Author: Staff Writer

Waterfall City today hosted an exclusive tour of the award‐winning 2 200-hectare Waterfall precinct to celebrate the launch of its official rebrand to ‘Waterfall City’. Guests were given a guided tour of Waterfall City, including stops at several of its iconic sites, each of which revealed an aspect of the city’s newly launched cornerstones: Connection, Commerce, Care and Community. Over the past decade, Waterfall City has emerged as a world‐class metropolitan city offering an attractive lifestyle in a smart, safe, secure and connected environment. It has become synonymous with residential excellence and has grown into the economic hub of Gauteng.…

International calling app Talk360, which enables people around the world to make reliable and affordable calls to any landline or mobile phone worldwide, has secured an additional $3 million in seed round funding, taking its total seed round to $7 million after its first closing in May. The funds will help the company grow its market share in South Africa, drive its growth on the rest of the continent and launch its market first pan-African payment platform in 2023. The latest round of funding includes new South African investors like Allan Gray E2 Ventures (AGEV), Kalon Venture Partners, E4E Africa,…

MTN may be Africa’s most famous yellow brand but MTN South Africa’s head office is quickly “going green” as plans to achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2040 gain further momentum. To secure and procure reliable energy, MTN South Africa this week launched a request for proposal (RFP) which will see the MTN Headquarters becoming a completely “green” office. Phase 1 involves the procurement of providers for alternative energy rooftops and solar carparks and this forms part of the company’s broader Project Zero initiative, which explores all forms of renewable energy on a large and smaller scale. MTN SA CEO…

Community Investment Ventures Holdings (CIVH) today unveiled the identity of the parent company to its two fibre network assets – both will now be known as companies of MAZIV. “This is revealed amidst impressive market performances by both operating companies within the CIVH group with a 4.1% growth of DFA revenue to R2.5 billion – a result of the brand’s annuity income increase to R198 million per month as of 31 March 2022, from R192 million per month in the previous year. Subscriber growth was the main driver behind Vumatel’s substantial 26.3% revenue increase, to R3 billion,” says CIVH Chairman,…

A rethink of how companies approach B-BBEE (Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment) is needed given sluggish targets of late. Failure to meet these targets can be attributed to one thing, and one thing alone: cost. Yet, the true value of B-BBEE and empowerment is its ability to positively change people’s lives and driving skills development is one of the best drivers to do this. This is according to Prudence Mathebula, co-founder and managing director of Dynamic DNA, a 51% black female-owned, B-BBEE level two accredited QSE training and skills development provider. All the elements on the B-BBEE scorecard require some financial investment from…

Ben Zhou, co-founder and CEO of Bybit, the top three crypto exchanges in the world by web traffic, has called for the traditional markets to embrace the change being driven by crypto. Speaking at the Pantera Blockchain Summit Asia this week, Zhou discussed the growing convergence between traditional financial institutions and crypto. “The infrastructure is already in place and large institutions are already exploring and engaging at multiple levels with crypto leaders,” he commented. But he said, “Wall St could do a lot more to truly embrace the innovation in the market and remain relevant.” adding that traditional financial service…

iiDENTIFii, a biometrics tech firm, has raised $15 million or R272 million in growth capital. The round was led by African investment company Arise whose cornerstone investors include Rabobank Partnerships, Norfund, NorFinance and FMO. This is, to date, the largest African Series A in the identity verification space. iiDENTIFii is a world leader in biometric authentication. Its advanced face authentication technology securely authenticates users via their cellphones or PCs within seconds. iiDENTIFii operates across several industry verticals and is used by the largest pan-African banks, insurers and mining houses for both customer and employee authentication. Its customers include Standard Bank,…

The last two years have undoubtedly triggered new and exciting internet usage habits across South Africa, and the country’s townships have been no exception. Vuma’s 2021 Fibre Reach Survey indicates that considerably more homes are upgrading to fibre internet in these communities. In addition, more people are now streaming their favourite content and opting for a fixed internet fee in 2021 compared to the previous year. Vuma’s survey reveals that almost all surveyed township residents (96%) now understand the benefits of upgrading to uncapped high-speed fibre internet, contributing to this technology’s high uptake. In addition, most residents (90%) see the…

In 1999, CNN published an article with the headline: “Is the internet maturing?” The author referred to the first airline tickets being sold online and said the internet was ‘going ordinary’ – in other words, no longer the playground of the tech-savvy, but more ubiquitous in the average Joe’s life. Cloud, say experts, is going ordinary too. “Cloud, just like the internet back in the day, is revolutionising the way people think about their infrastructure,” says Andrew Cruise, Managing Director of Routed, a local VMware Cloud Verified and VMware Principal Partner. “The conversation really started changing during the pandemic. Before,…

Ukheshe’s SME in-a-box solution is making tangible changes to the lives of millions in Zambia through a partnership with Digital PayGo, improving financial inclusion and enhancing business dealings for entrepreneurs. Digital PayGo, a local Zambian fintech driving a mobile-first approach, enhancing the digital payment space for SMEs, is the first partner to utilise Ukheshe’s SME in-a-box solution to its fullest extent and provides a range of virtual financial services to its customers. “We’re so proud to be the technology partner enabling Digital PayGo in their partnership with Zambian bank Zanaco and Mastercard to implement this solution,” says Mark Dankworth, President…