airtight?
ESG & Sustainability: Are you tracking environmental or social impact metrics?
Team and Execution Strength
Founding Team Credentials: Backgrounds, exits, domain expertise.
Org Chart & Succession: Who’s next in line for key functions?
Hiring Roadmap: Clear timeline for key talent like CTO, CFO, growth lead.
Advisory Board: Are you plugged into experienced operators or sector experts?
Fundraising & Investor Readiness
Pitch Deck: Aligned with investor type (seed vs growth).
One-Pager: A condensed version for cold outreach.
Data Room: Financial model, cap table, due diligence docs.
Funding Strategy: Are you raising equity, SAFE, or debt?
Real Examples from Nigerian Startups
Paystack: Metrics That Closed the Deal
When Stripe acquired Paystack for over $200 million in 2020, it wasn’t just about product-market fit—it was about cold, hard numbers. At the time, Paystack had over 60,000 active customers and was processing millions in monthly transaction volume. They had low churn, strong recurring revenue, and regulatory licenses (like the CBN PSP license) in place. These weren’t vanity metrics—they were investor gold.
ThriveAgric: From Burnout to Bounce Back
After hitting a funding snag in 2021, ThriveAgric rebounded by restructuring operations and showing investors transparent, verifiable data on farmer enrollment, repayment cycles, and impact metrics. Their turnaround came from tracking the right metrics—like yield per acre, farmer retention, and logistics costs—leading to a $56.4 million raise from commercial lenders and development partners by 2022.
Kuda Bank: Beyond Downloads
Kuda didn’t just report app downloads. They showed VCs metrics like Monthly Active Users (MAU), average user deposit, and Cost-to-Income ratios. When they raised their $55 million Series B, their pitch was backed by operational numbers, not buzzwords. That’s what got international investors to write real cheques.
Building Your Startup’s Custom VC Checklist
There’s no one-size-fits-all checklist, but you can build yours by identifying the key metrics across five core pillars: growth, efficiency, compliance, retention, and capital readiness.
Start by doing a simple audit:
-
Revenue Stream Audit: How many products do you have? Which ones are profitable?
-
Customer Journey Map: From awareness to onboarding to churn—where are the leaks?
-
Operational Cost Breakdown: What’s inflating your burn rate?
-
Regulatory Snapshot: Are your licenses current, or pending?
-
Talent Pipeline: Who are you planning to hire, and why?
Then plug your answers into a living dashboard—Excel, Notion, or Airtable will do. Update it monthly. Review quarterly. And make sure at least one co-founder is fully accountable for maintaining this investor-facing data.
What Investors Say They Want to See in 2025
VCs are speaking up about what makes a pitch stand out in 2025. Here’s what some active investors are reportedly prioritizing:
-
Clear Market Demand: Data that proves people are already paying—or willing to pay—for your product.
-
Margins Over Hype: A lean $200k-per-month startup with 60% margins is more fundable than a loss-making “super app.”
-
Operational Discipline: Founders who understand how to prioritize cash flow, negotiate supplier terms, and delay unnecessary hires stand out.
-
Exit Possibilities: Can your startup exit via acquisition or IPO within 5–7 years? Do you have a mapped pipeline of potential acquirers?
-
Clarity and Honesty: VCs increasingly favor founders who say “I don’t know yet” over those faking projections. Integrity counts.
If you’re serious about raising capital this year, your job is to speak in numbers, not just narratives. The best founders can tell stories—but they build them on a base of data that checks out.
The New Standard for Nigerian Founders
If you’re a Nigerian founder in 2025, here’s the new reality: no matter how unique your idea, no matter how viral your marketing—if you don’t have the metrics, you won’t raise serious capital. The VC checklist has evolved, and so must you.
Founders getting term sheets this year aren’t just pitching big dreams—they’re tracking MRR, CAC, LTV, churn, burn rate, and more with discipline. They’re building dashboards, analyzing customer behavior weekly, and aligning their roadmaps with data, not just hype. And most importantly, they understand what each number means for their runway, growth, and fundraising options.
This shift is good news. It means funding is becoming more accessible for startups that may not be loud on social media, but who are quietly building great products with real traction. If you want to join that club, start with your own VC checklist. Build it, update it, and let it guide every decision you make—from pricing, to hiring, to investor conversations.
It’s no longer about being the most followed founder. It’s about being the most prepared.
