Author: Gugu Lourie
Rudo wants to disrupt the personal care services industry in South Africa by providing convenience, safety, and opportunities to the beauty market. Inspired by Uber, a leader in online marketplaces disruption, Rudo is one of the latest online platform technologies aiming to disrupt specifically in the fashion beauty care industry. Rudo is an intelligent tool that relieves the burden of booking management to beauty practitioners as well as salons. It is a data-driven tool that markets the right services and products to the right audience. The new app will also enable hyper-personalisation of direct-to-home beauty services. In South Africa, hair salons…
Valenture Institute, a global tech-enabled high school, has secured $7 million (R114 million) investment backed by GSV Ventures. The Institute is a global online high school offering a curriculum recognised by the world’s leading universities. Valenture Institute was founded by South African-born entrepreneur Robert Paddock, who was also co-founder of Getsmarter, a transformative digital education company successfully acquired by Nasdaq-listed 2U in 2017. With the goal of becoming the biggest online high school in the world by 2028, this investment will certainly add fuel to Valenture Institute’s already raging fire. The school was established as a fully-fledged online offering pre-COVID,…
Discovery Bank announced on Wednesday that the number of new clients was 45 916 as of 30 June 2020 versus 197 in 2019, with average customer advances of R20 500. The digital bank said it now has 489 000 as of 13 September 2020 versus 370 000 accounts at end June. The bank, which is powered by the country’s largest medical aid provider Discovery Health, said this performance was pleasing. The year under review represented the first year of the bank’s operation. The bank said that given the onset of COVID-19, it implemented three strategies, namely: Ensuring the successful migration of over 220 000…
TymeBank, a digital bank that is owned by billionaire Patrice Motsepe, announced on Tuesday that its partnership with the Zion Christian Church (ZCC) has been delayed. The bank is targeting 12 million churchgoers of Zion Christian Church (ZCC) as clients. The partnership was announced in February, but the spread of COVID-19 pandemic has delayed its finalisation. For more read: Patrice Motsepe’s TymeBank Targets 12m ZCC Members “The impact of COVID-19 on the bank has resulted in the delay in the roll out of its partnership with the Zion Christian Church (ZCC) as well as a change in its unsecured personal…
South African mobile data network operator Rain is now valued at more than R15 billion by its parent company African Rainbow Capital (ARC). The valuation places Rain above Telkom, South Africa’s biggest fixed-line telephone group, which is valued at more than R12 billion on the JSE. In an investment update published on Tuesday, ARC said: “The ARC Fund’s investment in Rain increased from R2, 5 billion at 30 June 2019 to R3, billion at 30 June 2020, mainly as a result of a fair value write-up of R479 million (2019: R364 million).” ARC owns 20.7% stake in Rain. Rain, partly…
South Africa’s gig economy, which is made up of freelance, short-term, and on-demand work, is growing. Since the lockdown was imposed at the end of March to combat the coronavirus, it has become apparent that the digital economy has enormous challenges and opportunities. Trade and Industry Minister Ebrahim Patel recently said South Africa’s digital economy has the potential to create 4.5 million positions. But he said for this to materialise there had to be the “right policy mix”. Precautions to tackle COVID-19 under the lockdown have seen thousands of workers work remotely. This type of flexibility has also seen the gig…
Investec has told the Information Communication Technology Union (ICTU) to direct its questions about the Believe Phantom Option Share Scheme for Cell C workers to the mobile phone company’s management. Three years ago, on 1 September 2017, Cell C management awarded shares in the Believe Phantom Option Share Scheme to workers. The shares were based on the company’s audited financial results for 2016. At the time, the share price was R31.06. Investec, the banking and wealth management group, is the administrator of Cell C’s Believe Phantom Option Share Scheme, also known as the Believe Share Scheme. The first vesting date for the Believe Share…
The Information Communication Technology Union (ICTU) wants Blue Label Telecoms to explain how the JSE-listed company can zero rate its stake in Cell C but remain the mobile phone operator’s main revenue generator. ICTU, which is an affiliate of the South African Federation of Trade Unions led by Zwelinzima Vavi, is the sole worker representative at Cell C. The union wants to know if Blue Label Telecoms is using Cell C as a “piggy bank.” Blue Label Telecoms, Nasdaq, and JSE-listed Net 1 have all written down to zero the value of their stakes in Cell C. Last month, Blue…
The Information Communication Technology Union (ICTU) has asked Investec to explain the ‘devaluing’ of the “Believe Phantom Option Shares Scheme (Believe Share Scheme)” awarded to Cell C workers a few years ago. In a memorandum seeking clarity on the matter, the ICTU says: “We require Investec to make available the audited financial reports received by Investec from Cell C, which informed Investec as the fund administrators to render the share scheme to be deemed to have lost monetary value.” The union added: “We question and require a detailed explanation of the non-communication on the share scheme to the registered individual shareholders from…
Telkom has announced the appointment of new board members after the retirement of independent non-executive directors Santie Botha and Khanyisile Kweyama. Botha and Kweyama will retire from the board with effect from 25 September and 31 December 2020, respectively. South Africa’s biggest fixed-line telephone operator informed investors on Wednesday that they will be replaced by Alphonzo Samuels and Hemmanth Singh. “Telkom welcomes Messrs Samuels and Singh to the Board of Directors, and looks forward to their contributions to the company,” Telkom said in a statement. “The company also extends its gratitude to Botha and Kweyama for their contributions over the…