The Nation Media Group (NMG) has partnered with venture capital (VC) firm Antler East Africa to tap its expertise in identifying and nurturing innovative digital content.
This is part of the Nairobi Securities Exchange-listed firm’s multi-pronged growth strategy.
NMG in September 2020 launched its flagship digital brand –www.nation.africa— to tap into changing consumer habits by reengineering itself to accelerate its digital transformation.
The company continued the digitisation last year by launching a premium section of the website where users pay a daily, weekly, monthly, or annual fee to access NMG's high-quality exclusive content.
NMG Chief Technology and Innovation Officer Oliver August said the partnership will help the company access a great pool of talented individuals working on innovative ideas in the digital content space.
"The idea to work with Antler came out of the strategic realisation that the future of NMG will be together with other partners,” said Mr August.
“We want to find new products offered by digital technology that we can offer to our customers. For that, we need people who understand how to build completely new digital content or products from scratch, and that is Antler's strength.”
Antler invests in startups, supporting the firms with business model validation and providing a global platform for scaling their operations.
The company has invested in more than 400 companies in over 30 industries including artificial intelligence (AI), robotics, drones and fintech.
It is these innovators that NMG is aiming to utilise to drive the generation of new and unique digital content and products for its vast audience
NMG Head of Strategy and Innovation, Max Okeyo said Antler will help the company with access to innovators that are coming up with products that will address the gaps in the market that the media organisation would like to plug into.