T2S2

Is what you’re hearing really real? Deepfake videos have gotten a lot of attention (especially after it happened to Taylor Swift) but more troubling are deepfake audio recordings, Sergey Shykevich, threat intelligence group manager at Check Point Software Technologies, tells Stuff editor-in-chief Toby Shapshak. Read more on Stuff .

One of the most important new technologies in our renewable energy future is one you've probably never heard of. Called wheeling, it is the way that electricity is accounted for when you move it across the grid and you’re probably already using it, Open Access Energy founder Gerjo Hoffman tells Stuff editor-in-chief Toby Shapshak. Read more on  Stuff .

Most of South Africa's youth don’t watch a TV set. Why should they? They have a mobile entertainment console in their hands that can access the new form of television: streaming. Jason Probert, general manager for digital services for MTN South Africa, tells Stuff editor-in-chief Toby Shapshak how he is making it easier and more cost-effective. Read more on Stuff .

Before he sold his startup to Workday, MIT-trained Sayan Chakraborty worked at NASA’s famed Jet Propulsion Laboratory as an engineer on interplanetary spacecraft; and later on the early commercialisation of GPS. He has seen many new new things in a storied career, including as vice-president of software development at Oracle. As much as AI is a game-changer, he tells Stuff editor-in-chief Toby Sha...

For many millions, a mobile phone is their only computer and their only screen. Jason Lobel, MTN South Africa’s head of video, wants to get streaming services to those people, he tells Stuff editor-in-chief Toby Shapshak. Read more on Stuff .

PayShap is the biggest thing to happen in banking in South Africa, if it is done right, says TymeBank’s co-founder and group CEO Coen Jonker. The new rapid payment method is a “game changer” and the “key that will unlock the true digitisation of the cash economy,” he tells Stuff editor-in-chief Toby Shapshak. Read more on Stuff .

Instead of buying expensive textbooks, which learners are stuck with, what if you could “rent” them? Calling it a "Spotify for textbooks," this is the idea behind MTN’s new educational offering, MTN South Africa’s general manager of digital services Jason Probert tells says Stuff editor-in-chief Toby Shapshak. Joining them is Thabiet Allie, the head of new business development and who is...

Gaming is still a fundamental way us humans interact and hasn't always been on a high-tech console, MTN’s gaming geeks tell Stuff editor-in-chief Toby Shapshak. Veteran executive Jason Probert is general manager of digital services for MTN South Africa, while Bradly Kirby is senior specialist of eSports and gaming– and gamers themselves. Apart from this philosophical reminder, gaming is how we...

“Going solar” is the catch phrase of the year. Again. But how do you tell the shysters from the bone fide solar installers? And how do you get finance for an off-grid system? Also, without having to become an expert yourself, what exactly do you need? This is the what Hohm Energy does, providing a marketplace for finding providers and financiers, its head of business intelligence Matthew Cruise te...

South Africans are good at solving problems. With extreme load-shredding, we’ve started finding alternatives in true “n boer maak ‘n plan” style. From LED lightbulbs with built-in batteries to backup batteries for Wi-Fi routers, and a new category of small, but powerful, power stations, there are a range of new Eskom-induced technology. Several innovative South African companies have their own way...

With rolling blackouts hitting stage 6, insurance companies have stopped insuring against some Eskom-related claims. But, if your home solar system was installed by someone without the right certification and not registered with the correct authorities, that system isn’t insured. Nor is your house as a result, warns Chris Liebenberg, Elite Energy’s technical director. Going solar needs planning an...

Smartphones have taken over many other functions from other devices, including, most recently, most people’s wallets. Is the end of the credit card nigh, Stuff editor-in-chief Toby Shapshak asks Nedbank CIO Fred Swanepoel. After years of rapid progress, fuelled by the Covid lockdown, how we pay has changed, as has the ways banks themselves are operating. As ever, cybersecurity remains one of the b...

Not only has Shoprite won the first round of the app delivery wars, its quietly been offering banking to its customers. How did a grocer evolve into such a commanding position, to the point where it has a general manger of financial services, Stuff editor-in-chief Toby Shapshak asks Jean Olivier in this latest episode of T2S2’s fintech podcast series. Listen here to Shoprite X CEO Neil Schreuder t...

The newest frontier in the fight against cyber criminals is identity, Nedbank’s Vickus Meyer tells Stuff Studios editor-in-chief Toby Shapshak. As South Africa has gotten more fibre and faster speeds, criminals are finding new ways to hack into companies and personal accounts, requiring new ways of keeping yourself safe, including multifactor authentication, adds Alan Dewaal Smit, a security exper...

Covid-19 accelerated the way people use digital platforms to do the things we used to do in real life. As people upgraded their tech skills, it was also a boon for many companies. Mutsa Chironga, Nedbank’s consumer segment managing executive who is responsible for over 7-million individual clients in South Africa, discusses the way people’s financial habits have changed. Google South Africa’s head...

Changing consumer behaviour and a lack of storage means people are turning to so-called super apps like Nedbank’s Avo and Moya.app. There apps provide more than one service – including messaging, news and a marketplace – and are increasingly popular. Lentell discusses how Moya.app has grown to 10m customers, while Maharaj tells Stuff Studios editor-in-chief Toby Shapshak about is the first super a...

Now that our smartphones have become the centre of our lives, the way we pay for things has completely changed. I was in New York in May and London in August and used my phone to pay for everything – as I have done for the last year at home. Nedbank’s executive for emerging innovations Chipo Mushwana and Payments Association of SA CEO Ghita Erling tell Stuff Studios editor-in-chief Toby Shapshak a...

For a time, FedGroup's investment app was the top downloaded app in South Africa. When it launched it was a revolutionary way of investing in bee hives and raspberries. It also epitomised how FedGroup itself operates, and now its amicable CEO Grant Field is following his passion and trying to fish plastic out of South Africa’s rivers. He spoke to Stuff Studios editor-in-chief Toby Shapshak. Read m...

How did a bullied introverted Pretoria schoolboy become the world’s richest person and arguably humanity’s greatest change agent? Michael Vlismas, who went to the same school, has produced an extensively researched biography that does a great job of unwrapping Elon Musk’s remarkable life story. He tells Stuff Studios editor-in-chief Toby Shapshak about writing the first South African biography abo...

After convincing South Africans to be healthier through its Vitality programme, Discovery took this shared-value incentivisation idea to car insurance. The better you drive, the less insurance you pay – and fewer accidents happen. This highly-successful Vitality Drive telematics has already been exported to the UK, and is now being launched in Saudi Arabia. Discovery Insure deputy CEO Francois The...

Having successfully launched in South Africa, and with an imminent launch in the Philippines, TymeBank is looking for further international expansion. Current SA CEO Tauriq Keeran tells Stuff Studios editor-in-chief Toby Shapshak about his transition into group executive for growth projects. Read more on Stuff .

Co-founder and CEO Katlego Maphai launched Yoco with three friends in October 2015. From a year-long beta with 500 merchants, they are now adding 10,000 new merchants a month. He tells Stuff Studio’s editor-in-chief Toby Shapshak about the phenomenal rise of this remarkable mobile payments business, that has now evolved into a payments platform. Read more on Stuff Studios .

Max Cuvellier’s not-insubstantial day job is head of mobile for development for the GSMA. But that’s not what he’s talking to Stuff Studio’s editor-in-chief Toby Shapshak about. His also not-insubstantial side-jig is a data newsletter called Africa: The Big Deal , which he runs with his good friend Maxime Bayen. This “one graph, one paragraph” weekly newsletter has tracked how fintech has exploded...

In 2015 Disrupt Africa began publishing its annual African Tech Startups Funding Report . Since then says Disrupt co-founder Tom Jackson, African tech startups have seen investments increase by 351% and culminating in a record $2bn in 2021. Half of that “incredible growth” was invested in fintechs, Jackson tells Stuff Studio’s editor-in-chief Toby Shapshak. A total of 564 startups raised a $2,148,...

Netstock.co is the biggest new thing you’ve never heard of. This innovative South African company, which was bought in 2020 to a US private equity firm, provides data science analytics to small businesses to manage their inventory. Amazingly, Netstocks’ acquisition came just as the global supply chain was hit by Covid-19 lockdowns, making this service even more essential. It took over a decade to...