CAPE TOWN — MXP Ventures has expanded its geographic reach to Africa, supporting new South Africa-based internal communications, employee engagement and employer branding agency, Voxeon, led by venue communications specialist work Jo Eyre.
Voxeon is MXP’s first agency on the African continent, and its seventh investment since its creation founded in October 2021 by Michael Young, founder of San Francisco agency holding company Millwright Holdings, and Tilo Bonow, founder of Berlin-based PR agency Piabo, with the aim of creating the next generation of marketing services agencies.
The new agency was created to help organizations attract and retain talent, create high-performance cultures and maximize the performance, productivity and collaboration of remote and hybrid teams through communications, content and experiences digital.
Eyre has over 16 years of communications and marketing experience, advising start-ups, scale-ups, multinationals and governments on internal and external communications strategy. She previously led the marketing and communications teams at Epic Games and Opera Software.
Previously, Eyre worked for communications and strategic consultancy firm Africapractice, advising technology companies including Google. Most recently, she led the internal communications function at Omnipresent, a global remote HR technology company.
Eyre told PRovoke Media: “I worked remotely for 10 years and when the pandemic hit, I found myself helping the team I worked with at Epic Games work more effectively remotely. I realized that if we had decided as a world to start working remotely or hybridly, it would have been a huge change management task with huge budgets, but we had no choice and we now see the cracks: it is difficult to work. with flexibility while maintaining this level of performance.
“Voxeon returns to my love of employer branding and internal communications, as well as helping companies prepare for a future where talent has no boundaries. I contacted Michael and Tilo four or five months ago and they saw that there were so many opportunities, from large organizations acquiring organizations from different countries and needing to build a culture, to scale-ups, through other agencies without a niche around distributed workforce, employee engagement and employer branding. Our ambition is global: we want to grow as fast as possible to help businesses of all types in all sectors create future-ready working cultures.
Bonow added: “When Jo approached us, it was love at first sight: she has a lot of energy, confidence and experience and when you’re looking for an entrepreneur and a founder, you need that immediate feeling that you want to work with them. There are so many layers to internal communication, and in every conversation we had with Jo, it became clear how broad the topic is – even offshoring can define a culture – and it can help businesses and others agencies to grow and prosper. .”
In addition to Voxeon, MXP’s portfolio includes four agencies in Europe, one in the United States and, most recently, PNTR Communications in Asia. Earlier this year, the agency accelerator and venture capital fund unveiled social change company Better Together in Washington DC, while last September saw the launch of Surroundings, a communications consulting firm focused on CEO reputation and thought leadership. Last May, he supported the launch of Ellipse Communicationsled by international communications specialist Coraline Bardinat, also in France.
So far, MXP has also backed two UK agencies: Bound to Prosper, founded by Lydia Hoye, former managing partner of Kazoo, and Upside PR, launched by former Flagship managing director Mark Pinnes.
