INNOVATE™ South Africa

A painting pig from Farm Sanctuary SA is hogging the limelight and inspiring animal lovers to make the connection between what they eat and the industries that they support.   When South African Joanne Lefson rescued a small piglet from a local industrialized hog facility in 2016, she knew this...

Data is the source of all learning, and nothing should get in the way of that. Data should be easy to access and explore. We spend too long working on our data instead of with our data. Data tells a story, and it’s our job to unearth and tell that...

Innovation is the lifeblood of Daily Maverick – from its origins as a print magazine featuring long-form current affairs, to its current form as a digital news publisher with more than five million unique visitors every month.   Founded by Editor-in-chief Branko Brkic and CEO Styli Charalambous in 2009, eagle-eyed...

In SA, despite the gains girls have made in access and efficiency markers of education, they still lag boys in quality of performance in Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics (STEAM). Even though, more girls than boys sat the Grade 12 examination in math and physical science, boys outperformed girls...

We were never just advertising people wanting to do big TV ads, we were entrepreneurs wanting to build brands and businesses. We were also very inexperienced and naïve and while that made things much more challenging in the early years, it has made us more effective the more time has...

“Innovation” has become a buzzword in businesses the world over. It evokes images of tech bros playing foosball in the office, of millennials taking team calls through AirPods while on the treadmill, and of AI-enhanced systems that can solve problems better than humans. Certainly, a business keeping up with tech...

  I heard an apt soundbite from Tim Ferris on a recent podcast: ‘Your network is your net worth’, and for anyone contemplating starting a business, ‘who you know’ is always greater than ‘what you know’. “My main focus in 2010 was to give myself three months and then if...

The concept of the Internet of Things and Big Data has always intrigued Ashveer and Nivashnee Ramparsad, a husband and wife team that are so passionate about the world of technology and data-driven business. As founders of Smartee, they saw the need to invest themselves into this vision. During his...

Kingsley and his Foundation team have driven across the continent over hundreds of thousands of kilometres through all 54 countries over the last three decades, distributing mosquito bed nets and other much-needed healthcare relief to the remotest parts of the continent. Kingsley isn’t only inspired by adventure: he’s a humanitarian...

We at CTRL have a mission and vision for the future we want to create with everyone. We believe that robots of all shapes and sizes will be key to the physical automation revolution in every part of our society. CTRL Robotics was founded by three people determined to develop...

Established in 2010 as the incarnation of the South African venture capital division of ‘Here Be Dragons’ – a privately owned emerging market investment group founded by internet entrepreneur and cosmonaut Mark Shuttleworth. By leveraging knowledge, networks & funding, Knife Capital accelerates the international expansion of entrepreneurial businesses that achieved...

We are living in an era where hybrid and multi-cloud business environments are on an increase, and this has put the spotlight on the critical role ISVs play. Now is the time for Independent Software Vendors to capitalise on the great opportunities presented to them through assisting consumers to efficiently...

NxaTel is a Modern Unified communication platform for Small and Medium businesses that allows you to get local numbers from over 10+ African countries to use on any device. It’s easy to set up; you just need three minutes, and you gain access to the cloud phone system, virtual meetings,...

Kindness is the only thing that mattersSouth Africa’s news feeds are filled with hard news, stories of murder, corruption, robberies, and failing state-owned enterprises. Is there a space for good news – and do South Africans have an appetite for it? Brent Lindeque founded the Good Things Guy on 1...

FINCLUSION GROUP IS ENHANCING FINANCIAL INCLUSION IN AFRICA BY COMBINING A WORLD-CLASS PRODUCT OFFERING WITH TOP OF THE LINE CUSTOMER EXPERIENCES TO CATER FOR THE NEEDS OF THOSE TRADITIONALLY EXCLUDED FROM THE FORMAL FINANCIAL SECTOR. Finclusion Group is a diverse team of fintech professionals and entrepreneurs. They are passionate about...

Founded in 2017, by Melusi Tshabalala (creative professional, entrepreneur, author, speaker, humourist, language & culture activist), Everyday Speak is a culture, dialogue, language activism, advertising and design company. Driven by the ethos – Creativity can make the 21st century Africa’s century – Everyday Speak develops ideas and solutions that touch...

When Michelin star chef Jan Hendrik van der Westhuizen first laid eyes on Boscia House, a one-hundred-year-old farmhouse situated at the beautiful Tswalu Kalahari in the Northern Cape, he saw the vastness of the region as a canvas on which to create something special. Worlds away from the beautiful waters...

Intuitively Innovative Mediology is South Africa’s largest independent integrated media and digital marketing agency. Founded in a media-agency-sea-of-sameness, Mediology distinguished itself by harnessing the science of media planning, fusing it with insights and wrapping it around the big ideas that differentiate brands. Thereby enhancing brand stories and narratives by placing...

Before the COVID-19 pandemic, non-communicable diseases (NCDs) were already a priority on the global health agenda, responsible for 70% of deaths at a significant and escalating cost to the international economy. The pandemic has magnified the importance of addressing lifestyle-related risk: global research demonstrates that more than 50% of COVID-19...