Left to Right: Wesley Lynch, Ali Mills (Onnie Media), Jean Vermeulen(Onnie Media), Mark Seabrook
Edtech company Snapplify has acquired Onnie Media / Teacha! – an educator media hub for South African teachers. The acquisition further diversifies the Snapplify Group’s fast-growing educational portfolio, and highlights the edtech company’s already established position as a serious contender in the global e-learning market.
Onnie Media / Teacha! is South Africa’s largest independent online teacher community. A media hub, resource marketplace, and careers portal – the company specialises in empowering, inspiring, and uplifting South African teachers.
‘Onnie Media’s primary goal has been to empower, inspire, and support South African teachers by building platforms that enable teachers to help one another,’ said founder and CEO of Onnie Media, Jean Vermeulen. ‘We’re proud to have built a network of teachers that embraces the power of online communities to support each other. As teachers ourselves, we see the role of supporting teachers as a critical and important one, and are pleased to be joining a company that holds these same values. We’re excited for the next phase of our growth, and to be reaching teachers across Africa.’
Snapplify is at the forefront of edtech innovations in Africa, where their marketplace for digital education content, related educational services, and devices is used by thousands of schools across the continent. This acquisition bolsters Snapplify’s goals to continue to develop an offering that is compelling and valuable for teachers. Recently, Snapplify announced the launch of its Teacher Benefits programme, which consolidates their wide-ranging value-adds for teachers: from promotional offers and discounts on prescribed and supplementary materials, to expanded access to teacher-created resources.
‘We believe that successful digital education in classrooms requires more than a simple switch from physical to digital textbooks,’ said Snapplify CEO, Wesley Lynch. ‘Expanding our offering to include teacher support tools is crucially important to us, and we’re pleased to have Teacha! join the Snapplify Group to further this mission.’
The move follows on the heels of a $2 million expansion capital raise into Snapplify late last year, backed by Knife Capital and Hlayisani Growth Fund.
‘The acquisition of Onnie Media / Teacha! by Snapplify is an exciting one,’ said Andrea Bohmert of Knife Capital, and chairman of Snapplify’s board. ‘Snapplify is on a powerful upwards trajectory, growing both its reach and offering for schools, teachers, students, and parents.’
‘Both Snapplify and Teacha! are doing incredible work to reach and support South African teachers, and I look forward to seeing the continued growth of these two partners,’ said Michael Jordaan, ex-CEO of FNB and Venture Capitalist investor in Snapplify.
Snapplify’s acquisition of Teacha! also comes soon after the announcement by Snapplify of a brand new cloud services offering geared at enabling others in the edtech space to build their products using Snapplify technology. Snapplify Cloud Services forms the foundation of Snapplify’s partnership programme.
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