Peexoo, Canon partner to expand opportunities for African photographers

Peexoo, a tech-based photography platform has signed a partnership deal with big equipment producer, Canon, to expand opportunities in the sector for African photographers and content creators.

Peexoo is a photography start-up leveraging artificial intelligence technology to support photographers and help upscale their businesses by connecting them to clients. It also serves as a platform for them to archive their work and display them for potential clients.

Already two years in operation, Peexoo has around 1,800 photographers registered. The platform intends to create ‘Peexoo Stock’ to help photographers sell their stock images.

In addition, the founders intend to create an e-commerce platform to enable photographers to buy Canon products at discounted rates, one of the benefits of the partnership.

BusinessDay learnt that through the partnership, members of the Peexoo community will have access to Canon’s technologies, enjoy free masterclasses, and also purchase equipment seamlessly.

“We will partner with banks for loans so that photographers can buy equipment and pay on instalments,” said Steve Nwadike, a co-founder, who spoke at an event announcing the partnership in Lagos.

With the introduction of digital photography, the photography business in Nigeria has become one of the most lucrative businesses today because digitalized pictures and videos are now the order of the day.

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The business is constantly growing because more young Nigerians are trooping into the sector due to its relatively easy nature of starting.

The digital photography global market outlook report put the value of the global digital photography market at $79.12 billion in 2017 and is expected to reach $149.98 billion by 2026 growing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 7.4 percent during the forecast period.

While there is scant data on the size of the sector in Nigeria, there are thousands of photographers in Lagos alone, and around 20, 000 events take place in the city.

Some of the key factors influencing the market growth include increasing demand for smartphone penetration and rising interest in photography.

Some of the key players include Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd, Fujifilm Holdings Corp, Olympus, Leica, Panasonic Corp, Toshiba Corporation, Canon Inc., PENTAX, Kodak Co., Sony Corp., Hewlett-Packard and Sigma and Nikon Corporation.

Peexoo also aims to play in the market by helping photographers improve their work by joining forces with Canon.

In an interview with BusinessDay, Wande Adams, CEO of The Bulb Africa, who also doubles as a co-founder at Peexoo, said disrupting the photography space with technology cannot be done without recognizing the work that Canon has done in the past.

He said the partnership is to be able to create more opportunities for the photographers on their platform.

According to Adams, being able to join forces with Canon and leveraging the amount of its experience will enable them to run masterclasses for African photographers to learn from the past experiences of other photographers.

“What this partnership does is that it will bring international facilitators to train in our master class. It also opens the door for photographers in our community to be able to access opportunities globally,” he said.

Adams added that Canon is a multinational and the partnership will give validity to Peexoo because it encourages photographers to see a platform that is being recognized by a brand as big as Canon.

Omotayo Omodia, Canon’s country manager, described the partnership as exciting and explained that they chose Peexoo because what they are doing resonates with their corporate belief and goals.

For her, Peexoo creating a platform where photographers can not only drop their content but also make money by meeting potential clients

“I think it’s amazing and for us at Canon, we look forward to helping people tell their stories, skill development, empowerment, and we look forward to more people knowing that Canon is a brand that is there to empower them.”