Author: Staff Writer
South Africa’s most prestigious fintech R10 million startup initiative, AlphaCode Incubate, shares how to improve chances of accessing its support and unpacks the trends in the fintech incubation ecosystem. AlphaCode Incubate has disbursed R30 million in funding to 31 black-owned financial services businesses over the past five years and is currently accepting applications for its next programme which offers packages valued at R1,5 million for successful applicants. “We’re primarily seeing applicants aged 19 plus, those who are in their final year of tertiary education, as well as corporate refugees who have experience in financial services or tech. We have seen…
Navigating banking systems is almost always stressful and tediously litigious, and particularly true when it comes to applying for a home loan. Despite all their efforts, new home buyers are still not successful when applying for a bond independently. While bond originators take the hassle out of applying for a home loan and reduce the time it takes to be approved, they also give prospective buyers a way to ensure that they are offered the most favourable loan package and interest rate. Using a bond originator saves you time and paperwork and often means that the banks’ turnaround time is reduced, ensuring…
The New Yorker magazine has suspended staff writer Jeffrey Toobin after he exposed his penis during a virtual staff call last week over the messaging platform Zoom. Jeffrey Toobin has been suspended while we investigate the matter,” a spokesperson told The Washington Post. Vice.com first reported the suspension Monday afternoon. The magazine, which has employed Toobin since 1993, did not comment further about the nature of the incident or the length of the suspension. Earlier, the New York Post wrote: ‘One former staffer at the magazine said she believes his 25-year career will come to an end over the incident.’ “How do…
Prosus Ventures has announced its first investment in Mexico, leading a $15 million (R246 million) Series A funding round in Klar, a challenger bank in Mexico. Prosus Ventures, formerly Naspers Ventures, is the early-stage venture investing arm of Prosus, a global consumer internet group and one of the largest technology investors in the world. The company said other investors include International Finance Corporation and former investors Quona capital, who led Klar´s SEED round, Mouro Capital (formerly Santander Innoventures) and aCrew. The round brings the total debt and equity funds raised to approximately $72 million. Klar has been working to democratize financial services in Mexico since…
The U.S. Justice Department filed an antitrust lawsuit Tuesday against Google, alleging the search giant is engaging in anticompetitive and exclusionary practices in the search and search advertising markets to remedy the competitive harms. The department alleged that Google, a unit of Alphabet, is the monopoly gatekeeper to the internet for billions of users and countless advertisers worldwide. For years, Google has accounted for almost 90% of all search queries in the United States and has used anticompetitive tactics to maintain and extend its monopolies in search and search advertising. “Today, millions of Americans rely on the Internet and online…
The world’s first “robot lawyer” has gone from helping people dispute their parking tickets, to assisting lawyers with over a hundred different areas of consumer rights. With technology rapidly evolving, artificial intelligence (AI) has become a valuable tool for law firms to increase efficiency through automation. “Law firms have traditionally been slow to adapt to new technology, with many fearing that it will replace key roles within the legal profession. In reality, automation can be used to help lawyers save time and resources,” says Dries Cronje, founder of Deep Learning Café, a South African AI consulting company. Legal tech presents…
It was a dark and stormy summer night. As they curled up on the couch, the couple swooned over the dream home they found online. They swiped right and put in an offer, but a dark spectre hung over them. Diligently filling out reams of documents to secure their future, they slept fitfully that night as with trepidation they awaited the news. When the ding of the email lit up their phones in the morning mist, they were petrified to look. Declined! Their dream home in Ballito was not to be. Why not? They could not get their home loan…
Pick n Pay announced today that it had concluded an agreement to purchase on-demand, online grocery service Bottles. This will enable Pick n Pay to build on the success it has achieved in partnership with Bottles in recent months, and further strengthens what is already sub-Saharan Africa’s largest and most popular online grocery business. Bottles was launched in 2016 as South Africa’s first alcohol on-demand delivery app, and partnered with Pick n Pay in 2018. Its offer was the first of its kind, promising that orders would be fulfilled within 60 minutes. Following the prohibition on the sale of alcohol…
Nexio, South Africa’s digital system aggregator and solution provider, has strengthened its management with the appointment of six executives. In August, Nexio appointed Mickey Mashale as CEO to drive the company’s digital transformation strategy to greater heights. Mashale joined the organization from Vodacom where she held the position of chief sales officer for Vodacom Business from February 2018. The company said on Monday it has supported its fit-for-purpose organisational strategy with the appointment of six new exceptional senior executives that will complement the organisation’s dynamic team and complete its executive leadership. Last month, Dakalo Kangala was appointed as Executive Head…
SixThirty, US-based tech venture capital fund, is making a big bet on South Africa’s InsurTech company Click2Sure. SixThirty is a venture capital fund and a business development accelerator program that focuses on financial-based technology, InsurTech, and Cybersecurity solutions. The company said in a statement it has made a multi-million rand investment in Cape Town-based Click2Sure, marking the first time an African startup has caught the eye of the US-based tech venture fund. It invests in early-stage enterprise technology companies building. The investment will enable Click2Sure to further develop its product and ensure businesses offering insurance take advantage of the benefits…
Nyiko Shiburi has been appointed the new CEO of MultiChoice South Africa (MCSA). Until now, Nyiko has been the Regional Director of MultiChoice Africa: Southern Region — a role that spans nine countries. His appointment is effective from 1 December 2020. Nyiko is an extremely experienced leader and has successfully navigated the complexity of multiple territories and businesses, working with deeply skilled teams within the organisation as well as a multitude of stakeholders in our ecosystem,” comments MultiChoice Group CEO, Calvo Mawela. As the new CEO of MCSA, Nyiko will further drive the growth and momentum of the South African business based…
Vodacom will invest just over R320 million into the network across KwaZulu-Natal province during the 2020/2021 financial year. The lion’s share of the capital expenditure will go towards building new LTE base station sites in both urban and deep rural areas of the province. This network acceleration will aid in removing barriers to communications, provide access to fast internet and help in driving digital inclusion among communities in deep rural areas of the province. The availability of high-speed broadband is critical to deep rural development but research shows that deep rural communities are lagging behind in terms of broadband connectivity,…
While 2020 has certainly not been the year any of us imagined it would be, the Summer of 2020 is our opportunity to change the story, closing out the year the way we choose. To help our customers #REMAKE2020, MTN is giving all subscribers the chance to earn their share of R100 million in rewards – and it starts today. MTN subscribers need to simply download the MTN app or dial *234# and register for MyMTN Rewards to start earning YelloBucks to spend on things they enjoy the most. Every customer that joins will get 200 YelloBucks for simply being…
Integer\Hotspot SA, a Through-The-Line marketing agency and a member of the Matrix Group, has announced its exclusive partnership agreement with SoPost that will enable local clients to benefit from SoPost’s digital sampling platform. The SoPost sampling platform and its visualisation tool, “Campaign Manager” aims to be the most powerful product sampling platform in the world and will enable local brands to get their products into the right consumers’ hands as well as collecting valuable data and insight. Integer\Hotspot SA said synergies influenced its partnership with SoPost. Both companies are interested in delivering to touchpoints that create connections and accelerate transactions. The…
Within just 72 hours, more than 1 million customers have already joined the new Shoprite Xtra Savings programme. On average 400 customers per minute have signed up for a Shoprite Xtra Savings card since Monday, 12 October. Central to the programme’s success is its lack of paperwork and ease of signup. Shoppers can join free of charge in under 60 seconds via any of the following channels: WhatsApp (add (+27 87 240 5709 as a contact and say “Hi!”) USSD (simply dial *134*569*CARDNUMBER#) Online (visit shoprite.co.za) In-store There are no points to earn, and no tiers or levels to achieve.…
Uber announced on Thursday a South African-first pharmacy offering with Medicare that will now provide users with access to over-the-counter medication (self-medication). The company will compete with local pharmacy chains Clicks and Dis-Chem. The extended partnership with Medicare will allow Uber Eats users to add over-the-counter schedule 1 and 2 medication (self-medication) directly into their basket for convenient delivery. This significantly increases access to medication for those who need it most, without any risk of leaving the safety of their homes. The partnership will utilise Medicare’s network of pharmacies across Johannesburg and Cape Town to fulfil the orders. The visible…
COVID-19 presented businesses across the board with the opportunity to re-evaluate both their operational models and costs. Proactive organisations found themselves navigating the wake of reinvention by establishing variable cost structures as well as employing agile operations in terms of energy supply. Confronted by plummeting sales and revenue along with rising inflationary costs, businesses have found themselves under immense financial pressure to rapidly recover from the pandemic at hand. In order to do so, business leaders have sought to reduce unnecessary expenses as much as possible by investing in cutting edge technologies to bring about improved energy savings. In March…
A record 53.6 million metric tonnes (Mt) of electronic waste was generated worldwide in 2019, up 21 per cent in just five years, according to the UN’s Global E-waste Monitor 2020. It is estimated that by 2030 this number will reach 74 Mt! Only 17.4 per cent of 2019’s e-waste was collected and recycled. International E-Waste Day was developed in 2018 by the WEEE Forum with the support of its members. The day is used to raise the public profile of e-waste recycling and encourage consumers to recycle their e-waste with the resulting increase in e-waste recycling rates on the day…
Econet, through its subsidiaries Liquid Telecom Group (LTG) and Cassava Fintech International (CFI) has today launched a network of #SasaiWiFiFinder hotspots in Kenya, Uganda, Zambia and Rwanda, providing locals with most affordable internet access. This partnership unlocks the ‘African Missing Network’ that will accelerate sustainable economic development through digital inclusion for all Africans. The partnership creates a Wi-Fi marketplace that helps ISPs, franchisees and digital service providers unlock new revenue streams by creating job opportunities. Backed by best-in-class broadband infrastructure, this service is enabling more people in Africa to access the digital and financial benefits of the internet. “We firmly…
DataProphet, a South African in AI that enables manufacturers to step towards autonomous manufacturing, has been awarded the 2020 European Prescriptive for Autonomous Manufacturing Technology Innovation Leadership Award by international research firm Frost & Sullivan. For DataProphet, this is the fourth prestigious international recognition in a row as the company has also been named a 2019 World Economic Forum Tech Pioneer, received the AIconics Award for Innovation in Deep Learning and was recognised by CBInsights as one of 100 Most Innovative Artificial Intelligence Startups 2020. This award is a further testament to DataProphet as a thought leader in the field…
Prestigious, independent school, Bridge House and award-winning EdTech company, Digemy, have joined forces to create ConnectEd – the first Independent Examinations Board (IEB) curriculum online high school in Africa to utilise a dynamic adaptive learning platform. The school will launch initially for Grades 10 and 11, with other grades to follow next year and into 2022. Bridge House and Digemy have an aligned vision to change the traditional teaching model and, in the process, enable a first-rate education to be accessible to a much wider audience. “A key issue with the current education system is that all students are expected…
Avo, launched at the height of the national lockdown, has surpassed the 100 000 customer mark in September 2020 and continues to evolve alongside its market. Focusing on the balance of the platform strategy, Avo Business has signed up over 1 600 merchants as demand from customers has increased. “The growth we have seen on the Avo super app has not only been exponential but also inspiring in terms of South Africans robust appetite for digitisation and innovation,” says Ray Naicker, Chief Digital Officer of Nedbank Group. “Listening to our user base is key to our success. Data is an invaluable currency…
Statistics South Africa says almost two-thirds of South African households now have at least one person who accesses the Internet. Add this to the fact that October marks Cybersecurity Awareness Month in many countries, including SA, and it’s clear web users are ready for anti-fraud advice. That’s according to ZA Central Registry NPC (ZACR) which says that there are many ways whereby Internet users can help to prevent domain name fraud in South Africa. “SA web users are not powerless in the face of local and foreign fraudsters who prefer to direct the awesome potential of the web towards nefarious…
Telkom is looking for fresh local content creators to contribute content to and have it featured on its new video service called TelkomONE – the streaming platform that celebrates local talent. TelkomONE is the latest product offering by Telkom expected to launch in November 2020 and will boast a bouquet of local content including music, education and series. “TelkomONE is a proudly local and South African service and naturally, we want to host and showcase outstanding content by content producers from our very own shores, including filmmakers, videographers, writers and directors on the platform,” said Wanda Mkhize – Telkom Executive…
Liquid Telecom South Africa announced today that Deon Geyser has been appointed as its new CEO. His appointment is effective from January 2021. Geyser will be responsible for overseeing the strategic repositioning of the company as Liquid Intelligent Technologies and the execution of the new strategic direction of providing an integrated technology capability that enables customers to transform their business through new intelligent technologies. “We are delighted to welcome Deon to Liquid Telecom South Africa,” said Group Chief Operating Officer Ahmad Mokhles. “He is a proven leader and his strong knowledge of both the local market and the continent,…