Ornico snaps up Fuseware to fuel African expansion

Fuseware, the digital analytics agency tracking South Africa’s social media landscape, has been acquired by local media and analytics company Ornico for an undisclosed sum. By leveraging Fuseware’s expertise, Ornico now plans to further sink its cross-channel media monitoring services deeper into the continent.

Established in 1984 as a company that monitored television advertising, Ornico has grown organically and expanded beyond South Africa. In 2008 it opened up shop in Nigeria which was followed by new offices in 2014 in Kenya and Ghana.

“The acquisition has made Ornico a one-stop-shop for broadcast, print, digital and mobile monitoring and analysis,” said Ornico’s CEO Oresti Patricios in a media statement. “The acquisition of Fuseware completes the last kilometre of our business, and means that Ornico now offers editorial, brand, advertising, media and digital content tracking and analysis services across all platforms,” he continued.

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Fuseware was launched in 2010 by Michal Wronski and raised seed funding one year later. With a strong focus on digital monitoring and analytics, its current clients include Media24, Standard Bank, Vodacom, Mxit and many more.

Wronski explains that its current offering includes a digital media monitoring and reputational tool that tracks online media mentions and sentiment to enable brands to track their own or competitor brands.

“The technology that underpins Fuseware gives this service a significant edge in that the digital analytics tool can report across entire markets and industries. It can also correlate insights across datasets and create custom solutions with ease,” Wronski said in a press release.

In terms of the acquisition, Wronski will be part of the team that helps to grow Fuseware’s service offering at Ornico, and into Africa.

“Fuseware’s technology will help power Ornico’s growth in Africa and will help pave the way for Ornico to offer comprehensive cross-channel media monitoring while spearheading the establishment of measurement standards across the continent,” Patricios said.