Author: Staff Writer
Naspers announced on Wednesday a R34 million investment in InsurTech business Ctrl, through its early-stage business funding initiative Naspers Foundry. Ctrl is a digital short-term insurance advice platform that was founded in 2017. Ctrl provides a unique tech solution to the short-term insurance industry and consumers through its single platform, which connects consumers, brokers and insurers in one place. The platform enables brokers to provide insurance advice digitally and allows underserved consumers to easily compare multiple quotes, obtain advice, accept cover and manage their policies. “Ctrl has created a smart digital platform that unlocks consumer choice and competitive pricing in…
The South African Post Office has warned the public of email and text messages meant to convince the receiver to pay money into a fraudulent account. The Post Office said the latest text message includes the name of person who is receiving the message and either states that the address of the receiver is illegible, or that the parcel can only be released once a clearance fee has been paid. “The emails and messages differ in format, but they all contain a link. Should the receiver click on the link, a page requesting payment opens where the receiver can make…
My Smart City citizen’s platform was built to make it easy for South Africans to track and manage service delivery issues. The platform has been developed by Acumen Software, a software development and business consulting company. The My Smart City is a citizen platform that allows city residents to engage service providers within a city. These service providers include Municipal Services, Emergency Services, Private Services, and events in the city. My Smart City is a collaborative platform that allows citizens to engage key stakeholders in their community in a dialogue, sharing ideas and concerns to improve the services of the…
Zadara, edge cloud services provider, today announced that Africa Data Centres, Africa’s largest network of interconnected, carrier- and cloud-neutral data centre facilities, and service provider Global Sense have added its edge cloud services to their marketplace. Zadara’s resilient, enterprise-grade products and services, including its Federated Edge program, are now available in Midrand, South Africa, and will soon be expanded into all Africa Data Centres locations to serve enterprise customers throughout the continent. With data centers located across Africa’s major regional business and trade hubs, Africa Data Centres sits at the heart of Africa’s digital transformation. These locations are rapidly emerging…
Swiggy, India’s online food delivery platform, raises $1.25 billion or R18 billion funding led by Prosus and SoftBank. This investment will further accelerate Swiggy’s strategy of growing its core food delivery business and building new food and non-food offers in 2021 and beyond. To support this, Swiggy will enhance its capabilities in technology and AI, and strengthen teams across Engineering, Product, Data Science and Analytics as well as in business and supply chain for its newer initiatives. Founded in 2014, Swiggy is leading the hyperlocal delivery market in India, connecting consumers to over 150,000 restaurant partners and stores in over…
With the advent of electric vehicles in the mainstream, and the inevitable rise of EV population on South African roads comes some confusing terminology even the most avid petrolhead might grapple with. Jaguar South Africa deconstructs the alphabet soup and offers some demystification with layman’s explanations of five must-know terms in the EV sphere. kWh Forget about what these three letters stand for. Just know that a kWh is a unit of energy and in EVs it’s used to measure the storage capacity of batteries. Think of it as the size of your “fuel tank” in your electric vehicle. Where…
Johannesburg-based online marketplace for home services Kandua has announced that it has raised a significant Pre-Series A funding round from a consortium of investors that include Knife Capital and Allan Gray E-Squared Ventures (AGEV). The investment will enhance business development efforts, expand Kandua’s product offering and solidify profitable growth channels. Kandua provides a digital platform that connects small service businesses with customers in need of jobs done. Moreover, the platform provides these contractors with financial, operational, and marketing tools to improve their professionalism and access to digital financial services to improve their financial health. Kandua’s mission is to shorten the…
Zoom announced it has agreed to buy Five9’s intelligent cloud contact centre for $14.7 billion or R213 billion. The popular video conferencing firm said combining Five9’s Contact Centre as a Service (CCaaS) solution with Zoom’s broad communications platform will transform how businesses connect with their customers, building the customer engagement platform of the future. The company said the acquisition is expected to help enhance its presence with enterprise customers and allow it to accelerate its long-term growth opportunity by adding the $24 billion contact centre market. “We are continuously looking for ways to enhance our platform, and the addition of Five9…
Following the unrest in some parts of the country last week, President Cyril Ramaphosa has emphasised the importance of transforming the economy, creating jobs and sharing in the country’s wealth to lift millions of South Africans out of poverty. In his newsletter on Monday, the President said South Africa is not only rebuilding after the destruction of the past week; but it is also rebuilding after the devastation of decades of dispossession and exploitation. “We need to fundamentally transform our economy and our society, deepening our efforts to create employment, lift millions out of poverty and ensure that the country’s…
It’s an amusing irony that, for many of us, the quickest way to find answers to questions like these is via the technology that inspired them. Artificial Intelligence (AI) has become part of the fabric of our daily lives, with smart assistants and technology now in millions of properties around the world. According to Statista, sales of Amazon’s Echo units reached 32 million in 2018 and are expected to hit 130 million by 2025. Advances in technology also form the foundation of the world’s shift towards hybrid work, which has been accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Herding people to the…
Akiba Digital, a South African-based FinTech startup, announced on Friday it has raised over $1.1 million or R15.8 million in funding pre-seed funding to connect small businesses to lenders. Akiba Digital is lowering the barriers to entry to enable small businesses in South Africa to unlock financing through their lending partners. “This year we are launching a Mandela day campaign to help 67 SMEs in July to rebuild after the recent disruptions in South Africa. We are looking to partner with lenders who want to help SMEs rebuild their businesses,” said Tebogo Mokwena, co-founder and CEO of Akiba Digital. “Through…
ICT tech company Huawei has announced plans to invest $150 million or R2.1 billion in youth digital talent development over the next five years. “Today we are announcing Huawei’s Seeds for the Future Program 2.0. As part of our commitment to continuously developing talent, we will invest US$150 million in this program over the next five years and help university students and young people improve their digital skills. This program is expected to benefit another 3 million people,” said Huawei’s Chairman Liang Hua. The announcement comes as the world marked Youth Skills Day on July 15th, aimed at recognizing the strategic…
4 AX listed Heartwood Properties is spearheading in Somerset West new hybrid office development with innovative future-focused features. It’s no secret that Somerset West has fast become one of the Western Cape’s leading semigration destinations. The little town has a lot going for it which makes it incredibly desirable for people who are looking to move away from the city in search of a better quality of life. The pandemic, lockdown and remote working has only amplified the semigration trend, but now as many companies contemplate bringing employees back to the office, the big debate is about how. The new…
The DA will lay charges of treason and terrorism against the instigators of the unrest that led to widespread looting and destruction in KwaZulu-Natal and parts of Gauteng. Adv Glynnis Breytenbach, the DA Shadow Minister of Justice and Correctional Services, said in a statement today that DA has seen WhatsApp chats between individuals who have identified themselves as being part of a number of ANC branches in KwaZulu-Natal whose messages appear to indicate their intentions to destabilise and remove the current government. “Under South African law, treason is defined as any conduct unlawfully committed by a person owing allegiance to…
Small businesses have suffered extraordinarily at the hands of the pandemic, with certain sectors feeling the true brunt of lost business, but July brings with it a slew of additional challenges that will affect SMEs – and their supply chains – financially. A trifecta of cost increases came into play over the past few weeks, affecting, among other things, the cost of goods and raw materials, consumers’ pockets and quite literally, the price to keep the lights on. This as electricity increased again, municipal services including water and sanitation and property rates rose and fuel prices shot up thanks to…
Ex-Global Switch Managing Director to lead data centre platform expansion as Africa’s data demand accelerates. Actis, the global sustainable infrastructure investor, and Convergence Partners have appointed Jasper Lankhorst as the CEO of the group’s pan-African data centre platform. Jasper will be responsible for the expansion of data centres across the continent to meet Africa’s accelerating demand for data and digital infrastructure. The new appointment follows Actis’ wider strategy to capitalise on the growing demand for digital infrastructure across the globe. With over 25 years of experience within the international data centre and internet infrastructure sector, Jasper will lead on expanding…
Employee wellness app Strove has raised a R4 million seed funding round led by VC firm Launch Africa. Strove, founded in 2020 by Chris Bruchhausen in partnership with venture builder The Delta, released their initial product in January this year and has already raised R4 million. Strove is an activity-based mobile rewards application that empowers organisations to inspire their employees to live a healthy and active life, combatting inactivity, burnout, and chronic stress. It uses activity-tracking and gamification to incentivize workforces to be their best selves, with rewards coming from over a dozen partner brands, such as Old Khaki, Poetry,…
CMCNetworks, Africa, and the Middle East’s premier data network provider has announced enhancements to its SD-WAN delivery network. Long recognized as an innovator in the world of networking, CMC Networks has changed the game in service delivery by standardizing on Juniper Networks’ STEP (Service and Topology Exchange Protocol) for service delivery to its customer base across Africa, Europe, and the Middle East. The move allows CMC to leverage the intelligence of Juniper Session Smart™ Routers to build an infrastructure that can learn network topology and service information dynamically, enabling the delivery of intelligent services with unprecedented speed and efficiency. Geoff Dornan,…
The DA has today laid incitement to violence charges against Duduzile Zuma-Sambudla, Edward Zuma, Duduzane Zuma and EFF leader Julius Malema in Cape Town. DA MP Glynnis Breytenbach laid the criminal charges in Cape Town on Wednesday. Duduzile Zuma-Sambudla has posted a number of tweets over the course of the last few days encouraging and inciting the violence and looting which has destablised KwaZulu-Natal and parts of Gauteng, said Breytenbach. “These tweets have typically included images of destruction, arson and looting with Duduzile expressing her support of these actions in the captions of the tweets.” Please see screenshots here and here. There is…
Koa Academy, an online school that combines online learning and the flexibility of home-schooling for grades 4 – 12, in South Africa has bagged R4 million investment from Enygma Ventures. “The education sector has been in need of an overhaul for a long time and the Covid-19 pandemic further highlighted this need for innovative solutions in the space” said Sarah Dusek, Co-founder and Managing Partner for Enygma Ventures. “The Koa team brings with them years of experience in education, combined with an innovative and exciting approach to tackle this challenge.” Koa was launched in October 2020 with a vision to…
TymeBank, South Africa’s fastest-growing challenger bank, has scored high in the latest digital banking SITEisfaction report, with a positive shift – from fourth to third place – in how respondents rate TymeBank’s mobile banking offering. This achievement places the challenger bank ahead of some of the country’s legacy banks. The 2021 index also shows the bank maintained its status as one of the country’s top three providers of digital banking, as rated by customers. It is only the second time TymeBank has featured in the survey, which measures customer experience across a combination of internet and mobile banking platforms since…
The government has issued a stern warning to those inciting violence and disregard of the law with inflammatory messages on social media. This warning was on Tuesday relayed by Ministers in the Justice, Crime Prevention, and Security (JCPS) cluster during a media briefing amid a flurry of public violence flare-ups in KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng. Chaotic scenes have been playing out in parts of KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng, leaving many businesses gutted and looted by protesters, who are reportedly calling for the release of former President Jacob Zuma from jail. The Cybersecurity Act states that any person who “unlawfully makes available, broadcasts…
As violent looting and damage to businesses and infrastructure continue in parts of KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng, police had by Monday evening arrested 489 people. Of these, 166 were in KwaZulu-Natal and 323 in Gauteng. The National Joint Operational and Intelligence Structure (NATJOINTS) on Tuesday welcomed the deployment of the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) in support of the operations of the South African Police Service (SAPS). The NATJOINTS said it had intensified deployments in all the affected areas in the two provinces and this would be augmented by SAPS recalling operational members from leave and rest days. This will increase the…
One of South Africa’s most prominent tech solutions providers, Altron Systems Integration (Altron SI), has officially partnered with Teraco Data Environments (Teraco), Africa’s largest vendor-neutral colocation data centre provider. Through this partnership, Altron SI and its customers have the advantage of deploying within the most interconnected cloud ecosystem in Africa. Chief Digital and Technology Officer at Altron SI, Vaugn Naidoo believes this marks the beginning of a beneficial partnership for his business and its customers. “The interconnection density present within Teraco’s facilities is not available elsewhere in Africa.” He says Teraco’s diverse ecosystem is home to all major cloud on-ramps…
Telkom officially shut down all its stores in KwaZulu-Natal yesterday – in light of recent unrest and protests across the country that are especially concentrated in that province – and had closed stores in some parts of the country, in the interest of the safety of its customers and staff alike. Please note that from 13 July 2021 all Telkom stores across the country will be closed until the situation can be assessed fully and it can be established that it is completely safe to resume business activities. Everyone is encouraged to use the self-service channels in the meantime by…