Category Archives: South Africa News

South Africa News

2021: The year of the online payment

As the world moved indoors two years ago, the online payment space flourished. These are the biggest developments in 2021, and a brief look ahead. This year, South Africans embraced e-commerce, mobile commerce and digital payments like never before – all four major banks have seen massive increases in these payment methods since the start of the […]

Rethinking the norm in the built environment

Hanife Ymer, Head of Sustainability at JLL (Middle East and Africa) joined the Tétris Design and Build South Africa team at the Annual GBCSA Green Building Convention in Cape Town in November to give a talk on ‘How Sustainability is the Now, not the Later’. These are her thoughts. This year’s COP26 – the United […]

South African Proptech Flow Expands Reach Into Australia

API platform connecting real estate agents and social media users leverages significant growth on the continent to target global property market Flow, a proptech startup that enables real estate agents and developers to seamlessly advertise properties on social media, has announced that following consolidated growth in South Africa the company is launching in Australia. Flow’s […]

Internal fraud – who commits it and why

International Fraud Awareness Week is taking place from 14-20 November, highlighting an increasing problem that organisations around the world are facing. According to the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE), businesses lose around 5% of their annual revenue globally due to fraudulent behaviour, which experts estimate amounts to a total annual loss around the world […]

South African Companies Offer Value Compared To Overseas Counterparts

Heineken’s proposed R40.1 billion offer for Distell is the latest in a series of notable bids for large South African businesses. This follows DP World’s recent proposed R12.7 billion offer for Imperial Logistics and PepsiCo’s R26 billion acquisition of Pioneer Foods in 2020. A key driver for all three deals is using the local companies […]

Water-Saving Toilet Manufacturer Propelair® Advances With New Partner In Key South African Market

 Propelair®, the UK designer and manufacturer of the world’s lowest-water-flush toilet, is making big strides in South Africa as the country continues to urge organisations to conserve water and use it more efficiently, reduce carbon emissions and promote hygiene. Having launched in South Africa in 2019, Propelair has now entered into a distribution agreement with Amalooloo, […]

Global Cities Report – Five strategic imperatives for city leaders

Last year’s edition of the Kearney Annual Global Cities report provided a revealing overview of urban centres amid the unprecedented public health catastrophe of the COVID-19 outbreak. A stark snapshot was painted of a volatile, increasingly fragmented environment characterized by fierce competition among cities for status, a situation acutely exacerbated by the coronavirus pandemic. “The […]

How software decisions can reduce business costs

By: Marilyn Moodley – Country Leader for South Africa and WECA (West, East, Central Africa) at SoftwareONE The IDC forecasts that South Africa’s IT spend will be $12.78 billion (R197 billion) in 2021, an increase of 5.2% over the previous year. One of the biggest contributors to this figure is software and cloud spend, which has grown exponentially since […]

Harnessing the global potential of SA’s growing youth talent pool

With the South African employment rate forecast to reach 43% by 2023, the focus has turned to leveraging the country’s strengths on a global level to provide multinationals with a hiring pool that is young, talented, willing to learn, and more cost-effective than what other markets can offer. This is according to Business Process Enabling […]

Navigating a hybrid work environment – how can businesses remain secure?

By Quentyn Taylor, Director of Information Security at Canon for Europe, Middle East and Africa A central office has typically been most business’s default working location, but the role of the office has significantly changed over the last year. Today, over 90% of organisations say they’ll allow employees to work remotely, at least part of […]

How a Hipster, a Hacker, and a Hustler built a booming business

Lessons from the insurtech start-up that caught the eye of industry giants While November has always been synonymous with National Entrepreneurship Month, you’d be forgiven for wondering if it’s really necessary to dedicate 30 days to encouraging the entrepreneurial spirit, when it seems that just about everyone aspires to be coffee-guzzling, always-hustling, meme-inspiring business owner nowadays. Yet, as any […]

Getting SA’s Social Entrepreneurs Investment Ready

The impact investing market now stands at around US$715 billion globally and this figure is climbing steadily[i].What’s more, 43% of impact investors have funds allocated to Africa, with 52% of investors planning to increase their African investment over the next five years[ii]. With South Africa being the largest market for impact investing within Southern Africa[iii], […]

AfricArena, the leading tech ecosystem accelerator programme, concludes its 2021 event circuit in Cape Town with a bang

AfricArena, which provides open innovation challenges, research and dealflow services to help accelerate the work of founders, investors and corporates, hosted its fifth annual Summit from 16 – 17 November in Cape Town. It was preceded by its Founders’ Bootcamp and VC Unconference Weekends, attended by 60 high level international investors and 40 startups from […]

How to get started with trading in South Africa?

The foreign currency market may be speculated on legally and profitably in South Africa via the use of forex trading.  Predicting price changes in currency pairings may be lucrative for South African Forex traders. The volatility of the foreign exchange market enables certain traders to make huge gains, with some even making millions of dollars. […]

AURA, SA’s leading emergency marketplace, secures R62 million Series A funding deal (more than USD 4 mln)

AURA, the leading African-based security and medical response marketplace, has secured R62 million in a Series A funding round, which was led by  MultiChoice Group (MCG), KLT Holdings and Buffet Investments. This positions AURA favourably for its global expansion plans. AURA is a marketplace that enables anyone to access the closest vetted private and public security and […]

Growing Africa’s Next Generation of Unicorns

In 2020 and 2021, the African continent spawned more unicorns than ever before with at least eight companies now being valued at more than one billion dollars by investors. To keep the momentum going in 2022, Pranary (formerly Startup Circles), will be kicking off its Business Growth Week from Monday, the 15th of November 2021. This is a free […]

Vote for Stellenbosch’s Smartest City Solutions: Finalists announced in Stellenbosch Network’s second annual #IdeasForChange Challenge

For the past few weeks, Stellenbosch’s best and brightest minds have been pitching their novel ideas to turn Stellenbosch into a ‘Smarter City’ as part of the second annual #IdeasForChange Challenge. After much deliberation, the judges have announced their top three finalists who will now be entered into a poll on social media and vie […]

Africa: COMESA Competition Commission publishes draft guidelines on penalty, settlement and hearing procedures

By Lerisha Naidu, Partner, Sphesihle Nxumalo, Associate, and Zareenah Rasool, Candidate Attorney, Competition & Antitrust Practice, Baker McKenzie Johannesburg The COMESA Competition Commission (Commission) published draft guidelines to the COMESA Competition Regulations, 2004 (Regulations) for public comment on 19 October 2021. The guidelines aim to provide clarity on the Commission’s policies and procedures, and to […]

It’s About The Business, Not The Box — Tips For How To Sell More Effectively To Graphic Arts Customers

Ben Gossage, is the Sales and Marketing Director, Canon Central and North Africa. For every business in every industry, the future is uncertain. At times like this it’s tempting to do nothing and wait for circumstances to become clearer. Tempting, but dangerous, because you need to explore new revenue opportunities, to widen your customer base […]

Only 20% of companies reported not getting attacked in 2021 compared to 32% in 2020

Acronis, the global leader in cyber protection, has released its annual Cyber Readiness Report, providing a comprehensive overview of the modern cybersecurity landscape and the key pain points faced by businesses and remote employees worldwide amid the global pandemic. Acronis’ research from last year revealed more than 80% of global companies admitted they were not prepared […]

SA’s Social Entrepreneurs Need Support to Succeed

South Africa’s 141,500 social entrepreneurs are both solving the country’s most pressing problems and contributing to the economy in the process, with the creation of nearly 600,000 jobs and an estimated 76,000 more by 2030[i]. Sadly, however, approximately 70% say they struggle to raise funding due to a lack of networks[ii] and40% don’t even know […]

Gaia Africa Climate Fund selected by the ICFA Luxembourg to be accelerated

Cape Town, South Africa: The Gaia Africa Climate Fund has been selected as one of five funds to be accelerated by the International Climate Finance Accelerator in Luxembourg (ICFA). Being selected by the ICFA entails that the Gaia Africa Climate Fund – which was launched in July 2021 – will benefit from a financial award, […]