Author: Gugu Lourie

Blockchain developer platform Alchemy announced today it has raised $80 million (R1,1 billion) from Coatue and Addition, valuing the company at ½ billion dollars (R7,2 billion). The company’s platform powers over $30 billion (R428 billion) in transactions for tens of millions of users in 99% of countries worldwide. The blockchain company is fast becoming the blockchain world’s version of Amazon Web Services (AWS), the world’s most comprehensive and broadly adopted cloud platform, offering over 200 fully-featured services from data centres globally. Alchemy’s developer platform powers the blockchain industry by providing developers with the tools they need to create mainstream blockchain applications.…

South Africa is among the top countries with the highest perceived risk of job automation, with 53% of respondents saying that the risk of having their job automated has increased over the last year, says Rudi van Blerk, Principal and Recruiting Director at Boston Consulting Group, Johannesburg. He added that this is more than the global average of 41% of respondents fearing job automation. “Additionally, 31% of workers in the digitisation and automation fields have a significantly lower perceived risk of automation in South Africa than 46% globally.” As a result, South Africans are more willing to retrain for new…

The FinTech business of retailer Pepkor, previously Steinhoff Africa Retail, continues to report strong growth. Pepkor informed investors today that its FinTech business increased revenue by 3.1% to R4.5 billion for the six months ended 31 March 2021. The company operates its FinTech division through FLASH and Capfin. Pepkor said revenue growth momentum in the FLASH business continued at double-digits as it invests in new products, channels and geographies. The FLASH business has enabled people in townships and rural areas to start their own businesses using FLASH Business devices while existing shop owners are able to increase their business by…

Woven Planet Holdings, the subsidiary of Toyota, is buying  Level 5, an autonomous vehicle division of Lyft, for $550 million (R7, 8 billion). Lyft is one of the largest ride-hailing companies in the world. This marks the first major deal for the newly established Woven Planet. The deal will bring together world-class scientists and software engineers from Level 5, Woven Planet, and researchers from Toyota Research Institute (TRI), already working together with Woven Planet. The resulting combined “dream team” of approximately 1,200 will represent one of the most diverse, well-resourced and talented groups in this field. “This acquisition advances our…

When Andile Ngcaba – a South African tech entrepreneur and founder of Convergence Partners – moved to Silicon Valley in California, United States, few people paid attention. He set up his office in Mountain View, the suburb, where big tech giants such as Google, Facebook, and LinkedIn are headquartered. Ngcaba was daring enough to swim with the sharks of the tech industry. “If you swim with sharks, make sure you have the appetite of a whale,” to quote Matshona Dhliwayo, a Canadian-based philosopher and entrepreneur. Speaking to TechFinancials, Ngcaba confirms he has “been part of the Silicon Valley community for…

Eventhose with little interest in private equity space have likely heard of Convergence Partners, owned by ICT industry veteran Andile Ngcaba. The Rosebank-based company is a pan-African ICT–focused private equity player, delivering enhanced investment returns while underpinning Continental development. Convergence Partners has a proven record of accomplishment of developing new investment opportunities and actively adding value to investments across the lifecycle of ICT assets. Private equity firms play an essential role in the economy: They can help small enterprises grow and, in turn, generate returns for investors. Brandon Doyle, a co-founder of Convergence Partners, who serves as CEO, told TechFinancials…

MTN’s black economic empowerment scheme, MTN Zakhele Futhi, gets R75 million bailout to avert a cashflow crisis. The liquidity of MTN Zakhele Futhi has been impacted by MTN’s decision not to declare a dividend in its financial results for the six months ended 30 June 2020. The scheme is a ring-fenced special purpose vehicle aimed at facilitating investment by previously disadvantaged South Africans in MTN Group (MTN). MTN had suspended its final dividend as it focuses on faster debt reduction at its holding company even after posting a surge in 2020 earnings. Furthermore, on 10 March 2021. MTN announced that as a result of…

The South African Health Products Regulatory Authority has launched the globally utilised Med Safety App to improve the reporting of adverse effects of medicines and vaccines, thereby promoting pharmacovigilance and medicine safety in the country. The purpose of the data reported through the Med Safety App is to contribute to the understanding of medicines’ safety profiles of marketed medicines, including that of COVID-19 vaccines. The App is designed to simplify and promote the reporting of suspected adverse drug reactions (ADRs), including adverse events following immunisation (AEFIs). “In an era where mobile technology is predominant, this application will be a huge…

SA’s investment company Founders Factory Africa (FFA) has partnered with Small Foundation, a Dublin-based philanthropic foundation, to design, build and scale over 18 agtech startups across sub-Saharan Africa. As part of the Small Foundation investment, African early-stage agtech Founders and entrepreneurs can apply to join the Founders Factory Africa Venture Scale or Venture Build portfolios FFA will invest cash of $100,000 (R1,4 million) -$250,000 (R3, 6 million) and hands-on technical support to the entrepreneurs to grow their venture A full-time team of digital and technical experts based in Johannesburg, Nigeria, Kenya and London will build and grow the startups across…

YeboYethu, the broad-based black economic empowerment arm of Vodacom, announced that Thebe Investment Corporation had sold its 11,33% stake in the business to Mineworkers Investment Company. YeboYethu said Thebe Investment Corporation, through Main Street, has disposed of its entire beneficial interest of more than 5,99 million or 11,33% shares to Mineworkers Investment Company through MIC Investment Holdings. The details of the deal, such as the price paid by Mineworkers Investment Company, were not disclosed. The Vodacom YeboYethu empowerment scheme was established in 2008 and allowed black people to purchase Vodacom SA shares at a discount. This year marks the thirteen…

E-commerce company Wish has announced a strategic partnership with the South African Post Office (SAPO) to strengthen its logistics capabilities and customer experience for South African consumers. Wish will be working directly with SAPO to create a more consistent and efficient experience for the customers in South Africa, the US company said in a statement. The benefits will include: Average 50%+ faster transit times End to end tracking visibility and delivery confirmation Customers to receive bundled shipments for multiple items SMS and physical notifications on deliveries awaiting collection “Our mission at Wish is to democratize e-commerce and make it affordable,…

Prominent Internet Service Providers (ISPs) have raised concerns over Telkom’s fibre pricing, which they say is “suspect” – but the country’s biggest fixed-line telephone group insists its pricing is “not anti-competitive”. Telkom Retail is currently offering a 25/25Mbps fibre package on the Openserve network at R449 per month – the cheapest on the market. Telkom is also running a promotion for a 25/5Mbps package for R399 per month on a 12-month contract. This week ISP executives told MyBroadband the pricing from Telkom was “suspect” considering the wholesale costs associated with this product. To remain competitive, ISPs need to purchase products on Openserve’s…

The Special Investigating Unit (SIU) has revealed that tech firm EOH must pay back over R40 million earned unduly from the Department of Defence (DoD). The SIU said this follows the investigations into the R250 million Microsoft Software Licences procurement contracts awarded by the DoD to EOH. The investigation unit said the probe has uncovered irregularities relating to the procurement process and also overpricing of Microsoft Licenses amounting to more than R40 million. On 12 July 2019, the SIU was directed to investigate the procurement of Microsoft software licences by the DoD and payments made to the tech firm for…

European Union (EU) lawmakers have laid out their first-ever legal framework on artificial intelligence (AI), which addresses the risks of AI, facial recognition and positions Europe to play a leading role globally. The lawmakers today proposed new rules and actions to turn Europe into the global hub for trustworthy AI. The proposals aim to guarantee people and businesses’ safety and fundamental rights while strengthening AI uptake, investment, and innovation across the EU. The proposed rules include prohibitions on a small number of use-cases considered too dangerous to people’s safety or fundamental rights, such as a China-style type of AI-enabled mass…

Massmart, the owners of Game, Makro, Builder’s Warehouse and CBW, has revealed plans to pilot a standalone liquor store format. The new liquor store format will be powered by Makro. Massmart, which is owned by the world’s largest grocer, Walmart, revealed its plans for the standalone liquor store format in its latest integrated annual report. “We are prioritising the merchandise categories of bulk food, liquor, general merchandise, and DIY and the customer segments in which we are market leaders,” the company said in the report. “Our wholesale integration will be further enhanced by the unifying of IT systems and the enhancement…

Pick n Pay announced today that it paid R33 million to buy on-demand, online grocery service Bottles. In November 2020, Pick n Pay said it purchased the application system infrastructure and the related intellectual property relating to the Bottles on-demand mobile application for a purchase price of R33 million. “No goodwill arose from this transaction as the fair value of the underlying assets purchased equated to the consideration paid,” the company disclosed today. In addition to expanding its scheduled delivery service, Pick n Pay extended its Click n Collect offer and repositioned its one-hour liquor delivery partnership with Bottles into an…

Cell C seems unperturbed by losing close to 2 million customers in the 2020 financial year. The struggling mobile phone operator disclosed that its subscribers dropped by 13% to 12,5 million in 2020 versus 14,4 million in 2019. Losing a customer impacts a business in several ways; loss of a sale and future sales, reputational damage if a dissatisfied customer tells their friends or broadcasts it on social media, and loss of valuable referrals. But Zaf Mahomed, Cell C chief financial officer, said the company’s results reflect a business in transition. “We are starting to see the impact of our…

Pan-African cloud-based digital service provider inq. has announced that they are now a strategic managed security services partner of Elastic, the company behind Elasticsearch and the Elastic Stack. The aim of the partnership is to meet the increasing need for cybersecurity solutions in Africa and provide customers with security for connectivity and application tools to minimise their risk. “inq has benefited immensely from implementing Elastic’s security solutions across all of our operations in seven countries. We now want to enable our customers with the same tools to provide them with visibility across their networks, servers, security and advance their threat…

Cool Ideas now has the fastest fixed broadband speeds in South Africa, a report by speed test service Ookla said Friday. Speedtest Intelligence reveals the ISP was the fastest fixed broadband provider among top providers in South Africa in Q1 2021 with a Speed Score of 37.80. Cool Ideas was the fastest fixed broadband provider in South Africa with a Speed Score of 37.80, followed by Afrihost at 31.32 and Webafrica at 30.87. Calculating mean latency for top fixed broadband providers in South Africa during Q1 2021, Cool Ideas had the lowest latency at 10 ms, said Oookla. The ISP was started in…

New research from credible network speed-testing services has put MTN ahead of rival Vodacom in terms of the speed available on their respective networks. The reports from Ookla reveals MTN was the fastest mobile operator among top providers in South Africa in Q1 2021 with a Speed Score of 54.38 on modern chipsets. MTN also came up tops in the highest 4G Availability in the country with 90.5%. “Examining the percentage of an operator’s known locations where a device has access to 4G LTE service, we found that MTN had the best 4G Availability in South Africa during Q1 2021 at 90.5%,” said Ookla. “We…

IT giant IBM has acquired myInvenio, an Italian startup that builds and operates process mining software. myInvenio provides customers with a comprehensive AI-powered automation portfolio for business automation – including process mining, robotic process automation (RPA), document processing, workflow, and decisions – all built on Red Hat OpenShift. Process mining software can help organizations easily capture information from enterprise transaction systems and provides detailed — and data-driven — information about how key processes are performing. With the acquisition of myInvenio, IBM will help companies overcome the challenge of streamlining business processes that are cumbersome or create bottlenecks, slowing down innovation and…

Dell Technologies announced plans to spin off its 81% equity ownership of VMware, forming two standalone public companies. The tech firm acquired VMware as part of the $67 billion (R963 billion) EMC acquisition in 2015. Under terms of the planned spin-off, VMware will distribute a special cash dividend of $11.5 – $12 billion (R172 billion) to all its shareholders and those of VMware. VMware will continue to use Dell Financial Services to help its customers finance their digital transformations. “By spinning off VMware, we expect to drive additional growth opportunities for Dell Technologies as well as VMware, and unlock significant value for stakeholders,” said Michael Dell, chairman and…

Vodacom has launched VodaLend Voucher Advance, which allows its customers to buy food and appliances on credit through VodaLend. Through Voucher Advance, Vodacom customers can choose to ‘pay now’ and buy vouchers at a discounted rate or get an advance and ‘pay later’. Qualifying Vodacom customers can access an interest-free advance on a Nando’s voucher starting from R25, or an R250 advance on vouchers from Hirsch’s. Hirsch’s is the biggest home appliances store in South Africa with branches nationwide. Once a voucher has been issued, customers will have 30 days to pay back their Voucher Advance.  Vouchers are valid for…

To understand the new smart monitors and other pro devices of tech health, we should look to Silicon Valley and the quantified movement of the latest generation. Apple’s Watch records exercise, tracks our moves throughout the day, assesses the amount of time we are stood up and reminds us to get up and move around if we have been sat for too long – let’s not forget Tim Cook’s “sitting is the new factor” line. Routinely evaluating your risk factors for various medical conditions, screening for cancer and other diseases, and assessing your lifestyle habits helps you stay healthy. It’s…

To understand the new smart monitors and other pro devices of tech health, we should look to Silicon Valley and the quantified movement of the latest generation. Apple’s Watch records exercise, tracks our moves throughout the day, assesses the amount of time we are stood up and reminds us to get up and move around if we have been sat for too long – let’s not forget Tim Cook’s “sitting is the new factor” line. Routinely evaluating your risk factors for various medical conditions, screening for cancer and other diseases, and assessing your lifestyle habits helps you stay healthy. It’s…