Confidential Business Plan · Seed Round · June 2026
The operating system for African business. Built on a decade of confirmed revenue. Ready to scale.
01 · Executive Summary
03 · Why Now
Nigeria's regulatory environment is tightening. Finance Act compliance pressure is real and increasing. Businesses that ignored structure in 2019 cannot afford to in 2026. The demand for systematised compliance is not a trend — it is a regulatory inevitability.
Nigerian SMEs now operate on mobile-first infrastructure. Cloud subscription software at ₦150,000 per month is within reach of businesses that would never have considered enterprise software three years ago. The delivery mechanism is finally viable at scale.
The generation of founders building in Lagos, Accra, and Nairobi today is building for institutional standards from day one. They want the governance layer. They want investor-ready accounts. They want the infrastructure that signals seriousness to clients, partners, and capital.
Workday, SAP, and Oracle have moved further upmarket, not down. BambooHR serves a Western SME with fundamentally different compliance requirements. The African SME market has been structurally abandoned by global software, creating a category that is ready to be owned.
November and December are when Nigerian businesses make workforce and operational decisions for the incoming year. Boards meet. Budgets finalise. HR mandates are issued. A platform that is not live by November 1 misses this cycle entirely and waits until Q1 2027. That is a four-month revenue delay on a business that is ready to launch today.
85% built. Three engineer integrations remaining. The raise funds the team that completes the build and converts the waitlist. This is not a pre-product raise. This is a go-to-market raise on a platform that exists.
04 · The Solution
25th Core was not built from a market gap analysis. It was built from impatience. While consolidating a decade of in-house operational automation at 25th and Staffing, I realised the same fragmented informal systems we were solving internally were the same ones every SME client had quietly accepted as normal. Spreadsheets, WhatsApp threads, Google Drive folders, OneDrive directories, approval chains in messaging apps, compliance deadlines in personal calendars — structure always deferred for growth. We became Tenant Zero. The waitlist that followed was built from ten years of client enquiries, businesses that had engaged with 25th consistently, whose interest grew between 2023 and 2025, but for whom the retained service price point created a commercial barrier. Core removes that barrier entirely. A subscription at ₦150,000 per month puts structure within reach of every business that previously wanted it but could not justify the cost. Core exists because an operator ran out of reasons not to build it.
Emem Usen, Founder & CEO
NOW · NIGERIA FIRST
The full Business Operating System for African businesses. People, finance, compliance, governance, and execution in one subscription. Built for Nigerian SMEs and mid-market businesses. Configurable for UK, Ghana, South Africa, and the US.
YEAR 2 · MSME AND INFORMAL MARKET
WhatsApp-native. Mobile-first. Built for Nigeria's 40M+ micro businesses at a price point Workday and SAP have never built and never will.
YEAR 2 · MULTI-SITE RETAIL
Supermarkets, QSRs, multi-site retail. Cashier performance, shift rostering, POS integration. Franchise network deployment.
Automates recruitment, onboarding, compliance, workforce administration, and performance management. Powered by the 25th AI Recruiter and proprietary KPI frameworks. Every hire tracked from offer letter to exit.
Real-time visibility into workforce costs, burn rates, hiring affordability, cash flow obligations, and operational performance. Supports forward-looking business decisions, not just historical reporting.
Transforms operational knowledge into repeatable systems through automated approval hierarchies, workflow governance, contract management, compliance monitoring, and board-ready reporting.
Core converts operational activity into actionable business insight, helping organisations make faster, more informed decisions through structured workflows, financial visibility, governance controls, and operational data.
$15 PER 60-MINUTE SESSION · ALL TIERS · PAY PER USE
AI-powered candidate scoring, shortlisting, and assessment. Built and owned by 25th and Staffing. Available to Core clients as an add-on. Built on ten years of placement data.
WEBSITE CRAWL PRICING · ALL TIERS · PAY PER USE
Candidate sourcing through intelligent web crawling. Available to Core clients as an add-on. Creates a direct sourcing channel that reduces dependency on job boards.
Operator-Built
Developed through ten years of live enterprise delivery.
Enterprise-Grade Governance
Authority matrices, approval workflows, and board-ready reporting for growth-stage businesses.
Decision Intelligence
Purpose-built for burn-rate analysis, workforce planning, hiring affordability, and strategic forecasting.
Tenant Zero Validation
Hardened within the 25th and Staffing ecosystem before external release.
Multi-Jurisdiction Ready
Configured for Nigeria, Ghana, South Africa, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
Proprietary Workflow Engine
Built on a decade of operational workflows, governance frameworks, and compliance procedures.
Both engines are owned by 25th and Staffing (the parent company) and made available to Core clients through a structured intercompany arrangement. This creates a revenue stream that flows back to the parent regardless of Core subscription performance, providing structural downside protection for the business as a whole.
25th Core is built on the belief that great businesses are built by lean, high-performing teams, not large headcounts. The platform enables a 10-person business to operate with the governance infrastructure of a 200-person organisation. Every feature reduces the need for a dedicated HR, finance, or compliance hire.
05 · Feature Differentiators
These are not features. They are competitive arguments. Each one represents something Core does that no other platform serving African businesses does today.
The system knows when your PENCOM contribution is due, when your CERPAC expires, when your service charge renewal notice window closes. No generic platform knows this. This is institutional knowledge built into software, not a checkbox compliance calendar.
Every workflow, every escalation rule, every compliance trigger exists because 25th and Staffing encountered it in live delivery across a decade of enterprise workforce operations. Workday was built by engineers who studied HR. Core was built by an operator who ran it.
CEO approval queue, authority matrix, board reporting calendar, sub-company structure, document versioning. These are features that exist in SAP. They have never existed at ₦150,000 per month. Core brings institutional governance infrastructure within reach of every serious SME.
Scenario planning, burn rate, hiring affordability calculator, break-even modelling, salary benchmarking. Not a dashboard that shows what happened. A platform that tells you what will happen if you make this decision. Built for founders who need to think, not just report.
25th AI Recruiter is owned by the parent company and powers both the staffing business and the Core platform. It is not a third-party integration. It is a proprietary engine built on ten years of placement data, candidate performance outcomes, and salary progression tracking that no new entrant can replicate.
Every candidate screened, placed, or assessed since 2015 is in the 25th database. Behavioural patterns, performance outcomes, salary progression, and institutional knowledge accumulated over a decade. The AI Recruiter is only as good as the data it runs on. The data is the moat.
Nigeria active. UK, US, South Africa, and Ghana configured. A client that starts in Lagos can expand to London without switching platforms, retraining their team, or rebuilding their operational infrastructure. No competitor has this architecture ready. The build time is the moat.
The 10-day recoup clause on all retained mandates means revenue is protected even when clients are unresponsive. This is commercial sophistication that most competitors in the African market do not have. It protects the business model at the contract level, not just the platform level.
58 unique clients acquired over 10 years entirely through referrals and existing relationships. Zero paid acquisition. Growth compounds through delivery, not marketing spend. The waitlist of 200+ warm leads was built through the same mechanism. The acquisition model is structurally different from every competitor in this market.
25th and Staffing was the first full deployment of Core. Every module was tested under real operational pressure before a single external client was offered access. This is not a prototype that has been beta tested. It is a platform that has been stress-tested across a decade of live enterprise delivery.
06 · Market Size and Opportunity
Operating without structured HR or compliance systems. Most run on WhatsApp, Excel, Google Drive, and verbal agreements. Core Standard and Plus are built for this segment. Deployable in under a day.
Micro businesses that Workday, SAP, and BambooHR have never reached and have no intention of reaching. Their pricing models exclude 99% of this segment. Core Lite enters at a price point calibrated to this reality.
25th has delivered directly to Tech Mahindra, GSM Systems, Bain & Company, and eTranzact. Managed staff deployed across MTN, Cisco, Mavenir, and Airtel. Established relationships built on a decade of enterprise-grade delivery.
Total addressable market: 41.8 million businesses. No Nigerian software platform combines SME HR infrastructure, MSME-accessible pricing, and an active enterprise recruitment business within a single product.
PRIMARY · ACTIVE NOW
Full statutory configuration. PENCOM, NSITF, ITF, CAC, FIRS, VAT, PAYE. All compliance calendars active. Primary market for Core Standard, Plus, and Premier.
SECONDARY · CONFIGURED
Diaspora market. Nigerian-owned businesses operating in the UK. HMRC, Companies House, and employment law frameworks configured. Entity registration planned Year 1.
GROWTH · CONFIGURED · YEAR 2
West Africa expansion. GRA, SSNIT, and Labour Act frameworks configured. No rebuild required. Entity setup planned Year 2.
GROWTH · CONFIGURED · YEAR 2
Southern Africa expansion. SARS, UIF, and BCEA frameworks configured. No rebuild required. Entity setup planned Year 2 to 3.
GROWTH · CONFIGURED · YEAR 3
Diaspora market. African-founded businesses operating in the US. IRS, State payroll, and employment frameworks configured. Year 3 market entry.
07 · Business Model and Pricing
The operational foundation. HR, compliance, and controls from day one.
The financial brain. Scenario planning, burn rate, hiring intelligence.
The governance layer. G/L, board reporting, CEO approval queue.
Overage: ₦1,500 per additional staff record per month. Sub-company pricing: first entity included at Premier tier rate. Additional entities at 20% of tier fee (₦130,000/month per entity). 7-day trial. 21 days upfront at activation.
| Add-On | Price | Tiers | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| 25th AI Recruiter | $15 / 60-min session | All tiers | Pay per use. Pass-through cost. 25th earns on session and placement fees. |
| 25th Direct | Website crawl pricing | All tiers | Pay per use. Pass-through cost. |
| AI Buddy | ₦2,500 / active employee / month | Standard and Plus add-on | Premier includes up to seat limit. |
| G/L Suite | ₦75,000 / month | Standard and Plus add-on | Premier included. |
| Document Vault Encryption | ₦25,000 / month | All tiers | |
| Extra Payroll Run | ₦15,000 | All tiers | |
| Priority SLA | ₦100,000 / month | Standard and Plus add-on | Premier included (4-hour SLA is default). |
| Extra Seat | ₦30,000–₦45,000 / month | All tiers | Rate depends on tier. |
| Token Top-Up | ₦5 per 1,000 tokens | All tiers | |
| HR Audit Report | ₦50,000 / report | All tiers | |
| API Access | ₦150,000 / month | Standard and Plus add-on | Premier included at 100,000 calls/month. |
08 · Unit Economics
Customer acquisition cost is primarily time, not spend. 58 unique clients acquired over 10 years entirely through referrals and existing relationships. Zero paid marketing. The 200+ warm pipeline leads on the Core waitlist were identified through that same decade of client relationships. They are named, warm, and known to 25th directly.
34% conversion rate on direct outreach. 15 of 50 direct contacts confirmed on waitlist. CAC is effectively near zero in cash terms.
200 warm leads at 34% conversion = 58 paying clients in first billing cycle before any marketing spend. Month 1 MRR floor: ₦20,300,000.
| Tier | Monthly MRR | Annual | 3-Yr LTV |
|---|---|---|---|
| Standard | ₦150,000 | ₦1,800,000 | ₦5,400,000 |
| Plus | ₦350,000 | ₦4,200,000 | ₦12,600,000 |
| Premier | ₦650,000 | ₦7,800,000 | ₦23,400,000 |
| Blended (10/80/10) | ₦350,000 | ₦4,200,000 | ₦12,600,000 |
| Metric | Figure | Basis |
|---|---|---|
| Fee structure | 20% – 24% of first-year gross annual salary | Applied across all direct placement mandates. Range reflects seniority and mandate complexity. |
| Salary range of placed candidates | ₦8,400,000 – ₦36,000,000 per annum | Across all closed mandates. Senior and executive placements at the upper range. |
| Fee per placement (25th earnings) | ₦1,680,000 – ₦8,640,000 Blended mid-point ≈ ₦4,900,000 |
Fee range × salary range. Enterprise and executive mandates generate fees at the upper end. |
| Average sales cycle | 3 to 4 weeks | Engagement to placement. Referral-driven pipeline with established client relationships. |
| Customer acquisition cost (CAC) | Near zero | 58 unique clients acquired over 10 years entirely through referrals and existing relationships. Zero paid marketing spend. |
| Estimated client lifetime value (LTV) | ₦30,625,000 | Based on 2.5 mandates per year over an average 2.5-year client relationship at blended mid-point fee of ₦4,900,000. Enterprise clients significantly higher. |
| LTV to CAC ratio | Effectively uncapped | With near-zero acquisition cost and ₦30.6M confirmed lifetime value, the ratio is exceptional. Growth compounds through relationships, not spend. |
| Revenue protection | 10-day recoup clause | Contracts include a recoup fee triggered if a client fails to respond within 10 days of candidate submission. Revenue is protected regardless of client engagement levels. |
09 · Traction and Validation
Every mandate and placement listed is documented in 25th operational records spanning 2015 to 2025. The pipeline is entirely referral-driven.
The Core waitlist was built from ten years of client enquiries — businesses whose engagement with 25th grew consistently between 2023 and 2025, but for whom the retained service price point created a commercial barrier. Core removes that barrier entirely. Beyond the formal waitlist, additional businesses have verbally confirmed need and intent but have not yet completed the sign-up form. The demand picture is wider than the waitlist count alone reflects.
Of waitlist respondents surveyed to date:
No paid marketing was used to generate any of these responses. All data handled in compliance with NDPR.
25th and Staffing served as the first full deployment of the Core platform. The platform has been validated through real business operations supporting ₦3.32 billion in verified Gross Managed Volume across nine verified bank accounts for the period 2015 to 2025.
The ₦3.32 billion represents aggregate transaction volume across nine verified bank accounts for the period 2015 to 2025, inclusive of outsourced workforce pass-through payments managed on behalf of enterprise clients. FIRS statutory net turnover as filed is materially lower, reflecting standard accounting treatment for outsourced workforce businesses where pass-through payroll disbursements are correctly excluded from taxable turnover. Both figures are available on request. The bank statement record is the more complete picture of commercial activity.
10 · Financial Projections
BASE CASE
Break-even
UPSIDE CASE
Break-even
DOWNSIDE CASE
Break-even
| Period | Clients | MRR (₦) | ARR (₦) | Monthly Burn (₦) | Net Position (₦) |
|---|
The ₦3.32 billion confirmed revenue figure represents aggregate transaction volume inclusive of outsourced workforce pass-through payments. FIRS statutory net turnover is lower, as pass-through payroll disbursements are correctly excluded from taxable turnover under standard outsourced workforce accounting. Bank statements across nine verified accounts are available on request and represent the complete commercial record. Forward projections are based on Core subscription revenue only and do not include pass-through payments.
Revenue projections are based on a blended client mix of 10% Standard at ₦150,000 per month, 80% Plus at ₦350,000 per month, and 10% Premier at ₦650,000 per month. This produces a blended MRR of ₦350,000 per client. At 1,000 clients: ₦350,000,000 MRR and ₦4,200,000,000 ARR. At 5,000 clients: ₦1,750,000,000 MRR and ₦21,000,000,000 ARR. At 15,000 clients: ₦5,250,000,000 MRR and ₦63,000,000,000 ARR. All figures exclude AI Recruiter token usage, add-on modules, implementation fees, and partner referral commissions.
| Year | Clients | MRR (₦) | ARR (₦) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Year 1 | 1,000 | ₦350,000,000 | ₦4,200,000,000 |
| Year 2 | 5,000 | ₦1,750,000,000 | ₦21,000,000,000 |
| Year 3 | 15,000 | ₦5,250,000,000 | ₦63,000,000,000 |
| Blended MRR per client | ₦350,000 | ||
Projections exclude AI Recruiter token usage, add-on modules, implementation fees, and partner referral commissions. Blended tier mix: 10% Standard, 80% Plus, 10% Premier.
ARR figures are modelled in NGN. USD conversions for valuation purposes are based on projected operational benchmarks at ₦1,500/$1. For month-by-month reconciliation see the Investor Dashboard.
| Year | Clients | ARR | Val (5×) | Return |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year 1 | 1,000 | $2.8M | $14M | 1.75× |
| Year 2 | 5,000 | $14M | $70M | 8.75× |
| Year 3 | 15,000 | $42M | $210M | 26× |
| Year 4 | 30,000 | $84M | $420M | 52× |
| Year 5 | 50,000 | $140M | $700M | 87× |
Base case. $2.5M stake at 20% ownership at conversion. 5× ARR valuation. Excludes partner revenue, premium modules, and multi-country ARR uplift. Exchange rate: ₦1,500/$1.
Commission-based revenue that activates without additional headcount and compounds as the client base grows. Zero upfront cost. All pass-through.
11 · The Raise
November and December are when Nigerian businesses make workforce and operational decisions for the incoming year. Boards meet. Budgets finalise. HR mandates are issued. A platform that is not live by November means waiting until Q1 2027 for the next natural buying cycle. That is a four-month revenue delay on a business that is ready to launch today. Raise closes June 30. Team onboards through July and August. Platform goes live October. November window captured. Every week of delay costs a month of that window.
25th Core is seeking three investors who bring more than capital. The ideal investor has strategic networks within Nigerian enterprise, professional services, or financial services; operating experience in SaaS, HR technology, African market distribution, or entrepreneurial ventures that have scaled; and the appetite to back a business that is ready to execute, not ready to experiment. Capital is welcome from anywhere. Conviction is the only requirement.
12 · Staff Plan
This team runs the live services business generating ₦3.32B Gross Managed Volume. Several team members have been with 25th and Staffing since 2016, a testament to the culture and leadership that has sustained a decade of profitable operation without external capital. Core will add 8 critical hires on raise close, bringing the total operating team to 18.
Every hire in Table 1 has a direct line to revenue or platform go-live. No speculative hires. The engineering leads are the bridge between the existing junior team and a production-grade platform.
| Role | Bucket | Monthly Gross | Purpose |
|---|---|---|---|
| Head of Ops and Product ★ Identified | Product and Delivery | ₦2,500,000 | Product roadmap, implementation, onboarding, platform adoption |
| Technical Lead, Architecture and Design ★ Identified | Engineering | ₦1,500,000 | Senior technical oversight of existing junior team and 3 integrations |
| Technical Lead, Execution and Reliability ★ Identified | Engineering | ₦1,800,000 | Sprint delivery, reliability, production stability |
| Head of Enterprise Sales ★ Identified | Revenue and Growth | ₦2,500,000 | Enterprise pipeline before launch, commercial growth |
| DevOps Engineer | Engineering | ₦1,850,000 | Production infrastructure, deployment pipelines, platform uptime |
| Finance Manager | Working Capital | ₦1,200,000 | Raise governance, financial controls, treasury from Day 1 |
| HR Operations Manager | Working Capital | ₦1,200,000 | Onboards the full team, contracts, compliance, HR infrastructure |
| Corporate Driver | Working Capital | ₦250,000 | Pre-sales mobility for enterprise meetings |
| Table 1 Monthly Salary Total | ₦12,800,000 | ||
All salaries gross. A 15 to 20% inflation adjustment applies at the point of offer, subject to market conditions at time of hire. Roles marked ★ Identified have confirmed candidates held pending raise close. The existing SDR remains in seat and transitions to Core outreach. Total Table 1 team including existing staff: 18 people.
Full candidate profiles for the four identified roles are available in the investor dashboard.
View Investor DashboardPhase 2 hires are triggered by revenue milestones, not by the calendar. Spend only when the business justifies it.
| Role | Monthly Gross | Trigger |
|---|---|---|
| Head of Revenue and Growth | ₦1,500,000 | Platform live and converting |
| Customer Success Manager | ₦725,000 | First 50 clients onboarded |
| Growth and Marketing Manager | ₦1,150,000 | 50 clients live |
| AI and ML Engineer | ₦1,200,000 | AI layer scaling required |
| Data Engineer | ₦1,500,000 | 200 clients for analytics infrastructure |
| Information Security Engineer | ₦1,500,000 | Pre-Series A |
| Growth and Product Ops Specialist | ₦1,000,000 | 100 clients |
| Enterprise Sales Lead ×2 | ₦1,000,000 each | 100 clients |
| Account Manager | ₦900,000 | 50 clients |
| Senior Accountant | ₦800,000 | Month 4 |
| Executive Assistant | ₦750,000 | Month 4 |
| Phase 2 Monthly Addition at Full Deployment | ₦11,025,000 |
13 · Five-Year Plan
14 · Competitive Landscape
WORKDAY · SAP · ORACLE · BAMBOOHR
Built for 500+ employees. Require IT teams and consultants. 12-month minimum implementation. $500K+ annual licence. Zero understanding of PENCOM, CERPAC, or Nigerian compliance calendars. Will never serve this market at this price point.
SEAMLESSHR · BENTO AFRICA · WORKPAY · HRHERO
Handle payroll and basic HR transactions. Do not offer financial intelligence, scenario planning, governance layer, or AI recruiter. Assume the business already has discipline. No intercompany structure. No multi-jurisdiction architecture without rebuild.
BUILT BY OPERATORS · FOR OPERATORS
Builds discipline from scratch. Nigeria-specific compliance intelligence. Full financial intelligence suite, scenario planning, governance layer. Proprietary AI Recruiter. Five jurisdictions configured. Intercompany engine structure. Deployable in under a day. Built by people who ran the operations it automates.
The competitive moat is not technology. A well-funded competitor could replicate the codebase. What cannot be replicated is a decade of Nigeria-specific institutional knowledge embedded in workflow logic. PENCOM due dates, CERPAC expiry windows, service charge notice periods, A/C repair versus replace thresholds, authority matrix depth calibrated to Nigerian business structures. This is the knowledge of an operator who has lived the problem, not an engineer who studied it. Replicating the system requires replicating the operational history. That is a time moat. Time cannot be bought.
Procurement Plan
| Category | Item | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Infrastructure | AWS (compute, storage, RDS) | ₦180,000 | ₦180,000 | ₦220,000 | ₦220,000 | ₦250,000 | ₦250,000 | ₦280,000 |
| Infrastructure | Cloudflare (CDN + DDoS + DNS) | ₦55,000 | ₦55,000 | ₦55,000 | ₦55,000 | ₦55,000 | ₦55,000 | ₦55,000 |
| Infrastructure | Paystack integration and fees | — | ₦80,000 | ₦80,000 | ₦100,000 | ₦120,000 | ₦120,000 | ₦150,000 |
| Infrastructure | SendGrid (transactional email) | ₦35,000 | ₦35,000 | ₦35,000 | ₦45,000 | ₦45,000 | ₦45,000 | ₦55,000 |
| Infrastructure | Monitoring (Datadog / Sentry) | ₦45,000 | ₦45,000 | ₦45,000 | ₦60,000 | ₦60,000 | ₦60,000 | ₦75,000 |
| Legal | Legal counsel (terms, NDPR, contracts) | ₦1,200,000 | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Legal | NDPR registration and audit | ₦350,000 | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Legal | Investor legal (note agreement) | ₦800,000 | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Sales and Marketing | Content and design (launch campaign) | ₦250,000 | ₦250,000 | ₦300,000 | ₦300,000 | ₦350,000 | ₦350,000 | ₦400,000 |
| Sales and Marketing | Referral programme activation | — | ₦500,000 | — | — | — | — | — |
| Operations | Office rent (Lagos) | ₦400,000 | ₦400,000 | ₦400,000 | ₦400,000 | ₦400,000 | ₦400,000 | ₦400,000 |
| Operations | Utilities and telecoms | ₦85,000 | ₦85,000 | ₦85,000 | ₦85,000 | ₦85,000 | ₦85,000 | ₦85,000 |
| Operations | Security and logistics | ₦120,000 | ₦120,000 | ₦120,000 | ₦120,000 | ₦120,000 | ₦120,000 | ₦120,000 |
| Monthly Total | ₦3,520,000 | ₦1,750,000 | ₦1,340,000 | ₦1,385,000 | ₦1,485,000 | ₦1,485,000 | ₦1,620,000 | |
Salary costs are shown separately in the Staff Plan section. This procurement covers infrastructure, legal, operations, and marketing only.
Infrastructure costs are projected to scale from base levels to ₦1.2M per month for AWS as the client base approaches the 5,000 target. Legal spend is front-loaded in 2026 for NDPR registration and investor agreements, transitioning to a predictable annual audit and compliance cycle from 2027. Operations expenditure reflects the planned expansion of the Lagos headquarters and international entity setup across the UK, Ghana, and South Africa, targeted for Q1 and Q2 2027 in line with the scaling roadmap.
15 · Go-to-Market Strategy
Waitlist to live. 200+ warm leads convert in the first billing cycle post-raise. Direct outreach to the 50-contact pipeline at 34% confirmed conversion. Day 7 post-close: Platform Preview delivered to all waitlist and enterprise clients. November market window is the target. Enterprise clients approached for subcompany adoption at Premier tier.
Ghana entity registered. South Africa entity registered. No platform rebuild required — both jurisdictions are configured. Existing 25th enterprise relationships in both markets provide warm entry. Core Lite targets the MSME segment that formal banking has never reached.
UK and US diaspora markets. Nigerian and African-founded businesses operating internationally. UK entity already planned for Year 1. US entity Year 3. The platform follows the founder, not the geography. Multi-currency architecture handles the rest.
Direct outreach remains the primary channel through Year 1. Referral programme activates at 50 clients. Partner channels activate without additional headcount on commission basis. Investor-led network effect: each investor brings 5 to 10 warm introductions to their portfolio companies.
CORE STANDARD AND PLUS · YEAR 1 · 1.8M REGISTERED SME POOL
The Target
Mid-sized formal businesses within the 1.8M registered SME pool. Primary decision-makers: HR Directors and CFOs.
The Mechanics
SDRs run a systematic outbound playbook across LinkedIn, email, and phone. Case studies from 58 unique enterprise clients are used to demonstrate immediate ROI on compliance and payroll.
The Math
1 SDR targets 50 companies per week. 10% meeting rate. 20% close rate. Result: 1 new client per week per SDR. Scalable and repeatable from Day 1.
CORE LITE · YEAR 2 · 40M+ MSME AND INFORMAL MARKET
The Target
Micro and informal businesses within the 40M+ MSME market. Businesses that formal software has never reached at a price point they can justify.
The Mechanics
Core Lite is WhatsApp-native, enabling a self-serve product-led growth model. A portion of the Year 2 marketing budget is allocated toward targeted Meta and Google search ads driving users directly into a one-click WhatsApp signup. Onboarding friction near zero.
The Funnel
Ad impression to WhatsApp signup in one step. No sales team required at this tier. The product acquires and onboards itself.
ALL TIERS · YEAR 1 ONWARDS · ZERO UPFRONT COST
The Partners
AXA Mansard, Stanbic IBTC, and Shuttlers. Existing commercial relationships. No cold outreach required to activate.
The Mechanics
API integrations cross-sell 25th Core at the partner point of sale. When a business purchases an AXA commercial insurance policy or sets up a Stanbic pension fund, they receive an automated prompt to integrate Core for compliance management.
The Model
Commission-based. Zero upfront cost. Revenue activates without additional headcount and compounds as the partner client base grows.
17 · Risks and Mitigations
These are the risks. Here is what is being done about each one.
Four identified candidates are held pending raise close. Re-vetting and offer issuance begins immediately on close. Some candidates may require additional re-vetting given time elapsed.
Mitigation: All four are actively held with direct communication. Target onboarding within 30 days of raise confirmation. CTO and existing senior staff cover technical leadership in the bridge period.
A delayed close beyond June 30 compresses the July to August team-building window, risks the October launch, and forfeits the November market entry window. Four-month revenue delay.
Mitigation: Round capped at 3 investors. Decision window is 30 days from document delivery. Platform is 85% complete. Delay affects revenue, not product readiness.
Naira depreciation affects USD investor return calculations and multi-currency revenue reporting.
Mitigation: Enterprise contracts benchmarked in USD. UK, Ghana, and South Africa revenue from Year 2 provides natural currency diversification. Multi-currency architecture built from Day 1. Exchange rate: ₦1,500/$1 base assumption.
Nigerian SMEs have historically been slow adopters of paid software. Willingness to pay at ₦150,000 per month is a material assumption.
Mitigation: 200+ warm leads have expressed payment intent. 10 years of fee collection from this exact market. 34% conversion rate confirmed on direct outreach. The compliance penalty alone justifies the subscription.
Concentration of platform knowledge in a small engineering team creates delivery risk if a key developer departs pre-scale.
Mitigation: Full engineering specification documented across 167+ product files. A new engineer can onboard without extended CEO briefing. Post-raise team of 18 reduces single-person dependency significantly.
Simultaneous team build, product completion, and market launch in a compressed window creates operational complexity.
Mitigation: Existing 10-person team continues operations. New hires are targeted and specific. Three integrations are engineer tasks, not product decisions. The build is real. The risk is coordination, not creation.
Nigerian regulatory changes could affect compliance calendar content or payroll processing requirements.
Mitigation: Platform is configuration-based. Regulatory changes update configuration, not architecture. Dedicated compliance monitoring as part of the Finance Manager role from Day 1.
A well-funded competitor could attempt to replicate specific modules.
Mitigation: The moat is not technology. It is a decade of Nigeria-specific institutional knowledge embedded in workflow logic. Replicating the system requires replicating the operational history. That is a time moat, not a code moat.
18 · The Team
Founder and Chief Executive Officer · 25th and Staffing Limited · Lagos, Nigeria
Emem built one of Nigeria's most operationally consistent workforce delivery businesses over a decade without external capital, generating ₦3.32 billion in Gross Managed Volume, closing 255 assignments across 58 unique clients, and managing outsourced workforce infrastructure for some of the most demanding enterprise environments in Africa.
Her career spans recruitment, outsourced workforce management, and HR operations across enterprise clients including Tech Mahindra, GSM Systems, Bain and Company, and eTranzact, with managed staff deployed across MTN, Cisco, Mavenir, and Airtel.
25th Core is the direct product of that operational history. Every feature in the platform exists because Emem and her team lived the problem first across a decade of real delivery.
Chief Technology Officer · 25th and Staffing Limited
Emmanuel brings over 15 years of experience designing and delivering software across the full technology stack and full product lifecycle. He joined 25th and Staffing in 2017 and has since led the organisation's technology strategy and engineering function, overseeing software architecture, development teams, and cloud infrastructure, translating business goals into scalable technical solutions across web, mobile, and IoT platforms.
He led the build of 25th AI Recruiter and 25th Direct, the two proprietary engines that power the platform's intelligence and candidate sourcing layers. His technical range spans Python, Java, JavaScript, PHP, and C/C++, deployed on AWS and Google Cloud across relational and NoSQL databases at scale.
Post-raise he will oversee engineering across both Core and Suite as CTO, with dedicated teams under each product.
19 · Appendix
25th Core · Seed Round · 2026
It is a decade of operational knowledge encoded into software. ₦3.32B Gross Managed Volume. 85% built. 200+ warm leads. Three integrations to go-live. The window is November. The raise is the only variable.
Get in Touch
To request bank statements, client references, or arrange a conversation — reach out directly.
✉ emem@25thandstaffing.comEmem Usen · Founder and CEO · 25th and Staffing Limited · Lagos, Nigeria
CONFIDENTIAL · NOT FOR DISTRIBUTION · SEED ROUND · $2.5M · © 25th and Staffing Limited 2026