Author: Staff Writer

According to a new study, South Africa’s online retail more than doubled in just two years, spurred by the explosion in demand for home deliveries brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic. Online Retail in South Africa 2021, a study conducted by World Wide Worx with the support of Mastercard, Standard Bank and Platinum Seed, reveals that the total growth for online retail in South Africa in 2020 came to 66%, bringing the total of online retail in South Africa to R30,2 billion. “The most astonishing aspect of this total is that it is more than double the R14,1-billion reached in…

DeepMind, an Alphabet company and a world leader in the field of artificial intelligence research and its applications in the real world, has donated scholarship funding for four Wits students to complete their Master’s degrees in the field of machine learning. The scholarships will fund students registering for MSc degrees in Computer Science, Artificial Intelligence, or Robotics in the academic years between 2022 and 2024. The scholarships, known as the DeepMind Scholarships, will only be awarded to students who would not take up their studies without financial assistance. Preference will also be afforded to South African citizens from underrepresented groups,…

Vodacom Central Region, covering the Free State and Northern Cape provinces, has switched on 21 new 3G and 4G enabled base station sites in deep rural areas across the province during March and April alone. Deployed across 21 villages, these base stations will provide connectivity in some of the big local municipalities in Free State and Northern Cape provinces for the first time. The new sites will deliver fast internet connectivity and connect the unconnected, particularly in deep rural areas of the province to ensure inclusion for all. The new sites in Ubuntu, Joe Morolong, Siyancuma, Tokologo, Mangaung, Tswaing, Ga-Segonyana,…

StuDocu, an Amsterdam-based EdTech (education technology) company that is seeing exceptional growth, is announcing $50 million (over R700 million) Series B funding from Partech. The company plans to invest this capital in further boosting its exponential global growth and South Africa is one of the markets they’d like to expand. StuDocu offers students a platform to exchange knowledge, has passed 15 million users worldwide and reveals they have 100 000 South African students actively using their platform. Before the COVID-19 pandemic forced the world to move from social to remote, little to none was known about EdTech and the companies making…

Pick n Pay is encouraging customers to use over R200 million in unredeemed Smart Shopper points – the amount unclaimed by customers in the last 12 months. These points have been accumulated from everyday swipes and bonus points, or through Pick n Pay partners, such as BP. Pick n Pay’s Smart Shopper – South Africa’s favourite loyalty programme with over 8.5 million active members – last year delivered over R3.5 billion in savings to customers through personalised discounts, instant cash-off discounts with its Smart Price, points and multi-buy deals. But accumulated points worth R200 million have yet to be claimed.…

Marilyn Moodley has been appointed as South African Country Leader for SoftwareONE, an end-to-end cloud technology and software solutions company operating in over 90 countries. An eight-year veteran with the company, Moodley takes over the reins from Grant Bryce who is now leading SoftwareONE Ireland. Her new role comes at an exciting time for SoftwareONE as it rapidly expands its capabilities into areas like SAP migration services, application modernisation and hyperscale cloud services and solutions. In the last six months alone, the organisation has acquired five companies and formed two strategic partnerships – including a global SAP and app modernisation…

WeThinkCode has landed in Durban/eThekwini and applications are open for a full-time, fully-sponsored two-year programming course. The software programming academy is inviting potential candidates in the region to apply to its tuition-free, two-year software programming course which starts in July. One hundred places are available – part of WeThinkCode ’s plan to increase its total student intake to 450 in 2021. The academy already has campuses in Johannesburg and Cape Town. “We know that South Africa has a vast pool of untapped talent with the aptitude to be trained in technology.  At the same time our youth unemployment is among the…

MiX Telematics, a global SaaS provider of connected fleet management solutions, has launched MiX Vision AI – an extensive update to their video telematics offering. With this new solution, MiX Telematics further enhances its ability to help customers worldwide improve driver safety and reduce operating costs. MiX Vision AI leverages machine vision technology to detect and alert drivers and managers to unsafe or risky driving behaviour that impacts road safety. Driver monitoring events include fatigue, phone use, distraction, smoking and seat-belt use, while passive ADAS events include forward collision and lane departure warnings. In-cab, audible alerts warn drivers in real-time…

Global EdTech innovator iXperience secures $2.5 million (R35 million) in Series A funding to accelerate the way the world learns. The funding round was led by Kalon Venture Partners and Caleo Private Equity. iXperience is an educational-tech company that partners with high schools, universities and corporates to provide progressive education programs and services that equip students with industry-focused skills. iXperience was founded in 2013 by two Yale University graduates – CEO Aaron Fuchs (from South Africa) and CPO Rafi Khan (from the United States). The Cape Town-based company started as a coding bootcamp and has since become an industry leader…

Vodacom has partnered with the Department of Basic Education (DBE) to place twenty psycho-social professionals in their Schools of Excellence (SoE) across the country. The initiative, which is aimed at reducing the scourge of violence plaguing schools in this country, is a huge milestone for Vodacom in the fight against gender-based violence in South Africa. The programme is part of Vodacom’s gender-based violence ecosystem, which provides prevention, response, and victim support programs in partnership with government and civil society organisations. Following a rigorous selection process, which commenced in 2020 with the participation of the University of Stellenbosch, so far, ten…