ClapMi, an African creator-tech startup building the next generation of livestreaming platform, has secured a $20,000 innovation grant from Lisk through the Aya × Lisk Incubation Program. The funding will accelerate ClapMi building their creators layer and support its mission to scale the world’s first hybrid Web2 and Web3 livestream competition platform, purpose-built to unlock fair, performance-driven monetisation for creators across Africa.
The timing is critical. Africa’s creator economy is projected to grow beyond $29.8 billion by 2032, driven by mobile-first consumers and an increasingly youthful, digitally native population. Yet monetisation remains deeply broken. Despite strong engagement levels, industry data indicates that more than half of African creators earn less than $60 per month. Traditional livestream and social platforms remain structured around passive consumption, opaque payout systems, and algorithms that undervalue the competitive, high-energy formats that dominate African entertainment culture. As a result, creators generate value at scale while capturing only a fraction of it.
ClapMi was built in direct response to this gap. The platform reimagines livestreaming as an active, competitive experience rather than a passive broadcast. At its core, ClapMi introduces real-time, head-to-head competitions where creators earn based on performance, audience participation, and outcomes. This competitive layer reflects the rivalry, energy, and communal engagement that define African digital culture and brings them into a structured, monetisable format.
The platform operates on a hybrid architecture that combines the accessibility of Web2 mobile livestreaming with the transparency and speed of Web3 incentives. Audience engagement through votes and tips, known as Claps, is tracked transparently on-chain, ensuring rewards flow directly to top-performing creators without the delays or uncertainty common on ad-driven platforms. ClapMi has integrated blockchain payments across Solana, Lisk, and BEP-20, enabling borderless payouts and reducing dependence on traditional financial rails.
Since inception in August 2025, ClapMi has hosted more than 150 livestreams and attracted over 6,000+ active users across Africa and the diaspora. The platform has paid out more than $1,000 directly to creators and fans, demonstrating early proof of real-time, performance-based monetisation. High-traffic events have further validated ClapMi’s infrastructure, including the streaming of the Solana SuperteamNG Omega Football Competition, which connected thousands of fans without compromising livestream quality. Competitive creator matchups, such as culturally resonant Nigeria versus Ghana rivalries co-hosted by Cade Esports, have generated strong organic engagement and reinforced demand for structured competitive content.
The $20,000 grant from Lisk provides crucial technical backing as ClapMi enters its next phase of growth. The funding will support improvements to ClapMi’s blockchain-enabled payment systems, strengthen its competitive livestream engine, build a creator economy and accelerate the launch of its dedicated mobile app, lowering access barriers for creators and driving faster user adoption.
Commenting on the milestone, Justice Eneje, Co-founder and CEO of ClapMi, said the grant validates our mission to create a type of creator economy for Africans by Africans to the world. He noted that ClapMi is focused on turning creator income from unpredictable side earnings into reliable, scalable revenue by replacing opaque ad models with transparent, performance-based rewards. According to him, the platform’s Web3 integration delivers the borderless payout system African creators have long lacked.
With ClapMi web app in live beta and mobile app launch on the horizon, ClapMi is expanding beyond its early traction in gaming and football into singing battles, comedy showcases, and lifestyle-driven interactive online shows. The company’s ambition is to become the definitive competition layer for Africa’s creator economy, giving creators financial control and global visibility while transforming audiences into active participants rather than passive viewers.
ClapMi is positioning itself at the frontier of African digital entertainment, where talent is discovered, rewarded, and scaled based on skill, community support, and performance. By fusing livestream competition, mobile accessibility, and blockchain-powered transparency, the platform is laying the foundation for a more equitable and participatory creator economy across Africa and beyond.
For creators, fans, and partners interested in experiencing or supporting competitive livestreaming, more information is available at www.clapmi.com. Creators can sign up on the platform to become part of this new creator economy that features competition, live battles, skill contests and interactive fans equity.
Partnership, media, and marketing proposals can be directed to marketing@clapmi.com
