Umuntu Media receives $1M investment boost

In the digital age, news is all about getting information quickly and on demand. While getting this kind of information is relatively easy with global or even national news, it isn’t always the case locally, especially in the developing world.

Umuntu Media, which claims to provide exactly this kind of fast, hyper-local information with its iNamibia and iZambia portals, has raised US$1-million in Series A funding from Netherlands based eVentures Africa Fund (eVA fund).

The money will be used to expand the online media company’s existing information portal model to an additional nine African countries.

The South African-based firm says that it “employs on the ground journalists and encourages citizen journalism to publish world class local and hyper local news on their platforms”.

Umuntu, whose name means “person” in Ndebele, states that the use of ordinary citizens is a key part of its strategy.

CEO and Founder Johann Nel underlines this sentiment, saying:

We want to be the one stop content and information shop for our readers. So far we’ve established a news and entertainment section, offer the largest database of accommodation establishments in Namibia and Zambia, showcase the latest music and events and have integrated a property and job board. All this information is locally produced to create relevance, as we believe it’s the local content that counts.

Brian Hemran of eVA believes that UMuntu has an important role to play in addressing some of Africa’s informational challenges:

Quality local content is still a gap in the market in Africa. It is a massive challenge, but we have the vision, we have the team and we have the guts to make this happen. We have great confidence in Johan Nel and his team. That is why we are happy to invest a second round in Umuntu Media today and will continue to invest and actively support the team in the future.

eVA claims that it is dedicated to making funding available to small and medium sized African internet and mobile related companies.

Some of the eVA funding received by Umuntu Media will go to building what it calls “a mobile communications platform that caters for Africa’s needs”.

Umuntu intends to launch the alpha version of this mobile platform by January 2012.