CAPE TOWN - African News Agency (ANA), the continent’s first multimedia content syndication platform, yesterday announced that Sagarmatha Technologies agreed to an investment of R1 billion in the business of ANA.
ANA chief executive Grant Fredericks said that the intended investment from Sagarmatha would strengthen the agency’s reach in Africa.
“Sagarmatha’s investment in ANA is part of our vision to establish silicon Africa,” Fredericks said.
“Africans now have the ability to scale the highest peak of technology; as equal partners, Africans can take ownership of their own platforms through innovation in technology.”
Sagarmatha is an integrated African technology platform and multinational group, leading emerging markets in e-commerce, digital media, syndicated content, and technology ventures.
The company, which has a presence in more than 40 African countries, has successfully pioneered and partnered with several associate and group companies to develop proprietary software technology in recent times.
Sagarmatha chief executive Paul Lamontagne said: “ANA’s footprint will pave the way for Sagarmatha to enable Africans to access the global consumer and business market, the opportunity to train and truly empower millions of young African professionals to be masters of their own destiny”.
Fredericks said ANA was positioning itself to be a global syndication organisation that provided authentic and accurate content from Africa.
He said the content would be packaged and sold to global media houses through partnerships with various platforms.
“Potential investors in Africa are looking for accurate African content, ANA provides the technology platform to disseminate the content instantaneously,” Fredericks said.
“A social media business, that can be compared with the US social media community, Nextdoor will be launched by ANA early next year.”
The Sagarmatha investment in ANA is a no-brainer. Sagarmatha, as an integrated African technology platform company, delivers platform solutions to business partners in Africa and globally.
Together, these two businesses offer niche content plug-ins, wall-to-wall African coverage and reach through a network of media partnerships across the continent.
“Our infotainment business model uses content with information, news, and entertainment to build audiences.
"The difference to legacy media is that technology allows for more cost-effective content production and user-generated content,” said Fredericks.
Information and infotainment is very much part of the African growth story. The “made in Africa” story is not only for Africans but for global audiences, consumers, and businesses seeking information that enable them to achieve high growth and solid returns.
The impact of young African people on the economies of the world cannot be overemphasised in the new world where technology is key.
Editor’s Note:
“Data is the new oil. The constant fight for audiences is equivalent to the land and resources wars of the past. "Technology allows date to be used for fast and efficient monetization”. Sagarmatha and ANA’s business models are similar to that of Amazon, Facebook, Tencent, Google and Alibaba in the earlier days. The editor wishes to congratulate Fredericks and Lamontagne for being leaders and not followers; this is key to ensuring that African companies fully participate in the new technology economy of the future. The Sagarmatha Group recently announced its International Advisory Board consisting of Ambassador Harold E Doley, Jr, founder of Investment Bank, Doley Securities in the US; Dr Julius Akinyemi, Entrepreneur-In-Residence at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s (MIT) Media Laboratory; Marcel Boekhoorn, a Dutch (US$)dollar billionaire investor with a wide array of business interests; Dr (Hon) Dak Chung, a renowned Chinese (US$) dollar billionaire and philanthropist who serves as chairperson of the Chung Hon Dak Foundation and Zhou Guang Zhao Foundation; Dirk Hoke, the chief executive officer (CEO) of Airbus Defence and Space; Yoshito Hori, one of Japan’s most successful businessmen serving as a managing partner at GLOBISlobis Capital Partners and president of GLOBISlobis University; Dr Makaziwe (Maki) Mandela, the chairperson of House of Mandela; Jim Rogers, a Singapore-based visionary investor, commentator and author who co-founded the Quantum Fund, a global investment partnership; Mr Vikramjit Singh Sahney an Indian (US$) dollar billionaire, Founder and chairperson of Sun Group – a business conglomerate specialising in fertilisers, minerals, agriculture and offsets; Jaidev (Jai) Shroff an Indian (US$) dollar billionaire, the Global CEO chief executive of UPL Limited.