Author: Staff Writer

Pineapple announced today that it has closed Series A round at R80 million to upend the car insurance industry. The investors in the new funding include Lireas Holdings, the ASISA ESD Fund, E4E, Vunani Capital and the Old Mutual Enterprise & Supplier Development Fund. Pineapple is an InsurTech startup that has captured the hearts and minds of many South Africans. After launching in 2018, the company has won many awards locally and internationally, including MTN Consumer App of the Year, Stanford startup award, and was the first Insurtech accepted into Google’s Launchpad Accelerator Programme. Pineapple launched into the South African market…

The National Development Plan sought to leverage the country’s geographic position by transforming the country’s capital, Lomé, into a regional trading centre and transport hub; it implemented business reforms and completed large infrastructure projects to attract investment; and, it established the Business Climate Unit to coordinate economic reforms and play a key role in improving the business climate for the private sector – improving the ease of doing business in Togo as a result. Consequently, the country has prospered – with its economic and digital transformation following a trajectory that has resulted in Togo rising more than 50 places in…

In its role as a premium provider for individual mobility, the BMW Group is actively helping to create the liveable city of the future. Here, its approach to mobility also looks beyond the company’s core business. With the unveiling of the electrified bicycle Concept DYNAMIC CARGO and the e-scooter Concept CLEVER COMMUTE, the BMW Group engineers are once again demonstrating their unrivalled ability to transfer know-how from the automotive sector to concepts for micromobility vehicles. Concept DYNAMIC CARGO Bicycles offer great flexibility of use, produce zero emissions and are one of the fastest and most efficient means of transport in…

On the back of Cape Town being recognised as the tech capital of Africa, topping international rankings for foreign direct investment strategy, Ian Lessem, Managing Partner at HAVAÍC – investors in early-stage, high-growth technology businesses – says several other African cities are quickly emerging as leading startup and investment hubs to watch. “Startups in Nigeria, Kenya, Egypt and South Africa raised a total of US$625 million last year. Of those, Kenyan startups raised US$191 million, the most of any other African country, according to Disrupt Africa’s African Tech Startup Funding Report for 2020. Distinct startup geographies are emerging in Africa,…

The recently-released ‘State of Mobile Fraud in Africa’ report by Paris-headquartered Evina reveals that 19% of mobile payment transactions in Africa were made without the user’s consent from January 2021 to June 2021. Professional cybercriminals from around the world targeting Africa’s one billion mobile phone users also remain a significant problem in particularly vulnerable countries such as Angola and Egypt where 34% and 25.5% of mobile transactions were identified as suspect, respectively. The latest Evina report helps mobile stakeholders understand the scale of the mobile fraud challenge with key data on mobile fraud in Africa. “When it comes to fighting…

tHER350 COVID-19 grant for the jobless, hard hit by the coronavirus pandemic introduced by the South African Government last year, is back. The grant was discontinued on April 30. “This evening we are announcing a range of measures to support the recovery of the economy and provide relief to the poor and those who are vulnerable as a result of the measures that we had to impose to deal with COVID-19,” President Cyril Ramaphosa said on Sunday. He added that to support those who have no means of supporting themselves, “we are reinstating the Social Relief of Distress Grant to provide a…

The South African economy and small businesses, in particular, have been dealt some hefty blows. With the COVID-19 pandemic still an ongoing stress, and even more recently the looting and destruction of property in two of our biggest provinces, thousands of brick and mortar based businesses have closed, lost vital stock and some even lost their buildings. From jobs, to supply chains and production processes, the ecosystem of small businesses in South Africa has been severely disrupted. Small businesses are the lifeline of the country’s economy and are vital to creating and securing jobs. The SME sector alone accounts for around…

Visa today announced it will buy Currencycloud, a global platform that enables banks and FinTechs to provide innovative foreign exchange solutions for cross-border payments. The acquisition builds on an existing strategic partnership between the two companies and values Currencycloud at £700 million or R14 billion inclusive of cash and retention incentives. Currencycloud’s cloud-based platform offers a broad set of APIs enabling banks and financial services providers to offer currency exchange services, including real-time notifications on foreign exchange transactions, multi-currency wallets, and virtual account management. The Currencycloud platform supports nearly 500 banking and technology clients with a reach in over 180…

MTN South Africa announced today a R350 million network investment to modernise, upgrade, build new sites and transmission links in Limpopo, Mpumalanga, and North West. “We want to bridge the digital divide and create exciting opportunities for communities, businesses and individual users. Our investment is therefore far more than achieving market share growth in the region – it is about bringing the benefits of the digital world to more people through a stable, secure and innovative network experience,” says Kagiso Moncho, MTN General Manager for Northern Region. “We are already seeing active data users and traffic increase as more consumers…

Convergence Partners, owned by ICT industry veteran Andile Ngcaba, today announced the successful first close of its third fund, the Convergence Partners Digital Infrastructure Fund (CPDIF) at $120 million or R1.7 billion. 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. The fund is targeting a final size of $250 million or R3.6 billion. Now with more than $400 million or R5.8 billion of capital under management,…

4Sight Holdings and Minopex, a wholly-owned subsidiary of DRA Global, announce the signing of a joint Memorandum of Understanding, to develop a distinctive service and solution offering for the mining and minerals industry. Minopex services customers operating in the base and precious metals, stones and bulk commodities sector. With two decades of experience managing operations and maintenance, and advising customers in this sector, Minopex is highly proficient at improving productivity sustainably and in real-time and has significant intellectual capital in this area. “Our work involves large, highly complex systems and data sets, and 4Sight provides technology platforms that are designed…

Pieter Boone, the CEO of Pick n Pay, has called for the liquor ban to be lifted by the government. South Africa moved to an adjusted level 4 lockdown at the end of June, with a complete prohibition on the sale of alcohol in place. The alcohol industry has faced various forms of restrictions since South Africa introduced its first COVID-19 restrictions in March 2020. Estimates show that the latest four-week ban has put 9,206 jobs in the alcohol industry at risk, with a potential loss of R10.2 billion in taxes and excise duties. Commenting on progress in recovering from…

PayU, the payments and FinTech business of Prosus, has announced its collaboration with Celo, the mobile-first, open-source blockchain ecosystem focused on making DeFi accessible to anyone with a smartphone. In addition to a purchase of CELO, the utility and governance token for the Celo community, PayU has partnered with payment infrastructure company First DAG and Celo’s Alliance For Prosperity to offer stablecoin payments. With this integration, almost half a million of PayU’s merchants will be able to accept Celo’s stablecoin, cUSD. The move will open the doors for millions of people in emerging markets who are underserved by traditional financial…

New data released by Netstar has revealed the massive impact the protests and looting of last week have had on the trucking industry’s ability to deliver much-needed goods to market. Netstar says three major clients lost more than 613 000km in delivery miles in just five days. That is the equivalent of traveling around the globe 15 times. According to the telematics company between July 10th and 16th their clients’ ability to deliver goods across the country fell by more than 74% when compared to the previous three months data. It says between these three clients nearly 30 000 (thirty thousand) delivery…

South African enterprises took a step backward in digital transformation over the first year of the pandemic, as disruptions, lockdowns and staff unable to maintain operations remotely slowed down the roll-out of new systems at head offices. This is one of the startling findings of the Digital Corporation in South Africa 2021 research study, conducted by World Wide Worx with the support of Syspro, Dell Technologies, Intel and Cycan. The slow-down came despite expectations that remote working would accelerate digital transformation, due to the demands it placed on companies to be able to operate digitally. As many as two-thirds of…

Telkom today revealed its new music streaming platform, in partnership with Tencent-owned JOOX, available from the Huawei AppGallery and Google Play Store. Telkom recognizes that the landscape of music streaming is changing and highlights that the stand-out feature of its music app is the fact that it focuses on data-saving and shared music experiences between users. “In true Telkom style, our mission is to leave no man behind and we are thrilled to introduce this offering. We’ve introduced a bouquet of products recently to cater to the content needs of our customers, including video-on-demand and gaming services; and this closes…

A revolutionary new approach to offering Ultra-Personalised, Artificial Intelligence-Enabled Healthcare from tech-trendsetting company Cortex Logic is set to transform the way medical aid schemes, consumers and corporates offering employee benefits as part of their EAP (Employee Assistance Programmes) view their current healthcare offering. The Journey Wellness platform is perfectly timed to coincide with the current global shift in Healthcare, as the focus moves from a disease-management model to one that encourages optimum health and disease-avoidance, targeting younger as well as existing members with a holistic, pro-active offering. Corporates and medical schemes are realising that they need to offer their employees…

Enygma Ventures announced today it is investing R4 million into Feelgood Health, a go-to-one-stop natural health retailer and wholesaler, in South Africa. Enygma Ventures is a venture capital firm that invests in women entrepreneurs across the SADC region. “Of the many things that the Covid-19 pandemic has highlighted, the need to have steady and reliable access to health supplies has been at the top of the list” said Lelemba Phiri, Principal and Operating Partner for Enygma Ventures. “The Feelgood Health team brings decades of experience products. We are excited to see them scale at a time when natural health products…

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…