African Tech Conversations

Anyone who's ever heard Gys Kappers speak will know how passionately he advocates for organisations to be super-intentional about systematically tapping every single employee— from the top to the very bottom of their structures, for game-changing insights and wisdom that can otherwise easily go ignored. In the latest episode of African Tech Conversations, Gys shares an incredible story of how an idea put forward by an entry-level factory worker helped the concrete masonry business he had a hand in building (the largest privately-owned business of its kind in South Africa at the time) stay afloat during the early to mid 2000’s. But it was a chance encounter with a fellow MBA student at the University of Cape Town following that seminal experience that would lead Gys to co-founding “social business software and collaboration company”, Wyzetalk— which is currently leading the charge on the continent to persuade companies to adopt social business software to achieve collaboration, open innovation and communication objectives. Music Credits: All music by Brian Lupiya. Used with permission.

Cobus van der Merwe is a former army man who has managed to carve out an impressive second career in defence technology. He’s an experienced negotiation team leader in both partnership establishment and contract closure in land warfare and aviation systems. He is currently a senior executive specialising in electronic warfare at Saab Grintek Defense, based in Centurion, South Africa. Cobus has extensive experience in leading defence-level operational test and evaluation teams and performing customer value engineering. In this conversation, taped a couple of months ago, Cobus shares insights gleaned from an extensive defence career which straddled the seismic shifts which occurred within South Africa’s socio-economic landscape over the last three or four decades. Theme music by Brian Lupiya. Used with permission.

Eline Blaauboer is Managing Partner at both TBL Mirror Fund and Safaricom Spark Venture Fund. She’s worked in the venture capital and private equity sector in both Europe and Africa for last 14 years— gaining loads of experience with new investments and portfolio management, negotiation and structuring of investment rounds and deal flow generation. Her latest undertaking is something called 'Africa Tech Ventures' - a fund focussed on investing in and accelerating the growth of disruptive tech-enabled start-ups and businesses in Sub-Saharan Africa. Eline and her team at Africa Tech Ventures are currently in the process of fundraising and on the look-out for investors interested in collaborating with them. Theme music by Brian Lupiya. Used with permission. Additional music by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com).

Tomi Davies is a Nigerian investor, author and tech evangelist who is widely considered the God-father of Africa’s angel investment scene. He is also the founder of the Lagos Angel Network (LAN), as well as the founding President of the African Business Angel Network (ABAN). He lives and works mostly in the UK, and he’s spent much of the last decade investing, mentoring, and advising start-up founders, angel investors, venture capitalists and a good number of public and private institutions. As an angel investor, he continues to manage a growing portfolio of tech-enabled businesses that originate from Africa. Music Credits: All music by Brian Lupiya. Used with permission.

Brendan Horan is a chartered accountant who has served as Managing Director of Mix Telematics Africa since June 2014 when the firm’s fleet and consumer businesses on the continent were merged into one business. Founded in 1996, Mix Telematics has grown into a leading global provider of fleet and mobile asset management solutions, and is listed on both the Johannesburg Stock Exchange and on the New York Stock Exchange. Using a Software-as-a-Service delivery model, MiX Telematics delivers solutions to customers in more than 120 countries, across 6 continents— with offices in South Africa, the United Kingdom, the United States, Uganda, Brazil, Australia and the United Arab Emirates. Music Credits: All music by Brian Lupiya. Used with permission.