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...

OUR CULTUREAs an organization, our modus operandi is fashioned around the concept of the Adinkra symbol from Ghana, ‘Nkonsonkonson’ also known as Chain link. A symbol of unity and human relations. A reminder that in unity lies strength. Flows into the Ubuntu philosophy from southern Africa, where the word means...

FOUNDED IN 2008 IN MARYLAND WASHINGTON DC, 2U, INC. SET OUT TO CREATE THE WORLD’S BEST ONLINE EDUCATION AND THEY’VE BEEN DEFYING THE ODDS EVER SINCE. ALSO AROUND THE EXACT SAME TIME AND COINCIDING WITH THE BEGINNING OF THE MOOC REVOLUTION, GETSMARTER WAS ALSO FOUNDED. Early on in the industry,...

It all began with a visit to the Masiphumelele township in Cape Town, in 1999, when John and Carol Thompson from the US, were holidaying in South Africa, and ventured inside what was previously known as ‘’Site 5’’. Like most townships in South Africa, Masi (short for Masiphumelele) was established...

The world is woke… going back to our roots. The new buzzword is #gogreen in terms of health and wellness.   And we’ve been fortunate and blessed with the opportunity of being a part of this new era, introducing and promoting Le Afrika sustainably sourced 100% natural products with their...

As businesses go, restaurants aren’t for the faint of heart. The hospitality industry is one of cutthroat competition. This industry demands discipline, dedication, constant innovation, passion, opportunity, and perseverance from restaurateurs, managers, kitchen staff, and front-of-house staff. Creating fine-dining cuisine is as much an art form as it is the science...

What began as an unfurnished open space on the fourth floor of The Hudson Building in De Waterkant, Cape Town, with 13 people in 2010, is today a growing agency with over 250 talented, creative and diverse people, across a Cape Town and Johannesburg campus, and an agency that has...

  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...

Bank Zero is a unique and powerful App-based bank with Zero fees and a patented secure card. It caters for both individuals and businesses. Digital, social and financial connectedness is a reality and it’s also a very human trait. Bank Zero supports this directly in its innovative design. By friending...

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...

WITH A MANDATE TO FINANCE, DEVELOP AND MAINTAIN THE NATIONAL ROAD NETWORK OF OVER 22 000 KM, SANRAL LEADS THE WAY ON INFRASTRUCTURE DEVELOPMENT IN A POST-COVID SOUTH AFRICA.   Innovation is at the forefront of SANRAL’s agenda in the infrastructure development space. In recent years the Agency has increasingly...

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...

Boomplaats has been in the same family for over a century, nestled in the Maluti Mountains in the south-eastern Free State. This is South Africa’s only certified organic cattle, sheep, and pasture-raised pig farm. Regenerative farming isn’t a new agricultural method. This was the traditional farming way in previous centuries...

Having placed climate change at the centre of our strategy, Sasol has committed to bold targets that will enable South Africa’s nationally determined contribution (NDC) by reducing our emissions by 30% by 2030 and achieving Net Zero by 2050. The innovative commercialisation of Hydrogen is a core lever in enabling...

The hardy spekboom is considered a pioneer species within the Karoo thicket biome. This means that the plant itself can assist in the regeneration of the indigenous brush, with many other species benefitting from its shade and the nutrients it brings into the soil. As a succulent, spekboom is the...

In order to ensure this is successful, the South African-based educators also teach learners’ parents and their teachers too, as well as mental health professionals, helping to bridge the technological divide and provide the much-needed insights and tools to navigate a complex social landscape.   “The more we do that,...

Rachel and Siya Kolisi founded the Kolisi Foundation with this belief in mind: it is through the power of listening that positive change can happen in South Africa. We need to listen to what people dealing with challenging circumstances really need. We need to listen to the people already working...

FLOW IS DEMOCRATISING THE REAL ESTATE INDUSTRY’S ARCHAIC OPERATING MODEL FOR AGENTS, EMPOWERING THEM IN A DIGITAL WORLD AND GIVING BUYER, SELLER AND AGENT THE BENEFIT OF A BETTER, MORE TRANSPARENT AND COST-EFFECTIVE PROCESS. THE FACE OF TECHNOLOGY CAN STILL BE HUMAN – AND FLOW MAKES SURE THAT ESTATE AGENTS...

Let’s start at the beginningBack in 2009, Programmatic ad buying was in its infancy locally, despite its success being celebrated internationally. This spurred on the birth of Mark1, a company that would go on to pioneer technology and data-driven media buying in the South African market. Fast forward to 2020,...

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...

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...