South African venture capital (VC) firm AngelHub Ventures has invested in e-book startup Snapplify, with the funds to be used to expand the product and team across multiple countries.
Snapplify was launched in 2011 to provide e-book solutions for both the trade and academic industries. with publishers already signed with Snapplify including Penguin Random House, Pearson, Oxford and Cambridge.
AngelHub Ventures said it was highly impressed with what Snapplify was doing and immediately offered to invest with a view to speeding up its already impressive growth.
“Snapplify is ideally positioned to surf the wave of digitisation that is sweeping across and irrevocably changing the old print sector,” said Michael Jordaan of AngelHub Ventures, who will join the Snapplify board.
“In the content and media industry the survivors will be those players who see digitisation as an opportunity to reach a much wider audience rather than an existential threat to the status quo. Snapplify can grow electronic distribution massively while protecting digital rights and ensuring that there are incentives for the creation of intellectual property. It’s a win-win business model.”
Wesley Lynch, chief executive officer (CEO) of Snapplify, said the startup could make a huge difference for accessibility to content and e-books in the African market, especially within education.
“Challenges such as textbook delivery problems, lack of internet infrastructure and other barriers can easily be resolved by a digital solution. These are the pressing problems that our team want to solve. Getting books from the world’s leading publishers into the hands of all South African students is currently our main priority,” he said.
Snapplify recently won the award for Most Innovative Technology at the FutureBook Innovation Awards.
