Author: Staff Writer

Sub-Saharan Africa is one of the fastest-growing investment zones for financial technology companies according to new research says Forbes. The GSM Association says in its Mobile Economy, Sub-Saharan Africa 2019 report that the region will remain the fastest-growing worldwide. Predicting a total subscriber base of over 600 million by 2025, which represents approximately half the population, Sub-Saharan Africa will become a flagship for mobile disruption. One of the driving forces behind this growth, according to Mike Smits, co-founder, uKheshe, a microtransaction platform, is unbanked. “Mastercard reports that while around 1.2bn adults opened bank accounts for the first time over the…

Meesho, a Bangalore-based social commerce startup, announced today the closing of a $125 million (R1.9 billion) fundraise led by Naspers, with participation from Facebook and existing investors SAIF, Sequoia, Shunwei Capital, RPS and Venture Highway. Former Vodafone Group CEO Sir Arun Sarin also participated in the round. Meesho is social commerce online marketplace in India that enables independent resellers to build small businesses by connecting them with suppliers to curate a catalog of goods and services to sell. The company also provides logistics and payment tools on the platform. These ‘social sellers’ then sell within their social networks on WhatsApp,…

JSE-listed technology group EOH announced on Friday it has appointed Fatima Newman as Chief Risk Officer. Newman joined the EOH management team and executive committee on 1 April 2019 and played a meaningful role in the forensic investigation lead by ENSAfrica and the interim report shared with the market on 16 July 2019. ENSafrica report has revealed evidence of a number of governance failings and wrongdoing at EOH. The report by the law firm unearthed wrongdoings including unsubstantiated payments, tender irregularities and other unethical business practices. The wrongdoings are primarily limited to the public sector business centralised in EOH Mthombo…

South African crypto firm Coindirect announced a new business to business cryptocurrency payment solution designed to facilitate borderless transactions within a secure and transparent environment. The company said the business to business (B2B) offering allows for merchants to receive payments in Bitcoin and a variety of other cryptocurrencies with only a small 1% merchant fee. The platform accepts cryptocurrency pay-ins and pay-outs both globally and locally allowing for the funds to be placed into the merchant bank account in either ZAR or Euros. “The South African market has had limited to no access to secure, transparent and cost-effective cross border B2B  payments…

MTN South Africa announced on Wednesday the launch of the 80GB Mega Deal at R299 per month. The mobile phone operator said the Mega Deal promotion is effective 1 August to 31 August 2019. It said that customers who sign up, or upgrade on the My MTNChoice 10GB data plan will receive 80GB Data (40GB Anytime + 40GB Night Express) every month for 24 months. In the first month of the customer’s contract, customers will also benefit from an additional 20GB promotional data and the 14GB Entertainment Pass. The Entertainment Pass includes social and content streaming data. MTN added…

AB InBev Africa is rolling out a Blockchain solution developed by BanQu, a US-based FinTech company. This technology enables farmers in the AB InBev value chain to have a line of sight of their barley, sorghum and cassava sales, and receive cash through a mobile money solution. AB InBev has also invested in BanQu, advancing an undisclosed amount to ZX Ventures, the company’s global growth and innovation group, in June 2019. “Our investment in BanQu is an investment in our future through empowering our farmers,” says AB InBev’s Solutions Africa Director of Innovation & Analytics, Sameer Jooma. AB InBev and…

Brainly, the world’s largest peer-to-peer learning community for students, parents and teachers, has announced a new funding round of $30 million (R422 million) led by Naspers, with participation from Runa Capital and Manta Ray. Combined with Brainly’s previous funding rounds, the latest investment brings total funding to date up to $68.5 million. The current round of funding will be used to enhance Brainly’s user experience and create the next generation of the platform. In addition, the funds will help further expand its user base in the United States, a key market for Brainly, which the company is already successfully monetizing.…

Zulu Nomad, a travel tour operator that creates curated experiences, has partnered with Geekulcha, the Northen Cape Department of Economic Development and Tourism,  and BrownSense InSights will be hosting the Africa Travel Hackathon on 5 to 8 September 2019 while on the Premier Classe Train from Johannesburg to Cape Town. #TrainTourHack will consist of 20 teams of coders, designers and data scientists who will work on practical technological solutions for tourism industry for approximately 36 hours. With the guidance of mentors and seasoned travel influencers, the teams will work on developing solutions to tourism challenges around tourist safety, SMME digital…

London headquartered cryptocurrency exchange Coindirect has announced that customers can now buy Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies on its platform using credit cards. This is a pioneering development in the South African cryptocurrency market, which has not yet experienced credit card to crypto payments. Using a credit card for cryptocurrency payments helps ensure the process is as quick as possible from sign up to ‘buy Bitcoin’, unlike purchases through bank transfers which are subject to traditional banking delays. Coindirect now has one of the largest offerings of cryptocurrencies in South Africa and stands as the only exchange in the country to offer credit…

Vodacom, South Africa’s biggest mobile phone operator announced on Thursday it has added 1.1 million new customers and also signed up 1.3 million data users for the quarter ended 30 June 2019. The Vodafone–owned mobile phone company said it added 608 000 customers in South Africa in the quarter, 522 000 added in prepaid and contract customer base grew by 8.9%. It also added 560 000 customers in international operations, up 5.3%. Its data customers increased to 38.9 million, adding 1.3 million in the quarter. The revenue of M-Pesa, its mobile money service,  increased 42.7% to R905 million, representing 17.7%…

In the congested and somewhat complex arena of blockchain technology lays a singularly unique company, built around the fundamental foundations from which crypto is built. MinedBlock is a Fintech Crypto payments processor who specialises in transaction processing (mining) for cryptocurrencies. MinedBlock has adopted a very concise and progressive mission statement from the offset and aim to capitalise on this through the execution of their Initial Exchange Offering (IEO). “Our vision is to become a major player in the cryptocurrency arena and for MinedBlock to own a significant part of the infrastructure required to process transactions and mint new crypto assets.…

Leading global beauty and cosmetics company, Avon Justine, has announced that it is once again the Diamond sponsor of the Direct Selling Association’s (DSA) Awards Luncheon held on Tuesday, 23 July, in Johannesburg. Avon Justine SA took the decision to sponsor this event in line with its quest to capacitate the regulatory body and ensure that it undertakes its mandate of ensuring that member companies conduct themselves with the highest level of business ethics. DSA’s worldwide are trade associations with member companies that market products and services to consumers through an independent, entrepreneurial salesforce also known as direct sellers. There are…

One of the last of the original motorsport-inspired BMW 5 Series models unearthed in South Africa. Car number 100 of South Africa-only “homologation” special built at BMW Group Plant Rosslyn to be subjected to full restoration. In December 2018 BMW South Africa announced that it would start restoring the legendary BMW 530 Motorsport Limited Edition (MLE). The restoration process began and included a special appearance by two retired BMW employees who worked at BMW Group Plant Rosslyn in the 1970s and built the legendary cars. Three months ago marked the start of the restoration process and included a special appearance…

MTN prepaid customers could get up to 99% discount on the newly launched MTN Ska Wara Bundle Sale promotion. Staying connected on South Africa’s best network should not be one of the mid-month expenses MTN customers have to juggle with. MTN has introduced an exciting promotion called Ska Wara Bundle Sale, which offers dynamic discounts of up to 99% on bundles purchased through USSD channel when they dial *136*2# and select Ska Wara Sale to purchase the bundles. Customers can qualify for these discounts by buying voice, data and social bundles using the USSD *136*2# or when they dial142#. The…

MTN Group has appointed Thato Motlanthe to the position of Executive for Investor Relations, with effect from 1 September 2019. Motlanthe replaces Nik Kershaw who left MTN Group at the end of May 2019, and will report to Ralph Mupita, MTN Group CFO. Motlanthe brings to the role extensive experience of  South African and global capital markets, having worked in both the sell-side and buy-side of equity capital markets. He joins MTN from Absa Asset Management, where he held the role of Portfolio Manager, co-managing the flagship funds within the Equities franchise. Prior to this, he has held senior positions…

Naspers has announced plans to list Prosus on Euronext Amsterdam along with a secondary, inward listing on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) in South Africa on Wednesday 11 September 2019. The Cape Town-based company said it expects to own at least 73% of Prosus and the free float is expected to be up to 27%, created by Naspers through a capitalisation issue of Prosus shares to Naspers shareholders (as described below). Last month, Naspers  announced it has delayed the listing of its international internet assets on Euronext Amsterdam and secondary, inward listing on JSE. The company attributed the delay to…

In line with international trends and following on the success of Black Friday, the Takealot Group is once again leading the charge with a first-of-its-kind shopping event in South Africa. The Ultimate Checkout Sale is the Takealot Group’s beginnings of creating a South African version of an annual shopping event akin to those already established in the USA, China and India. “The year on year growth of Black Friday is an excellent indication of the appetite for big shopping events in SA. Internationally, annual events such as Amazon’s Prime Day, Alibaba’s Singles Day and Flipkart’s Big Billion Days highlight the…

The Gauteng High Court in Pretoria has set aside the City of Tshwane’s (CoT’s) Municipal Broadband Network Project contract which was awarded to Thobela Telecoms, a special purpose vehicle in which Altron Nexus, a subsidiary of JSE-listed Altron, was a minority shareholder. Altron Nexus was involved as primary network designer and architect, supplier of broadband equipment and related services. Altron Chief Executive Mteto Nyati said Altron was studying the judgement. “We are disappointed and are considering our legal options,” he said. “Once we have consulted Thobela Telecoms and project funders, we will consider our next steps and we are not…

Sasol has reaffirmed its partnership with the Government of Mozambique to deliver on its socio-economic development strategy focusing on the creation of self-employment opportunities for local nationals. In 2017, Sasol committed to contributing towards the training and development of Mozambicans nationals through an all-inclusive bursary, artisans and learnership programmes focusing on economic growth stimulation, community transformation and the creation of meaningful job opportunities and careers in Mozambique. According to the World Bank’s Mozambique Jobs Diagnostic findings report for 2018 “good jobs” in the country “are not expanding fast enough to absorb the growing, better-educated labour force”. The report reflects that…

Troubled JSE-listed technology group EOH has lost two CEOs of its subsidiaries, Nextec and ICT business. The company announced on Monday that Zunaid Mayet, executive director and CEO of EOH subsidiary Nextec,  has resigned as the CEO of Nextec and from the EOH Holdings board and various other EOH subsidiary boards. His resignation is with effect from 12 July 2019. Mayet has been at EOH for 10 years and a member of the board for the last two years. He has been involved in driving the new strategy which included the creation of Nextec. In order to ensure a smooth…

Thryve, South African-based provider of insurance, risk and governance technology solutions, has set up shop in Toronto, Canada. The new office is aimed at tapping the fast-emerging and growing digital Canadian market. Thryve is a leading South African company with international partners, providing cloud-based insurance administration, risk management systems and CRM systems to a blue-chip client profile of large South African corporates and insurance intermediaries. Thryve already operates offices in Johannesburg, as well as in London. The expansion into Canada comes at a time when that country’s technology ambitions are booming. Canadian businesses have been quietly yet prolifically transforming to make use of digital…

Broadband Infraco has partnered with Google to offer additional skills training under its Digital Skills Programme, “Grow with Google”. This training will be offered to learners and teachers in remote rural areas outside of the school curriculum. The aim of the collaboration is to provide learners and teachers in remote rural areas with the necessary skills to prepare for today’s changing work environments and the impact that the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) will bring about. “Having experienced the roll-out of infrastructure and internet; and noticing the lack of adoption of the connectivity being provided to some of the schools due to…

The new MINI Cooper SE will be the first purely electrically powered premium small car, paving the way to a sustainable yet at the same time highly emotional driving experience in urban traffic. The first solely electrically powered model of the British brand offers pure MINI feeling with locally emissions-free driving. It model-specific lithium-ion battery enables a range of 235 to 270 kilometres. The high-voltage battery is situated deep in the vehicle floor, ensuring there are no limitations in terms of luggage compartment volume as compared to the conventionally powered MINI 3 Door. With the new MINI Cooper SE, the British brand once again…

MTN, South Africa’s second-biggest mobile phone operator, has collaborated with JSE-listed financial services group, Sanlam, to make a range of innovative and inclusive financial services available to MTN’s digitally-savvy customers. “At MTN we believe that everyone deserves the benefit of a modern connected life and that we are uniquely positioned to help make this a reality. By harnessing the power of our technology, we can offer our customers a range of financial services, anytime and anywhere,” said Rob Shuter, Group CEO of MTN. The Insurtech investment and product knowledge of Sanlam, the largest insurer on the continent, matched with the…

South Africa topped Opensignal’s Africa Download Speed Experience table with a fairly impressive score of 15 Mbps, while Tunisia, Morocco and Kenya also managed average speeds of over 10 Mbps. The mobile analytics company has compared 10 of Africa’s mobile markets to see how they stack up against each other in mobile network experience. Almost all the African countries it analyzed saw their Download Speed Experience scores increase over the past year, as Tunisia saw the biggest increase of 3.6 Mbps to reach 13.4 Mbps. South Africa’s score was quite a way behind the leading global scores, but the country…