Tag: South Africa

Recruitment startup Giraffe acquired by Harambee Youth Employment Accelerator

Frank

SOUTH AFRICA – Mobile recruitment platform Giraffe has been acquired by the Harambee Youth Employment Accelerator, with the start-up’s existing base of jobseekers and employers to be invited to join the South Africa Youth Initiative. Founded in 2015, Giraffe is a fully automated, low-cost recruitment agency service operating across South Africa and focusing on medium-skilled jobs such as call centre, field sales, customer service and retail. The start-up’s mobile app enables jobseekers to make a CV on their phone for free, take educational courses and apply for jobs, and is zero-rated on…

Read More

America’s FM:Systems acquires South Africa’s visitor management startup WizzPass

Frank

SOUTH AFRICA –  FM:Systems, a dominant provider of digital workplace solutions globally, has announced that it has acquired WizzPass, a rapidly growing leader in the visitor management system and workplace management market. Used and trusted by leading companies across multiple continents, the WizzPass system is efficient, easy to use and can be configured to suit any facility or organization. Founded in 2015 and based in Johannesburg, WizzPass focuses on improving the often manual and insecure processes and systems involved with traditional facility visitor management and its visitor management system revolutionises the experience, security,…

Read More

Dimension Data founder Jeremy Ord quits alongside other executives

Frank

SOUTH AFRICA – Information technology services company Dimension Data founder and executive chairman Jeremy Ord is leaving the company he founded 38 years ago. Other executives that are also leaving the systems integrator are understood to be Saki Missaikos, chief strategy officer, and Steve Nathan, chief corporate finance officer. Pearl Mngomezulu, Dimension Data head of communications for the Middle East and Africa (MEA) region, told ITWeb: “I can confirm that several executive leaders have chosen to pursue interests outside of the business and will be leaving us at the end…

Read More

Fintech Finch Technologies takes up majority stake in FundingHub to boost SME funding

Frank

SOUTH AFRICA – Cape Town-based fintech Finch Technologies has “significantly” upped its investment in finance marketplace FundingHub inorder to boost Small and Medium Enterprises funding, the company has announced. In a statement, Finch Technologies says its investment will see it become the majority shareholder in FundingHub. “We made a second investment in FundingHub, due to its dramatic growth over the past 18 months,” states Michael Bowren, Finch Technologies Chief Executive Officer. “We are confident about the ongoing expansion of this business. We are particularly interested in investing in technology-driven businesses that…

Read More

Delta Airlines resumes Atlanta-Johannesburg operations

Frank

SOUTH AFRICA – Delta Airlines has announced the resumption of its direct flight from Johannesburg to Atlanta, US, bringing relief to international travelers in spite of the doubts about the benefits to South Africa’s aviation industry. Delta said in a statement that it would resume the non-stop service between Atlanta and Joburg on August 1 to all pre-Covid Africa markets, including Accra in Ghana, Dakar in Senegal and Lagos in Nigeria. Delta said the Johannesburg flights would operate using the Airbus A350-900, marking the debut of one of Delta’s newest…

Read More

BioTherm Energy rebrands as BTE Renewables with a focus on the future

Frank

SOUTH AFRICA – Africa’s leading renewable energy development platform BioTherm Energy has rebranded as BTE Renewables as it focuses on the future. BTE Renewables then known as BioTherm Energy, was acquired by Actis, a global impact investor, in August 2019 with the intention of becoming the leading renewable energy development platform and independent power producer on the African continent. Strategic business positioning sessions galvanised their intentions and facilitated the alignment of the leadership team around their mission with an aim to responsibly deliver renewable energy to the people of Africa,…

Read More

Bayer to expand further into Southern Africa region as it celebrates 100 years

Frank

SOUTH AFRICA –  German multinational pharmaceutical and life sciences company group Bayer is set for further expansion in Southern African as it celebrates 100 years of operations in the country, capped by a vibrant performance even in the Covid-19 lockdown period. The group enthused recently that it ended a turbulent 2020 by celebrating 100 years in South Africa, a century in which its operations across agriculture, pharmaceutical and consumer health have grown substantially. “This South African operation leads the market sales across all three business units on the continent and…

Read More

PE firm Adenia acquires leading electrical and solar equipment distributor Herholdt’s

Frank

SOUTH AFRICA – Adenia Partners, a private equity firm investing in Africa, has acquired a majority stake in Herholdt’s, a leading distributor of low-voltage electrical products and solar products in South Africa. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed. Established in 1964, Herholdt’s operates in Bloemfontein, Kimberley and George, and has recently opened branches in Johannesburg and Cape Town.  Herholdt’s supplies a broad product portfolio of 10,000+ items to professionals such as installers, contractors and resellers as well as end-users. Herholdt’s originally focused on the sale of electrical equipment…

Read More

Vodacom unveils lofty fiber, fintech, IOT investment plans as it entrenches itself as a tech company

Frank

SOUTH AFRICA – Mobile communication company Vodacom is fortifying its business model, scaling up fibre, financial services, Internet of things (IOT) and network expansion plans in a bid to become the dominant telco in all its markets. The telco says it remains focused on entrenching Vodacom as a top Pan-African technology company through investments in these sectors to augment its relationships with the 100 million plus customers it serves across Africa. The intensified desire to pursue opportunities in fibre, financial services and IOT comes at a time the telco is transitioning into…

Read More

CDC Group commits US$50m to 100MW renewable power project in South Africa

Frank

SOUTH AFRICA – CDC Group, the UK’s development finance institution (DFI) and impact investor, has announced a US$50 million project finance direct debt investment to ACWA Power’s Redstone Concentrated Solar Power Project in South Africa. The investment marks CDC’s re-entry into the South African market in direct investment. The project will provide 200,000 South African households with clean and reliable energy and help to offset approximately 480,000 tons of carbon per year, equivalent to the per capita emissions of 67,000 South Africans. CDC has partnered AfDB, FMO, DEG and DBSA…

Read More