Techpoint wants to become Nigeria’s Verizon Media

Techpoint Africa announced a partnership with Ventureburn to gain a foothold in South Africa on June 4, 2020. Two weeks later, it launched Community.

The partnership between Techpoint and Ventureburn — a leading South African startup-focused news platform — would enable both parties to share content and work together on events and market intelligence reports.

Community is an online discussion forum for tech professionals, enthusiasts, entrepreneurs, and other stakeholders in the tech ecosystem.

It is pertinent to note that TechCabal had attempted to build a community for stakeholders in the tech ecosystem, too. But after some years, engagement on Radar waned. These days, much of the tech ecosystem conversations happen on Twitter, and private Telegram and Facebook groups.

Techpoint partnership with Ventureburn: How

Techpoint Africa is a Nigerian media company focused on amplifying the best African innovations through its reporting, events, and market intelligence reports. It was founded in 2015 by Adewale Yusuf.

Muyiwa Matuluko, Editor of Techpoint Africa, said, "We’ve been mulling over such media partnerships since last year. Then around April, Adewale brought it up again and I ran with it. We began conversations with Ventureburn in April".

Since the partnership began, Techpoint and Ventureburn have re-published about 30 articles from each other platforms.

Ventureburn is a portfolio company of Burn Media — a multimedia digital publishing firm focused on technology and media, entrepreneurship, cars, and gadgets. Other subsidiaries of Burn Media include Memeburn (tech-savvy insight and analysis), Gearburn (gadgets reviews), and Motorburn (car reviews).

Ventureburn was launched in 2012 by Matthew Buckland, who died last year April from cancer. In 2010, Buckland launched Creative Spark, a full-service digital agency specialized in social and content marketing, paid media, search engine optimization, and creative services. Five years later, Creative Spark was reportedly sold for $3.5 million to M&C Saatchi PLC — a global advertising and marketing agency. The publishing division, Burn Media, was spun out of the agency in 2018.

After the sale of his venture, Buckland became an entrepreneur-in-residence at the Media Development Investment Fund (MDIF).

Why

Under the terms of the partnership, Techpoint and Ventureburn would also work together on surveys, reports, and events covering the African tech startup sector.

"The partnership between the two tech platforms will allow for more complete coverage of Africa’s tech startup sector by both platforms", Stephen Timm, Ventureburn Editor at the time, said. Timm resigned in June, and has been replaced with Ishani Chetty.

While Techpoint has published nine editions of its Nigerian Startup Funding Report, Ventureburn has published three editions of its Tech Startup Survey, which covers the South African tech ecosystem.

"The timing [of this partnership] could not be more apt", Matuluko said. "The African tech startup sector is not shielded from the economic effects of the global pandemic. However, there are immense opportunities in collaborations such as ours and the sector will be better for it".

In October 2019, Techpoint Africa had launched a physical footprint in Nairobi, Kenya. However, in January 2020, TechCabal poached the senior editor, Victor Ekwealor, leading the East African effort.

"The South African market is quite different from the rest of Sub-Saharan Africa, and by extension its tech space", Matuluko said. "So it’s much harder to break into and will require way more resources than setting up a physical shop in East Africa. North Africa is another level more difficult".

Matuluko continued, "So the partnership with Venturnburn is beneficial in the sense that they have a leg in the [South African] market. They have been running it since 2012".

Techpoint Founder, Adewale: "Remember that Verizon playbook? We're learning".

Benjamin Dada, Founder of Benjamindada.com, congratulated Techpoint on their partnership and launch of Community.

"Techpoint is that news organisation in Africa that does a lot of newsworthy stuff", Dada said. "Today, they partner with a leading blog in South Africa.  Tomorrow, they are launching an online community.  Their execution game is tight".

Thanks, man. Remember that Verizon playbook? We're learning.

— Adewale Yusuf (@AdewaleYusuf_) June 15, 2020

The response of Adewale Yusuf, Founder of Techpoint, was revealing. He said, "Thanks, man. Remember that Verizon playbook? We're learning".

Verizon Media is a division of Verizon Communication. It houses 20 media, technology and communications brands. Notably, TechCrunch, Engadget, HuffPost, and Yahoo brands — News, Life, Finance, Fantasy, Entertainment, and Sports.