Author: Staff Writer

Google today announced its intent to establish a new Google Cloud region in South Africa – its  first on the continent. The news, which came at the second Google for Africa event, is the latest example of how Google is delivering on the $1 billion or R17 billion investment commitment made last year by the company’s CEO, Sundar Pichai. The new Cloud Region will help users, developers, businesses and educational institutions across Africa to move more information and tools online, improve access options for customers and in turn, create jobs. According to research by AlphaBeta Economics commissioned by Google Cloud,…

In today’s fast-paced, wealth-driven world where customer service often ends at the point of sale, true business success requires solid, customer-centric ethics. This is the belief of Lee Ziervogel, the newly appointed Chief Operating Officer at fintech enablement company Ukheshe. “This is especially important for a fintech company like Ukheshe. It’s essential to manage our clients’ journeys with our highly technical products, because if they’re successful, so are we. “I love being surrounded by an ethically sound team that operates from these solid business principles. One of Ukheshe’s core focus areas is enabling financial inclusion, and enriching lives.” Ziervogel’s people-centric…

Over the past 12 months, the Shoprite Group has increased its installed capacity of solar photovoltaic (PV) systems by 82% to 26,606 kWp. The 143,674m2 of solar panels at 62 sites, is equivalent to the size of 20 soccer fields.    This is enough to power the equivalent of 3,735 households for one full year, thus easing the pressure on the national electricity grid.   Despite the marked progress, the Group is still focused on growing its solar-powered and renewable electricity installations while improving energy efficiency to reduce its environmental footprint, further reducing added strain on the national electricity grid. Other initiatives include a drive to reduce electricity consumption by…

Cape Town-headquartered venture capital (VC) firm HAVAÍC has completed its third investment in Kenyan FinTech Tanda. The investment from the VC firm’s $20 million HAVAÍC Universum Core African Fund is part of an ongoing pre-series A round in partnership with three other investors, including DFS Lab. Since its launch in 2018, Tanda has built one of Africa’s largest open agent networks accessible to all financial service providers, simplified how people and businesses transact, and opened up the ecosystem so other developers can layer additional solutions. Over the past four years, the company has processed over 4 million transactions and served…

By working together, Pick n Pay and Mr D have just made online grocery shopping much better, easier, and more exciting for customers. Using the Mr D app, all your favourite Pick n Pay products can now be delivered right to your door. By bringing together the best of Pick n Pay and Mr D, customers can now order what they want, when they want it, quickly and easily, using the tried, trusted, and hugely popular Mr D app. “This new dedicated grocery shopping experience with Pick n Pay through the Mr D app allows customers to shop over 10,000…

Mercedes-Benz South Africa Limited (MBSA) announces a key executive appointments within its Sales & Marketing and Aftersales operations. Selvin Govender, currently responsible for Marketing and Sales for Mercedes-Benz South Africa (MBSA), will take over the position of Vice President and Director for Marketing and Sales for Mercedes-Benz GDs Europe, Middle East & Africa (MBGD), effective 1 February 2023. Commenting on Govender’s departure, Mark Raine, Co-CEO of Mercedes-Benz Cars and Executive Director of MBSA said: “Govender has been synonymous with the Mercedes-Benz brand for over two decades and has been integral in leading the company’s enviable brand in the premium automotive…

Vodacom Business Africa is committed to supporting the internationalisation of multinational businesses into Africa. Testament to this is continuous development of innovative solutions to keep clients securely and reliably connected. Having successfully deployed its Software-Defined Wide Area Networking (SD-WAN) solution to several businesses in South Africa, Vodacom Business Africa is now making the offering accessible to clients in all 47 operating countries across its African footprint. “By launching this offering into Africa, we’re eliminating connectivity barriers that growing businesses are contending with. These include increasing cybersecurity threats, escalating data demands and costs, as well as slow or unresponsive digital applications…

New-age solutions and systems integrator, +OneX, has acquired South Africa’s leading Citrix on Azure solutions provider, EUCafrica, as part of its strategy to build a group that can deliver end-to-end digital transformation solutions to enterprise clients. The acquisition strengthens +OneX’s capabilities in end-user computing by adding one of South Africa’s leading specialists in the desktop-as-a-service and desktop virtualisation space to the fold. EUCafrica has unique credentials in South Africa’s end-user computing market, having attained both Citrix Platinum Solution Advisor Status as well as Microsoft Gold Cloud Competency certification. The company has helped leading retail, finance, public sector and technology clients…

Jumo, a technology company advancing next-generation financial inclusion in emerging markets, today released Vela, a pioneering asset management engine built to give investors access to real social impact investments at the highest standards of governance and control. Vela is a powerful asset management tool underpinned by Jumo’s proven AI and machine learning capabilities that seeks to democratise access to funding. Vela allocates multi-currency funds (US$ and crypto) to select portfolios, making it possible for qualifying investors to put money to work alongside pan-African banks and watch it perform in real time. Andrew Watkins-Ball, JUMO Founder and CEO, said: “This is…

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…

Vodacom’s zero-rated ConnectU platform, designed to provide South Africans with free access to information and life-changing online resources, has grown exponentially, with over 34 million unique users accessing the platform over the past two years. This equates to an average of 3.5 million new unique users’ month-on-month. Boosting Education, Jobs, Social, Health, Safety & Security, Government, and Small, Medium, and Micro-sized Enterprises (SMME) pillars, ConnectU is helping millions of South Africans, with Jobs, Health and Education ranking as the top three visited pillars for users. The Education pillar provides zero-rated access to universities, TVET Colleges, Early Childhood Development (ECD) centres, Vodacom’s…

SweepSouth, an online home services platform with presence across Africa, today announced that it has completed an US$11m investment round led by Alitheia IDF (AIF), Africa’s first and largest gender-lens private equity fund. The size of the round, which is SweepSouth’s largest to date, is a result of strong growth in the company’s valuation and social impact since the previous funding round. Current investors Naspers Foundry, The Michael and Susan Dell Foundation, and Futuregrowth Asset Management all committed to participate in this new round, as did new investors Endeavor Catalyst, Endeavor’s Harvest Fund II, Caruso Ventures, and E4E Africa. Co-founded…

Forge Academy & Labs is looking to enrol 15 youths for their newly launched 5G Certification and Cloud Practitioner programme in partnership with MICT SETA. The programme will lay the foundations for critical 5G and CLOUD computing skills in high demand in the ICT sector. Forge Academy & Labs recently partnered with MICT SETA and signed a two-year Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) that will offer students the following: Accredited 5G and cloud computing skills training Ecosystem building Workforce development programmes Public policy The ‘short skills’ programme, designed by Forge in collaboration with Nokia Bell Labs and AWS, begins on 15 October…

The Shoprite Group now helps its suppliers with access to funding at the most affordable rates with the launch of a new supply chain finance product.   The CredX finance product, which is often cheaper than bank financing, is available to all of the Group’s suppliers and is expected to assist especially SMMEs, for whom cash flow constraints and access to affordable funding are significant business growth obstacles in South Africa. The benefits include:   An affordable financing product from a trusted business with an all-inclusive interest rate and no additional fees;  100% of invoice value available for financing;  No further on-boarding requirements as the…

Vodacom has launched the YouTube ‘Buy & Get’ promotion which gives customers free YouTube data for simply buying a qualifying 7-day or 30-day data bundle. For instance, a qualifying 7-day or 30-day 1GB data bundle, will give a customer 500MB YouTube bundle (valid for 7 days) tagged-on for free, whereas a 2GB data bundle at R149 will give a customer a free 1GB YouTube bundle valid for 30 days. In addition to this YouTube ‘Buy & Get’ promotion, customers are now also able to purchase ‘Double Your Data’ YouTube social bundles, which doubles the value of the social bundle. With…

MTN Group today announced the appointment of Fatima Laher as Group Executive: Group Legal, effective 1 October 2022. Laher re-joins MTN from Samsung Electronics, where she has held the role of Head of Africa Disputes, for the past six years. Lele Modise, Group Chief Legal and Regulatory officer said, “Fatima is adept at providing expert strategic and innovative advice to senior leadership in the prestigious institutions she has worked for locally and internationally.”  “As Executive: Group Legal, Fatima will provide support in overseeing all legal areas and managing legal risk, supporting strategic projects and initiatives across MTN Group, as well…