Author: Staff Writer

Luno, the crypto company founded by two South Africans, now has 9 million customers in over 40 countries. The remarkable growth of the company is illustrated by the addition of one million new customers in just over four months. South Africa is one of Luno’s strongest markets – over 30% of the one million new customers added since June are based in South Africa. Marius Reitz, GM for Africa at Luno commented: “The average value of first deposits made by our million new customers is around R550 (USD37). Most new customers (67%) bought Bitcoin, while 43% bought Ripple and 20%…

Today, General Electric (GE) announced a five-year, $2.5 million or R37 million investment in Johannesburg to launch Next Engineers, a global initiative focused on increasing the diversity of young people in engineering. GE has selected Johannesburg as one of four inaugural locations, aiming to inspire more than 3,500 local students aged 13 to 18 in grade eight to twelve, provide first-hand experiences in engineering, and award financial support to pursue further education in engineering. GE is partnering with PROTEC, South Africa’s leading non-profit organisation that empowers local students to pursue and grow in STEM-based careers, to implement Next Engineers locally.…

Jaguar Land Rover has trialled the use of secure blockchain technology to ensure full transparency within a sustainable leather supply chain. In the world-first, Jaguar Land Rover partnered with supply chain traceability provider Circulor, leading UK leather manufacturer Bridge of Weir Leather Company and the University of Nottingham to trial the use of traceability technology in the leather supply chain. As well as tracking compliance, the digital process enabled Jaguar Land Rover to assess the carbon footprint of its leather supply network, working with UK-based Bridge of Weir Leather Company to trace its lowest carbon leather from farm to finished article…

Willem Kitshoff, CEO of the EdTech company d6 Group, today announced that the cloud-based management platform for schools has received a capital injection from Knife Capital, Hlayisani Capital and NuState Ventures. d6 is currently the most widely used cloud-based school communication and management platform in South Africa and the investment will be used primarily for international expansion and to further product enhancements. “We are extremely excited about our new investors because of their proven track record and ability to support tech businesses to scale internationally,” said Kitshoff. “We have a strong market footprint and technology foundation and with this new strategic…

Telecoms startup NoPBX has activated over 1,000 new PBX-over-GSM switchboards since its commercial launch in October 2020. “The launch of our smartphone-based cloud PBX system has proved especially timeous as SMEs push back against the Coronavirus slump by adopting new, more effective and more affordable technologies to do business better,” says NoPBX co-founder Anton Potgieter. The pandemic forced SMEs to rapidly explore new digital solutions that would enable them to stay in business and to operate leaner businesses as the economy contracted. “Developed in South Africa, NoPBX enables users to start making business calls on their new business phone number…

Vodacom Financial and Digital Services has officially launched its much anticipated VodaPay super app. Available to customers on any mobile network, VodaPay launches with significant partners and discounts including exclusive R1 deals on multiple products on the app. The VodaPay super app is available for download from Apple and Android app stores. VodaPay delivers a digital shopping, lifestyle and financial platform for both consumers and businesses. It is backed by Alipay technology that powers over 1.2 billion users and almost 100 million merchant partners, using state of the art technology including artificial intelligence (AI). This is the first partnership of…

MTN Mobile Money app (MTN MoMo) which is powered by uBank, has expanded into the digital health service space with the innovative, professional, and broadly accessible Nurse & Video-Dr Consult pre-paid solution. This pre-paid digital healthcare solution, starting from R370, is easily accessed via the MoMo app and is specifically targeted at helping the elderly with no medical aid to get the professional advice and medication they need. It is also aimed at providing an affordable alternative for those who have run out of medical aid savings, while the general population gains access to an array of medical solutions that…

Liquid Intelligent Technologies, through its innovation and partnerships arm Liquid Labs, is launching three online courses on legal technology, targeted at supporting career development amongst students, budding entrepreneurs, and lawyers. This has been possible through a partnership with Africa Legal, an organisation that connects legal professionals across the African continent. Liquid Labs aspires to make relevant tech training programmes accessible to students and professionals to bridge the affordability and digital divide, the main deterrents to increased access. The courses will offer targeted training for lawyers and the business community to enable working people to upskill and embrace the opportunities of…

Walmart-owned Massmart, one of South Africa’s biggest retail groups, has launched mobile shopping mini apps in partnership with  Vodacom’s new VodaPay super app. Massmart, which owns Builders, Game and Makro, said the mini apps serve as the cornerstone of the shopping proposition in the VodaPay Super App. This launch follows Massmart’s announcement earlier this year regarding e-commerce as a Business-to-Business (B2B) and Business-to-Consumer (B2C) strategic growth vector. “This is an important step in our e-commerce strategy which is underpinned by a mobile first approach which in this case will provide access to 43 million customers, 21 million mobile devices and…

The DA has called on the IEC to investigate the ANC for spreading misinformation in an attempt to mislead voters about the distribution of electricity in the City of Johannesburg. The ANC in the region released a statement today claiming that the City of Johannesburg administration signed a Power Purchase Agreement with Eskom “which will enable the City’s process to takeover Eskom supplied areas to City Power”.  The statement by the ANC claims that “[the] signed agreement ensures that the electricity bought in bulk from Eskom allows the City’s electricity distributor, City Power, safe and reliable distribution of electricity to the residents…