INNOVATE™ South Africa

“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...

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...

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...

Global e-Talent Pty Ltd (GeT) is a young Sandton, Johannesburg-based talent search, placement, and onboarding firm. It partners with both private and public organisations, to meet their talent acquisition needs and that such talent is adequately integrated into their business. Behind the conventional recruitment agency, behind it sits a very...

Shout-It-Now (Shout) is an innovative social enterprise, empowering youth to own their sexuality. We concentrate on hard to reach communities; we go to the places where they are, provide services they want, in such a way that they choose to keep coming back. We are a local South African organisation...

By leveraging the natural generosity inherent in maker culture, the project is able to unlock a new level of efficiency in skills transfer. Creating a safe environment where anyone can learn to use new technologies, where experienced professionals can share their knowledge and help the next generation. Makers” make things,...

Mahlako a Phahla, founded by sisters Makole Mupita and Meta Mhlarhi, is named after our mother Mahlako to pay homage to her pioneering and entrepreneurial spirit in building a successful family business at a time when it was difficult for many black people to do so.   Mahlako is an...

SnapScan is more than just a smartphone app. It’s a contactless, mobile payment solution that makes it easy and safe to pay and receive payments in a store, online, at home, and on the go.   Our storyFounded in 2013, SnapScan gained traction at markets and coffee shops in Stellenbosch....

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...

Gabi Lowe and Pippa Shaper are Certified Life Coaches – experts in creating and teaching Authentic Resilience. Their mission is to train people to learn the tools and skills of authentic resilience, to recover from difficulties; to equip them with strategies to endure and overcome life’s challenges with a sustainable...

“Nineteen years ago, Gary Harwood and I were assigned to a project in Lagos, Nigeria, by the large multinational for which we were working. On the evening of the first day of the project, we sat in the hotel bar enjoying an ice-cold local beer and wondered, what on Earth...

In a world where data has become the currency of our supposed future resulting in valuations of businesses from zero to billions within a relatively short while, you need to ask yourself this question; How am I benefitting from the data-sets I have in my business, if at all? And...

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...

Rugby isn’t the same as it was 20, or even 10, years ago. COVID-19 had also left a profound impact on sport. Such are the changes that the Sharks’ competition isn’t always facing them on the rugby pitch on Saturday afternoons. Instead, this team competes against other industries and entertainment...

Technology is to the world as oxygen is to the blood. The world through its people and systems have become immersed in technology, in some form or other, by virtue of its enablement and efficiency. The path forward is predicated upon greater complexity due to converging technologies and an increased...

Birthed from humble beginnings within the Eastern Cape, Dynamic Brands Manufacturing (Pty) Ltd began its journey when current CEO, John Kew, identified a unique gap in the dilutable dairy blend market. Like many great entrepreneurial minds before him, John believed in the power of ideas that at first may not...

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...

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...

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...

In 1993, the first GSM Networks were installed in Africa opening the door to exciting new business opportunities in the telecommunications sector. 4C Group’s journey began a decade later when our pioneering founder, Rudolph Du Plessis, combined his extensive on the ground experience in information technology with a desire to...