TCS – The TechCentral Show

Boasting 1.6 million subscribers after less than three years in the market, Capitec Connect has quickly become South Africa’s largest MVNO – and it has an ambitious plan for further growth. Dalene Steyn, head of Capitec Connect, tells the TechCentral Show (TCS) that the MVNO – or mobile virtual network operator – market in South Africa is poised for further expansion as banks, retailers and other brands muscle into the mobile business through wholesale partnerships with network operators. According to Steyn, although Capitec Connect is not a loss leader for the bank, the focus for now is building a critical mass of subscribers from Capitec Bank’s customer base – Capitec Connect users must be bank clients to sign up for the service. In the interview, Steyn tells TechCentral editor Duncan McLeod about: • Why Capitec Connect recently cut its prices, matching another MVNO, Afrihost AirMobile, as the cheapest MVNO provider in South Africa – spoiler: it’s all about building scale; • Why Capitec is pulling ahead in the MVNO market and how big the bank wants to be in mobile – and why it’s so important to its business; • Capitec Connect’s plans to introduce post-paid contracts later this year and how this aligns with its push into business banking services; • The company’s plans for device financing; • Its relationship with Cell C, whose network it uses to provide mobile services to its clients, and why it’s pleased with the relationship; and • The unconfirmed market talk that Capitec might buy a strategic equity stake in Cell C. Don’t miss the discussion!

Cape Town-based fintech start-up Stitch last month caught the attention of many people when it announced it was raising R1-billion (US$55-million) in a significant series-B funding round. Co-founder and CEO Kiaan Pillay is our guest in this episode of the TechCentral Show, where he tells TechCentral editor Duncan McLeod about the funding round, which was led by QED Investors with participation from a range of new and existing investors. The latest round brings Stitch’s total funding to date to nearly R2-billion, or $107-million. In this episode of the TechCentral Show, Pillay unpacks: • His background and why and how Stitch was founded; • How well-known South African comedian Trevor Noah became one of the participating funders in the latest funding round; • What Stitch is doing differently to other fintech and payment start-ups that has allowed to raise the quantum of funding that it has; • The significance of Stitch’s recent acquisition of Exipay – and why it’s important for Stitch to be a player in the in-person payments market; • Stitch’s plans in the cryptocurrency space; and • Why the company is focused (for now) on the South African market. Don’t miss a great discussion!

Shortly after the Covid-19 pandemic hit, Tiffany Dunsdon – at the time CEO of JSE-listed Adapt IT – found herself having to fend off an unwanted takeover bid from Huge Group. Dunsdon did not feel the deal made much sense for Adapt IT – a fast-growing enterprise software services provider whose share price, like many others at the time, had been knocked lower by the uncertainty caused by the pandemic. The Huge Group approach was opportunistic, said Dunsdon. So, instead of entertaining the approach from Huge Group, she set about engineering a very different deal: one involving Canadian-listed Constellation Software: Constellation subsidiary Volaris Group would buy out Adapt IT and delist it from the JSE. Dunsdon, who was recently appointed as acquiring group leader at Omegro – a portfolio company within Volaris Group that houses Adapt IT – joins Duncan McLeod on the TechCentral Show for an update following the conclusion of the sale. In this episode of the TechCentral Show, Dunsdon also discusses: • Adapt IT’s performance since its acquisition and delisting; • The Huge Group hostile approach and how that played out inside Adapt IT; • The timeline of events that led to the acquisition by Volaris Group; and • What’s next for Adapt IT and Omegro. Don’t miss the conversation!

New GX Capital, one of the principal investors in Vumatel and Dark Fibre Africa parent CIVH, recently announced it was launching a R2.4-billion clean-tech investment fund in partnership with RMB Ventures. To unpack the details of the new fund and why it’s being established, New GX Capital founder and CEO Khudusela Pitje joined TechCentral editor Duncan McLeod in the latest episode of the TechCentral Show for a wide-ranging conversation. In the interview, Pitje chatted about the fund – called the Airnegize Capital Fund – and its plans to invest in renewable energy and water and gas infrastructure across Africa. New GX Capital and RMB Ventures have described the fund as “one of the largest of its kind on the continent”. The fund has secured R2.4-billion in initial commitments, with the companies targeting a further R1.6-billion before financial close in the coming months. In this episode of the TechCentral Show, Pitje expands on: • His career background and the formation of New GX Capital; • The role his father, the late HM Pitje, a businessman and former mayor of Mamelodi, played in his life and career choices; • His role in helping build Dark Fibre Africa and CIVH; • Why he feels the decision by the competition authorities to block the acquisition by Vodacom of a 30% co-controlling stake in Maziv – a subsidiary of CIVH that houses Vumatel and DFA – was wrongheaded; • The role New GX Capital plays today, as well as its investment philosophy; • What led to the creation of the Airnegize Fund with RMB Ventures; and • The role and future of black economic empowerment in South Africa. Don’t miss a fascinating conversation!

A company with its headquarters in Pretoria has designed and built an advanced drone that can attain speeds of 250km/h, reach altitudes of up to 30 000ft and travel more than 4 000km before having to return to its base. The company, Milkor, is a South African defence equipment and cybersecurity specialist that was founded all the way back in 1981. Its newly developed Milkor 380 System unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) – in essence, a giant drone – has a cruising altitude of 10 000ft, a wingspan of 18m and a maximum payload of 220kg. The drone has a flight time of up to 35 hours and can be used for border surveillance, maritime surveillance, strategic reconnaissance and information gathering operations, among other things. To talk about the UAV, Milkor communications director Daniel du Plessis sat down with Duncan McLeod on the TechCentral Show recently and shared more details about its capabilities. Other than the Milkor 380, the interview also covers topics including: * Milkor’s founding in the 1980s, and how the company shifted focus in the democratic era – it got its start, and may still be best known for, manufacturing the world’s first six-shot 40mm grenade launcher, which is widely used around the world; * The company’s other products – for land, air and sea operations – as well as what’s involved in conducting advanced R&D and manufacturing in a market like South Africa; * The people who work for Milkor, and the sort of skills the company is looking for (and how it’s finding them); * The role of UAVs in modern warfare and defence operations; and * Why Milkor has entered the cybersecurity space. Don’t miss a fascinating interview!

Discovery Bank CEO Hylton Kallner believes technology is fundamental to the company’s success. Kallner, an actuary who joined Discovery in its early days as a medical insurance company and who has held various senior leadership roles over the years, tells TechCentral editor Duncan McLeod about the group’s decision to launch a bank when it did. He shares how the business is doing – spoiler: it’s trending well ahead of schedule – and what comes next. He tells the TechCentral Show about: • How Discovery Bank is doing financially and how it’s tracking against its business plan; • Its client base – who they are and who the bank is targeting as its clientele (the answer may surprise you); • Why Discovery launched a bank into what was already a competitive market and what it’s doing differently to its rivals to attract people to switch; • The learnings from Discovery Health and Discovery Vitality, and how Discovery Bank has leveraged these in its products and services; • Discovery Bank’s technology stack, why it chose the IT solutions it did, and why it built much of its banking solution in-house; • What’s next from Discovery Bank in terms of solutions; and • The bank’s plans with AI – and why it believes AI could be a gamechanger. Lastly, Kallner, a prolific reader, shares two of his favourite non-fiction books with the TechCentral audience. Don’t miss a great discussion!

Shaun Maidment crossed South Africa in an electric car, a BMW i3, before there was a network of charging infrastructure along the national routes – and he has a heck of a story to tell about his adventure. Charging infrastructure along South Africa’s national routes is now so commonplace that a cross-country trip in an EV is a daily occurrence. But this was not always the case, and drivers in the early days of EVs in South Africa often had to rely on their wits and the kindness of strangers to keep their batteries charged on long-distance trips. Maidment is one of South Africa’s original EV enthusiasts. As the proud owner of what was once officially recognised as the highest-mileage BMW i3 in Africa – it now has 365 000km on the clock – he dared to travel across the length and breadth of South Africa long before charging infrastructure was commonplace. Maidment tells the TechCentral Show’s Nkosinathi Ndlovu about: • What inspired him in 2017 to take his first drive from Johannesburg to Cape Town in an EV; • How he planned the trip, knowing that at the time there were not enough charging stations along the way; • Some anecdotes from his travels, including the interesting people he met along the way; • What his travels have taught him about the best way to drive an EV; • How much mileage he is getting out of his i3 compared to when it was new; and • His thoughts on the future of electric mobility in South Africa. Maidment’s insights on EVs are based on years of personal experience. This episode of the show is not to be missed.

The Competition Commission is girding itself for a fight with Big Tech companies like Google and Meta Platforms after publishing its provisional findings in its investigation into the impact that Big Tech has had on the South African news media sector. To unpack the provisional report, which was published on Monday, Competition Commission senior analyst and technical lead Donnavan-John Linley joined the TechCentral Show to discuss on the findings. He chats about how the commission is attempting to assist local publishers deal with the rise of competing social media platforms owned by US tech giants and why the regulator is determined to intervene in the market to support the funding of journalism in South Africa in the digital age. Linley tells TechCentral editor Duncan McLeod about: • Why the Competition Commission decided to initiate its probe into digital platforms and their impact these platforms are having on South Africa’s news media; • The findings contained in the provisional report and why the commission reached the conclusions it did – including its recommendation that Google pay as much as R500-million/year in “compensation” over a three- to five-year period in an effort to level the playing field; • The likely reaction from Big Tech to the commission’s proposals, and what might happen if they don’t agree to play ball; • The risk of provoking a backlash from the Donald Trump administration – already Trump has accused the EU of using antitrust fines levied on US tech companies as a form of taxation and threatened retaliation in response; • How the proposed compensation of the local news media might work, and who would be eligible to receive the funding from Google; • The impact of artificial intelligence on the South African media industry and how the commission has dealt with this in its provisional report; and • Whether the commission’s findings amount to regulatory overreach – are the proposals it has made really warranted, or is the media industry simply experiencing capitalism’s “creative destruction” that will ultimately drive innovation in news media? Don’t miss a great interview!

South Africa has a new player chasing the township fibre broadband market: Wire-Wire Networks has deployed fibre to 15 800 homes in Thembisa (previously Tembisa), a sprawling township in central Gauteng. CEO JP Schmidtke joined the TechCentral Show earlier this week to share exclusive details about the company’s growth plans and to talk about the business opportunity for fibre companies in South Africa’s vast township economy. Schmidtke said Wire-Wire Networks – like other industry players such as Vumatel, Fibertime and Frogfoot – believes townships present the next big expansion opportunity for fibre network operators, though the business model is rather different to the one used to deploy infrastructure in the suburbs. Wire-Wire is offering uncapped fibre – delivered over a meshed Wi-Fi network from fibre endpoints in each home or dwelling, starting at R5 for an hour of uncapped internet access at 100Mbit/s (limited to a single device). Other price plans, which are all uncapped and offer 100Mbit/s, include: • R9 for a one-day plan that connects one device • R39 for a one-week plan that connects one device • R119 for a one-month plan that connects one device • R449 for a one-month plan that supports eight devices • R1 120 for a one-month plan that supports 12 devices Subscribers can connect anywhere in Thembisa where Wire-Wire has coverage and so are not confined to connecting to the network in the vicinity of their own homes. There are no contracts or connection charges, and Wire-Wire provides a “free-to-use” Wi-Fi router and UPS (designed to keep the internet working even during load shedding and other power outages). The fibre is trenched, not delivered aerially, as it the case in many township deployments. In this episode of the TechCentral Show, Schmidtke unpacks how Wire-Wire was formed, talks about its future plans and explains how it hopes to make low-cost fibre broadband profitable in township settings. Wire-Wire’s leadership team consists of Schmidtke as well as fibre industry expert Hendrik Opperman, head of projects (external) Succeed Bvuma, head of technical David Radebe and head of projects (internal) Susan Hattingh. Don’t miss the discussion!

South African logistics firm Bakers SA recently deployed the first electric trucks to its fleet of more than a thousand vehicles. Working with Stellenbosch-based EV charging and software company Zimi Charge, Bakers’ deployment points a potential future in South Africa in which planet-warming trucks are replaced with electric alternatives. Michael Maas, CEO of Zimi Charge, recently joined Duncan McLeod on the TechCentral Show to talk about the company’s solutions, its deployment for Bakers SA and its expansion plans. In this episode of the show, Maas unpacks: • The projects with Bakers SA, what Zimi Charge supplied and how it works in practice; • The background to Zimi Charge and its focus on deploying both EV charging stations and building the software stack around them; • The current state of EV charging infrastructure in South Africa and what more needs to be done to support the growing number of EVs on South African roads; and • The market opportunity for Zimi Charge. Don’t miss a great discussion!