Wednesday, November 20African Digital Business Magazine

Tag: technology in South Africa

South Africa News, Startups

Omnisient raises US$ 1.4m for global expansion

Secure data collaboration platform achieves second round of funding Omnisient, a secure data collaboration platform, has achieved its second raise this year totalling USD1.4 million. ”We have brought in visionary international investors – Technova, Grand Bay Ventures, Tahseen Consulting, and Kepple Africa Ventures – who will be key to supporting our expansion globally. Investec, Nedbank, and Compass – Omnisient’s three original investors – led the round, reflecting their confidence in our ability to innovate and grow. The data economy is at the heart of the digital transformation that many of our customers embraced a couple of years back and this has been accelerated by the global pandemic. We see a huge and largely unaddressed market opportunity.” said Jon Jacobson, Chief Executive Off...
South Africa News

Chatbots: The solution to SA’s service delivery woes?

Finance Minister Tito Mboweni recently said that communities and businesses are becoming increasingly intolerant of municipalities that can neither deliver basic services nor conduct their administration effectively[i]. With lack of employee capacity being one of the root causes of poor service delivery[ii], Kyle Oosthuizen, Chief Operating Officer at Blue Robot, believes that chatbots could be a solution. He says: “Chatbots offer municipalities a way to service more people faster, more efficiently and more cost-effectively. Anyone who has ever had to apply for anything from a municipal or government department such as a driver’s licence, grant or permit, would know how tedious it is to have to manually fill out forms, especially with some applications requiring duplicates. Chatbots could...
Medicine, South Africa News

Govt urged to embrace the power of tech in delivery of primary healthcare for all

Research released this week show the real potential that technology has in the effective delivery of primary healthcare services across South Africa. The research, says trans-disciplinary health consultancy Percept, should be used as a road map to better healthcare services for all in the country. “We looked at practical examples from across Africa and researched how other countries used technology in their specific environments. Our work shows that a lot can be achieved despite existing problems such as poor technological literacy, poor uptake of smartphone capabilities, or poor power supply,” says Shivani Ranchod, CEO of Percept. “We will be sharing our findings with key stakeholders in the health sector and hope that it will be valuable for their work to improve healthcare service deli...
African News, Events, Tech

Africa as a magnet for investors | Africa Tech Week 2021

The much anticipated Africa Tech Week summit took place on the 5th and 6th of May. Joined by phenomenal speakers and acclaimed sponsors, the event took off to new heights. In a panel discussion by Marian Croak, vice president of engineering at Google, and Lindiwe Matali founder and CEO of Africa Teen Geeks, the importance of mentorship for young girls and women was highlighted. Marian serves as an excellent mentor and departed sterling advice on achieving your goals in manageable steps at a time. Yemi Keri, CEO of Heckerbella and co-founder of Rising Tide Africa spoke on the reasons investment in Africa is a golden opportunity. Since the continent has the most youthful population in the world, and this young group behaves as the early adopters of tech, it makes for incredibly fertile groun...
Medicine, South Africa News, Startups

SA startup, AURA, on what it takes to go global

AURA, South Africa’s leading security and medical response platform, recently announced its expansion into Kenya, followed closely by a move into the UK where it aims to have over 10,000 users receiving the company’s service within seven months. Later this year, the startup will look at possible expansions in Mexico and Nigeria. Warren Myers, AURA’s CEO believes that South African startups can compete with the best in the world thanks to a focus on smart innovations that answer real-world issues. “The biggest problems in the world are starting to feel fixable for the first time in history. Many people are still unaware of just what will be achievable with hyperscale technology tools like AI, IoT, blockchain, and nanotechnology, among others,” notes Myers. He adds that startups have a uniq...
South Africa News, Tech

IITPSA announces 2020’s leading lights at virtual President’s Awards event

The Institute of Information Technology Professionals South Africa (IITPSA) capped an unusual year and its first ever virtual President’s Awards ceremony by naming joint winners of the Visionary CIO of the Year Award this week. Dr Stanley Mpofu, CIO of the University of the Witwatersrand, and Nomthi Nelwamondo, CIO of Assupol, were jointly recognised as 2020’s Visionary CIO of the Year for their professionalism and excellence, particularly during the challenges of 2020. Ntuthuko Shezi, serial entrepreneur and innovator, and founder of livestock investment platform Livestock Wealth, was named IT Personality of the Year for 2020. Girl Code, an NPO empowering young girls and women through technology, was named winner of the Social Responsibility/Community Award, and Andre Jacobs, Chief of Pro...
South Africa News

AI, automation the only option for SA

South Africa’s only option for addressing poverty and poor economic growth is to embrace 4IR technologies such as automation and Artificial Intelligence, to make the country more competitive. This is according to Prof. Tshilidzi Marwala, Vice-Chancellor and Principal at the University of Johannesburg and author of Closing the Gap: The Fourth Industrial Revolution in Africa, who addressed the Institute of Information Technology Professionals South Africa (IITPSA) Tabling Tech webinar hosted by Johan Steyn - IITPSA Chair: Special Interest Group – AI & Robotics; and Tony Parry - IITPSA CEO this week. In a highly engaging webinar, Prof. Marwala noted that despite concerns about people being displaced by automation, 4IR progress had to be made. “The future will be bleak indeed if South Afri...
Events, South Africa News, Tech

Top Tech Companies Driving Africa’s Growth – Africa Tech Week

On May 5th and 6th, Topco Media and partners will be presenting a robust networking experience aimed at kick-starting economic growth in Africa, using technology. Africa Tech Week is alive with gleaming opportunities to shape fruitful connections, forge clearer paths to digital transformation and inspire collective and personal growth. Enjoy the Inside Scoop from Top-Tech Companies Registered attendees gain access to the 2-day hybrid conference where they can enjoy the inside scoop from top-tech companies. Listen eagerly as renowned leaders including, Dr Marian Croak – vice president of engineering for Google USA, Abe Smith – international lead for Zoom USA and Ayodele Odusola – United Nations representative for South Africa unveil their winning formulas and “techs of the trade.” Redefinin...
South Africa News, Tech

Building a successful multicloud strategy unlocks IT business value

South Africa’s cloud market is showing good signs of growth and development as enterprise customers begin to take serious notice of multicloud and its benefits. As a result, it is imperative to develop and maintain a robust mutlicloud strategy that meets continuously evolving business demands. Andrew Cruise, managing director, Routed, a neutral cloud infrastructure provider, notes there are clear business benefits of pursuing a multicloud approach, including having a choice of best-in-class platforms to match a variety of business requirements and the ability to efficiently allocate scarce capital by utilising the operating cost model of cloud consumption. “However, some other no less important advantages of mutlicloud involve its potential to drive innovation, flexibility, and scalabil...
The Role Of Pick And Place Robots
South Africa News, Tech

The Role Of Pick And Place Robots

In years gone by, manufacturing processes consisted of a line of workers being solely responsible for all the material-handling functions. Whether it was assembly, picking or packaging, it was largely a manual, laborious process. The detrimental effects to the workers’ health have been well documented in the history books, as many employees were subjected to conditions that sometimes resulted in serious illness, injury, and even death. As automation became widely accepted and implemented throughout various industries, robotics took it one step further with robots designed for specific applications, such as handling, packaging and palletising. Suddenly, these new pick and place robots allowed for more speed and consistency in throughput, while being customisable to meet production requir...