Author: Gugu Lourie

Wingcopter, the German delivery drone manufacturer and service provider, today announced that it has raised $42 million or R672 million from renowned financial and strategic investors. The new funding is part of a Series A extension round, tripling the company’s total equity raise to more than $60 million or R960 million to date. Leading German retailer REWE Group as well as German investors Salvia and XAI technologies came on board as new shareholders. They were joined by Japanese conglomerate ITOCHU and previous backers Futury Capital from Germany and Silicon Valley-based Xplorer Capital. Drone Delivery has gained enormous momentum in the…

Southern Africa is the fastest region in Africa in terms of median download speed of 37.89 Mbps, followed by Northern Africa at 25.63 Mbps, Central Africa at 18.73 Mbps, Eastern Africa at 18.31 Mbps, and Western Africa at 17.00 Mbps,  a report by speed test service Ookla revealed on Wednesday. “When it comes to speeds in select African capital cities, Johannesburg was fastest with a median download speed of 65.54 Mbps — nearly 35% faster than that of the next-fastest city, Cape Town at 48.27 Mbps,” says Sylwia Kechiche, Principal Industry Analyst, Enterprise at Ookla. She added that Gaborone stood out…

Discovery Bank announced today that it will offer Vitality Pay as you Gym to all Discovery clients, including those with a Discovery Account. This is part of making physical activity more accessible for all Discovery clients. It’s easy to use and clients can access more than 170 Virgin Active and Planet Fitness clubs nationwide. Clients simply go to a club, scan the QR code at the entrance, seamlessly pay the access fee of between R75 and R100 (depending on the facility) from either a Discovery Bank transaction account, credit card or using Discovery Miles, and enjoy their workout. As an introductory special…

Over the past year, Discovery Bank has seen strong deposit growth and considerable traction of its shared-value banking model amongst its client base; the appeal of a full service, shared value, digital bank is reflected in Discovery Bank’s strong growth to over 1 million accounts since its public launch in 2020. Discovery Bank has firmly established itself as the leading digital bank in South Africa, operating a full-service branchless bank through its banking app that caters for the full spectrum of the retail market, driving high levels of client engagement, utilisation and value. This value is reflected in the one…

Virgin Active SA announced today that it has appointed Jessica Spira as managing director as of 1 October 2022. This follows the announcement in March of the appointment of Dean Kowarski as the group CEO of Virgin Active globally. Spira, a CA, is a senior investment banking executive with over 22 years of experience in strategic business development, relationship management and deal origination in both debt and equity markets. She joined Rand Merchant Bank in 2001 and now heads the bank’s healthcare and hospitality sector. Kowarski said, “With Jessica as MD and a strong team, Virgin Active South Africa…

Independent investment company Fledge Capital is on the hunt for acquisitions after selling its stake in WeBuyCars. Fledge Capital provides capital solutions to private companies across a wide range of industries. Fledge was founded in 2010 by Louis van der Watt and Konrad Fleischhauer. Together and on their own, they have a track record of investing in unlisted businesses. They sought to formalise their relationship into an investment vehicle, which led to the establishment of Fledge Capital. In 2017, African Rainbow Capital Investments (ARC) became a shareholder in Fledge. ARC is the listed investment vehicle of Patrice Motsepe, the well-known South African industrialist,…

Digital bank TymeBank disclosed on Friday that it is sustaining the momentum of acquiring about 130 000 customers per month. African Rainbow Capital (ARC) said in an update to investors that TymeBank is also making headway in increasing the number of customers with active accounts, which has proved to be challenging, given the tough economic environment with added pressure on consumers. Internationally, TymeBank’s fellow subsidiary company, Tyme Global, based in Singapore, is set to launch a digital bank called GOtyme in the Philippines in October 2022 with its local partners, the Gokongwei family, added ARC. In May 2022, TymeBank announced…

JSE-listed retailer TFG, formerly known as The Foschini Group, reported a 11.7% rise in online retail turnover to R4.4 billion for the year ended March 2022. The retailer said online retail turnover contributed 10,2% to total group retail turnover, evidencing the continuing strong online demand for all its brands. The company added that TFG Africa saw a 18% growth in online retail turnover and now contributes 3,1% to total TFG Africa retail turnover. TFG London reported a 13.8% increase in online retail turnover and now contributes 45,2% to total TFG London retail turnover. The group added that TFG Australia online…

Discovery Bank said on Friday it would immediately refund Vitality clients affected by Comair shutdown. Comair operates Kulula.com and British Airways. “We are saddened by the news released earlier today advising that Comair, one of our longest standing Vitality partners, has stopped operations,” said Discovery Bank. “To assist our clients, for any Vitality member who is a Discovery Bank client and booked a discounted flight departing from 1 June 2022 onwards that has been cancelled due to this issue, Discovery Bank will automatically refund the amount spent on that flight into the Vitality member’s Discovery Bank account by close of…

South Africa’s retailer Mr Price announced today that its Financial Services segment recorded a 6.2% in revenue for the year to end-April 2022. Mr Price said the Financial Services segment revenue increased 6.2% to R697 million. The retailer added that debtors’ interest and fees increased 5.6%, and reported double-digit growth in H2 due to a higher average debtors’ book and a 75bps increase in the repo rate. “The group’s strict credit granting criteria and strong collections and recovery performances positively impacted the portfolio, reflected by the net bad debt to book percentage decreasing to 6.0%, adequately covered by the impairment…