SA’s Snapplify acquires Onnie Media for undisclosed amount

Cape Town edtech company Snapplify announced today that it has acquired Onnie Media, an educator media hub for SA teachers, and the hub’s online marketplace for teachers in South Africa, Teacha!.

The edtech company said in a statement today that the acquisition further diversifies its fast-growing educational portfolio, and highlights the company’s already established position as a big contender in the global e-learning market.

It did not disclose the details of the acquisition, including how much it paid to acquire Onnie Media.

Snapplify, which was founded in 2011 by Wesley Lynch (pictured above, far left with members from Onnie Media and Snapplify), offers elearning solutions to over 1400 schools, colleges and universities that are striving towards digital learning and the use of ebooks in the classroom.

Snapplify’s acquisition of Onnie Media was funded by $2m in investment the edtech raised last year

It comes after Snapplify announced in September last year that it had raised $2-million (over R30-million) in expansion capital from venture capital firm Knife Capital via its SA Revenue Service (Sars) Section 12J Venture Capital Company, KNF Ventures, and black empowerment investment manager Hlayisani Capital‘s Hlayisani Growth Fund (see this story).

Knife Capital partner Keet van Zyl said in an email today that the acquisition was funded by the September investment.

‘Largest online teacher community’

Onnie Media claims to be 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.

According to the organisation’s LinkedIn profile page, Onnie Media started as a small teacher-run blog by Jean Vermeulen in 2014 and now consists out of various platforms, including Teacha!

Vermeulen, according to his LinkedIn profile is also the head of Afrikaans at Herzlia Highlands Primary School in Cape Town.

While the company’s LinkedIn profile lists the company has having just a single employee, Ali Mills was appointed as head of teacher engagement in August last year, according to her LinkedIn profile page.

Snapplify’s Marie-Louise Rouget, who oversees growth and digital curation, confirmed that Onnie Media has just two employees and that both Mills and Vermeulen will be moving over to Snapplify. She said Vermeulen will be joining the edtech company shortly, after his contract with Herzlia comes to an end.

Teacher Benefits programme

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,” commented Lynch in a statement today.

“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,” he said.

Snapplify’s acquisition of Teacha! also comes soon after the announcement it made in January of a 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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Featured image (from left to right): Snapplify founder Wesley Lynch, Onnie Media’s head of teacher engagement Ali Mills and the company’s founder Jean Vermeulen and Snapplify operations director Mark Seabrook (Supplied)