Along with Google, WordPress and a few others – Afrigator is now an official sponsor of BarCamp Africa.
BarCamp Africa is a chance for people from Silicon Valley to learn about Africa on many levels: the place, the people, contemporary issues, outlooks, opportunities and more and we are proud to support any initiative that encourages discussions between Africa and the developed world.
For those who don’t know a BarCamp is an ad-hoc gathering born from the desire for people to share and learn in an open environment. It is an intense event with discussions, demos and interaction from participants and you can read some detailed FAQ’s about BarCamp Africa over here.
This year BarCamp Africa will be held on the Google Campus in Mountain View, California, USA on October 11, 2008. If you’d like to attend then book your seat now as there are only limited tickets left.
MIH Print Africa, a division of the Naspers group, today announced that it has secured a majority stake in Afrigator.com, Africa’s social media aggregator.
Afrigator.com has carved out a niche as a hub for user-generated content in the form of blogs, podcasts and videos relevant to the African continent. Consistent growth over the last 14 months and a driving commitment to innovation makes Afrigator a natural fit in MIH’s existing portfolio of Web properties.
“We are thrilled about having MIH and the broader Naspers group as partners in taking Afrigator to the next level and beyond”, said Justin Hartman, co-founder and MD of Afrigator.
“MIH’s strategy for Africa aligns perfectly with ours and is an important development for the social media space across our continent – this validates the importance of blogging and social media in Africa.”
Mike Stopforth, co-founder of Afrigator, echoed Justin’s sentiments.
About Afrigator Internet (Pty) Ltd
Afrigator Internet was founded in April 2007 by Justin Hartman and Mike Stopforth as a social media aggregator and directory built for African consumers. Afrigator uses social media tools and technologies to showcase the best digital content that the African continent has to offer, ranging from syndicated news feeds to blog posts, podcasts, videos and images.
The company has been privately funded by the co-founders and has already enjoyed a fair amount of success with a steady 25% month-on-month growth rate, and the wonderful accolade of having being listed as #20 of 31 “top non-US startups to watch worldwide” by Business 2.0 (money.cnn.com).
We’ve been holding off on the big news but we can finally confirm today that MIH Print Africa (Pty) Ltd, a subsidiary of Naspers Limited, has secured a majority stake in Afrigator Internet (Pty) Ltd.
We could not have chosen a better partner in MIH Print Africa as their strategy for Africa aligns perfectly with ours and is an important development for the social media space across our continent – validating the importance of blogging and social media in Africa.
Our Vision
When we started Afrigator in April 2007 we had no idea that we would be where we are today and our sole mandate at the time was to try and create a compelling and useful product that bloggers would enjoy using.
Since then our strategy hasn’t changed but we have evolved to not only serve bloggers but anyone who is interested in social media developments across Africa.
Afrigator is about social media and our users and this vision will not change moving forward. As a privately funded operation we had limited resources at our disposal and this deal gives us plenty of room to turn Afrigator into a mature and useful product.
What this means for our users
Fundamentally this deal is hugely beneficial to all our users as we can all finally focus on Afrigator full-time. We have also employed Lester Hein as our Product Manager who will join the team at the beginning of October and we plan to expand our development team in the near future.
All of this means that not only will the vision remain in tact but we’ll also be more efficient and focused on our users as the team grows and expands.
There are big plans for the development of the website itself and we plan to launch some innovative products along the way.
If you have any questions or would like further information please get in touch with us – we’d love to hear your thoughts!
Read more on this topic here or download the official press release here.