Investor relations as brand communications: beyond pitch decks

Fundraising and investor relations are often framed as purely financial exercises: projections, market sizing, growth charts. Yet markets don’t move on numbers alone. Narratives shape perception, and perception drives investment appetite. Investors are not just buying into spreadsheets — they are buying into stories about the people, markets, and futures they are putting money behind.

For African founders, this dynamic is even more critical. Global investors may lack deep context of local realities, and effective brand communication becomes the bridge — transforming perceived risk into opportunity.

Pause. This article does not argue that narrative should outweigh fundamentals like growth trajectory or financial discipline. Rather, it spotlights the role of brand communication in investor relations: not as a scramble for media coverage during fundraising, but as a consistent, strategic engagement with stakeholders that strengthens ecosystems and builds durable trust.

Fundraising and Investor Relations. 

I believe that 2015/2016 was an important time for Nigeria’s tech ecosystem. We attracted the first wave of significant global investments, including iROKO’s $19M content and capital raise. Andela’s $24M Series B, led by the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, and early funding rounds for Paystack and Flutterwave. These marked the beginning of international venture capital confidence in Nigerian startups.

Pre-this time (even though we had Interswitch’s Helios investment, konga, Paga, hotels.ng to mention but a few with international investments); a lot more conversations were happening around Small checks ($20k for 7.5%), angel rounds, CcHub and Microtraction-style investments and a whole lot, which influenced what investor relations could mean at the time. 

Things changed with the boom in 2019-2021 (with startups raising record-breaking amounts–over 1.6 Billion dollars in 2021 alone) and producing multiple unicorns. This phase was characterised by mega-deals, global investor interest, fintech dominance, and rapid digital adoption accelerated by COVID-19. 

Why are these investment cycles important to the conversation, you would ask? Let me try:

1. Early Angel Era (2011–2016): Scrappy Authenticity

Funding Context: Small checks ($20k for 7.5%), angel rounds, CcHub and Microtraction-style investments.

Brand Strategy:

• Founder-led storytelling: Brands leaned heavily on personal narratives and hustle culture.
• Minimalist identity: Logos, websites, and messaging were functional, not polished.
• Community-first tone: Communication focused on solving local problems, often in pidgin or informal English.

Channels: Twitter, blogs, local meetups, and CcHub demo days.

2. ZIRP Pre-seed Era (2017–2019): Rise of the Pitch-Ready Brand

Funding Context: Structured pre-seed rounds ($5M valuations), SAFEs, and convertible notes.

Brand Strategy:

• Investor-facing polish: Decks, websites, and pitch videos became more refined.
• Tech optimism: Messaging emphasized scalability, disruption, and market potential.
• Design upgrades: Startups began investing in visual identity and UX.

Channels: LinkedIn, Medium, and startup pitch competitions.

3. Boom Era (2020–2021): Global-Scale Branding

Funding Context: Mega-deals ($170M Flutterwave, $400M OPay), unicorn creation.

Brand Strategy:

• Corporate storytelling: Brands adopted global PR strategies, press releases, and investor relations.
• Aggressive positioning: Messaging focused on dominance, speed, and valuation.
• Lifestyle branding: Fintechs and mobility startups used aspirational imagery and influencer marketing.

Channels: International media (TechCrunch, Bloomberg), paid ads, brand ambassadors etc.

4. Crunch Era (2022–2024): Trust, Transparency, and Retrenchment

Funding Context: Funding dropped to ~$410M/year, layoffs and exits.

Brand Strategy:

• Crisis communication: Startups had to explain layoffs, pivots, and shutdowns.
• Trust-building: Emphasis on transparency, governance, and customer retention.
• Lean branding: Reduced budgets led to more organic, community-driven messaging.

Channels: Email newsletters, founder updates, Twitter threads, and town halls.

You will notice that the different waves forced startups to redefine what it meant to “build a brand” — from storytelling and design to tone and trust. The boom era prioritized scale and visibility; the crunch era demanded honesty and resilience.

Investor relations is more than fundraising

Fundraising is episodic. Investor relations is continuous. The strongest founders understand that investor relations is not something you switch on when you need capital and switch off when the round closes. It is a discipline of ongoing communication that compounds trust over time.

Fundraising: Transactional, time bound, focused on securing capital.

Ongoing IR: Relational, perpetual, focused on building confidence, transparency and alignment. 

Think of it this way: when you only communicate during fundraising, investors see you as transactional. When you communicate consistently, they see you as a steward. That difference matters. Investors want to know how you operate when things are going well, but even more importantly, how you respond when things are not. Silence breeds uncertainty; consistent communication builds confidence.

Investor Relations as Brand Building

Craft and Share Authentic Stories

Numbers matter, but stories make them memorable. Founders should regularly highlight customer impact stories that show how the business is changing lives or industries. For example, a fintech startup might not just report “10,000 new users,” but explain how those users are informal traders now accessing credit for the first time.

For example, a fintech founder in Lagos might send a quarterly update that doesn’t just list transaction volumes, but explains how those transactions are helping informal traders access credit for the first time. That story reinforces the brand’s mission of financial inclusion while grounding the numbers in human impact. Similarly, a healthtech founder in Cairo might share not only user growth but also a story of how their platform helped a rural clinic reduce prescription errors. These stories make the brand real, and they make investors feel emotionally invested in the mission.

This also turns raw data into a narrative investors can believe in and repeat.

Establish a Predictable Reporting Rhythm

Consistency is a signal of maturity. Monthly updates for early‑stage companies and quarterly reports for growth‑stage companies show discipline. Even when growth is flat, sending updates reassures investors that you are transparent and reliable. Silence, on the other hand, breeds doubt.

Keep Messaging Consistent Across Channels

Your pitch deck, press interviews, investor memos, and board reports should all reinforce the same brand narrative. If your public messaging says you’re about “financial inclusion,” but your investor updates only talk about transaction volumes, the disconnect weakens trust. Consistency makes your brand identity stick.

Share Risks and Mitigation Strategies

Investors know startups face challenges. What builds trust is not hiding them, but showing how you manage them. If FX volatility is affecting margins, explain the impact and outline your hedging strategy. If regulatory changes are looming, share your compliance roadmap. This candour positions you as a steward, not a spin doctor.

Maintain Governance Hygiene

A clean, well‑organized data room, updated board minutes, and transparent compliance reports are not just operational necessities — they are brand signals. They tell investors: “This company is disciplined, mature, and trustworthy.” In markets where risk perception is high, this signal can be decisive.

Engage Investors Beyond Reports

Investor relations is a relationship, not a transaction. Founders should schedule informal check‑ins, host roundtables, or share behind‑the‑scenes learnings. This makes investors feel like insiders, not outsiders. When investors are emotionally invested in the journey, they are more likely to reinvest, recommend, and support during downturns.

Use Thought Leadership to Extend the Brand

Publishing essays, speaking at conferences, or engaging in policy debates positions the founder as a category leader. For African startups, this is especially powerful: it educates global investors about local realities while reinforcing the brand’s authority. A founder writing about “The future of intra‑African payments” in a respected outlet is not just marketing — it’s investor relations.

Why These Activities Matter

“Investor relations is often misunderstood as beginning and ending with fundraising, but it is far more expansive. Fundraising is only a moment in a longer journey of perception management — how a company is understood, trusted, and evaluated by current and future investors over time. Public relations, brand storytelling, and communications are not cosmetic add‑ons; they are core infrastructure. Long before an investor opens a deck or data room, they are already forming views based on narrative signals: how clearly a company defines the opportunity it is enabling, how credible its leadership appears, how consistently it shows up in the market, and whether independent third parties take it seriously. Companies that invest early in narrative clarity, credibility, and coherence benefit from compounding trust. Their stories travel ahead of them, reducing friction when capital conversations begin and improving the quality, alignment, and speed of investor engagement.”

– Oluwagbeminiyi Idowu (CEO, Talking Drum Communications)

Each of these actions builds trust in a different way: stories humanize numbers, reporting cadence signals discipline, consistent messaging reinforces identity, risk transparency shows stewardship, governance hygiene signals maturity, relationship engagement deepens confidence, and thought leadership extends credibility.