Exactly two years ago, having discovered a gap between emerging tech companies and their target audience, Techpoint was launched to be a relatable platform that simplifies technology for the layman, whilst chronicling the impact of technology on the African narrative.
The vision for Techpoint has since seen us spread our tentacles beyond Nigeria, with the introduction of our Kenya Weekly series with Brenda Wangari.
In March of 2016, I and Muyiwa took a trip down to Ghana, to document how Nana Twum-Danso and her team are saving the lives of mothers and infants in the rural Ghanaian town of Chereponi.
So far, Techpoint has covered a variety of startups from the idea stage, through the intermediate and growth phase from Nigeria and beyond (you can get your startup featured by pitching to us here).
More than 50% of these startups and innovations have testified to receiving investment or support offers after we featured them. Indeed, many investors from around the world use Techpoint as a medium to discover new startups or innovations in Africa. Stories from Techpoint have also been featured in Canadian and Silicon Valley investors' newsletters.
The Techpoint Innovation Tour
In November, we shut down our Lagos office to go on a tour of Northern Nigeria scouting for innovations and organising local events to understand the challenges innovators are facing in the region.
Some of the more remarkable discoveries we made include Aminu Bakori, the 20-year old whiz programmer from Kaduna and a Jos-based web hosting company with 90% of its clients in Lagos.
The Team
We are a team of 8 people with more than 100 professionals from different fields as contributors. This January, we will be joined by 7 amazing interns.
From an elevator pitch phase, to a witty test series, then a more demanding write-a-thon series, these brilliant minds made it through our gruelling interview process. You will get to know them in due time. We hope to continue serving you relatable content in our drive to push the burgeoning tech community mainstream.
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Growth
In 2016 we experienced 600% growth in monthly traffic, compared to the previous year. With more than 20,000 people subscribed to receive instant push notifications, we are looking to grow our traffic much further this year.
As you may have observed, we have been ramping up our distribution channels, with the introduction of Facebook Instant articles, Google AMP and our personalised news bot. We will be expanding our distribution channels further in 2017.
What next?
This year we are focusing on how to tell the story of Nigerian tech businesses better, reach more consumers and help bring more Africans online.
Consumer
Today we are launching consumer.techpoint.ng. Techpoint Consumer is a platform for everything consumer tech product. The platform will review products ranging from mobile devices, wearables, household tech etc. The platform will also explain a lot of day-to-day tech products and services to the average consumer.
Legal Clinic
Over time, we have had professional legal practitioners contributing to Techpoint and addressing legal issues pertaining to startups, which many of our readers have found resourceful.
We are taking that a step further by introducing a bi-weekly series called "Legal Clinic" with Timi Olagunju, a cybercrime lawyer and radicalised tech evangelist.
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My name is Adewale Yusuf and I am the Founder and CEO of Techpoint.ng.
On behalf of the Techpoint Team I would like to wish you a prosperous and eventful 2017. We appreciate every share, comment, criticism and heartwarming fan mail you sent over, encouraging us to do more. Thanks for making Techpoint your daily read.
This new year we need more of your support; we can collectively take tech mainstream in Africa. Continue sharing, commenting and keep the emails coming. Let's rock the year together.