South African ed-tech startup Snapplify has acquired Onnie Media / Teacha! – an educator media hub for South African teachers – to further diversifies Snapplify’s fast-growing educational portfolio.
Based in Cape Town but already active internationally, Snapplify provides a marketplace for digital education content, related educational services and devices, offering e-learning solutions to over 1,400 schools, colleges and universities, and more than 200,000 students.
Already Africa’s largest e-book aggregator and distributor, the company is now looking for further speed its growth, and with that in mind raised US$2 million in expansion capital from venture capital firm Knife Capital and African investment manager Hlayisani Capital’s Hlayisani Growth Fund in September of last year.
That investment has been used to fund the acquisition of Onnie Media / Teacha!, 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.
The acquisition bolsters Snapplify’s aim to continue developing an offering that is compelling and valuable for teachers.
“We believe that successful digital education in classrooms requires more than a simple switch from physical to digital textbooks,’ said chief executive officer (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.”
Onnie Media founder and CEO Jean Vermeulen said his company’s primary goal has been to empower, inspire, and support South African teachers by building platforms that enable teachers to help one another.
“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,” he said.
