Tekpon bought TNW from the FT without seeing its financials (interview)

A Romanian-founded marketplace and procurement service for SaaS and AI tools, earning commissions from vendors like HubSpot and Monday.com

A software-buying marketplace can run an independent newsroom and events brand as part of a software, media, events and advisory ecosystem

Stan founded Tekpon in 2020 with former co-founders after building 21 companies and exiting five, aiming to be the first honest software review platform. In late 2025 he agreed to buy TNW from the FT.

He says he acquired the brands without seeing any financial data, because TNW is so well known. Terms were not disclosed. The FT keeps TNW Spaces, its coworking business. Stan says TNW will keep its brand and editorial standards, stay independent because Tekpon makes money from software commissions and avoid politics and defence tech, and he plans to hire as many journalists as needed.

Stan says TNW was too small to matter to the FT, leaving it available

TNW's brand and community across Europe and the US were strong enough to justify buying on name alone, per Stan

Tekpon's software-commission revenue lets him claim editorial independence

Stan bought on brand alone, a bet that the TNW name and audience would outweigh unseen financials; the interview gives no results yet.

As of December 9, 2025 the deal had just closed; TNW was to transfer more than 100,000 articles from the FT and rebuild its newsroom, all described by Stan as plans.