Tech Aways Podcast

Angel investing is becoming one of the most important building blocks of Africa’s startup ecosystem, but it remains one of the least understood. On this episode of the Tech Aways Podcast, Thaheer Mullins, Founding Director at African Angels Guild, unpacks how angel investors think, how syndicates are changing the way early-stage companies raise capital, and why founders should stop assuming ventur...

The interview reinforces a point that often gets overlooked in discussions about African venture capital: the problem is not necessarily a lack of investors, but a lack of investors willing to fund startups caught between grant funding and Series A. That is the real story here, and it’s stronger than simply announcing a new fund. South African venture capital firm Aions Ventures believes one of th...

When most companies think about market research, they think of email surveys, focus groups, and online questionnaires. For Tim Treagus, co-founder and CEO of Yazi, the answer was hiding in plain sight: WhatsApp. On this episode of the Tech Aways Podcast, Treagus shared how Yazi has built a research platform that allows businesses to conduct surveys, AI-moderated interviews, and longitudinal studie...

South Africa’s startup ecosystem often talks about funding as its biggest challenge, but according to Renier Kriel, founder of The Open Letter, visibility may be just as important. Kriel reflected on how a personal frustration with the lack of meaningful local technology and business coverage led him to launch The Open Letter nearly four years ago. Having previously built and exited a technology a...

When Yoco processed its first transaction more than a decade ago, the startup had a simple mission: help South African small businesses accept card payments. Today, that mission has expanded far beyond payments. According to Yoco Chief Product Officer Lungisa Matshoba, the company now sees itself less as a payments provider and more as a technology platform designed to help small businesses run, g...

Jesaya Hano-Oshike: How this $10 million fund plans to back Southern Africa’s innovators For years, Southern Africa’s startup ecosystem has found itself stuck in an uncomfortable position. The region has no shortage of entrepreneurs building interesting businesses, yet very little venture capital flows into markets outside South Africa. Jesaya Hano-Oshike, Managing Director of Bellatrix Investment...

For years, most African venture capital has flowed into the continent’s biggest startup ecosystems — Nigeria, Kenya, Egypt, and South Africa. Southern Africa’s smaller markets have largely been overlooked. But according to Florence Bavanandan, general partner of the Botswana Tech Fund, that is exactly where the opportunity lies. Bavanandan described the fund’s strategy as a “contrarian thesis” foc...

Africa’s push toward deeper regional trade integration continues to run into a stubborn obstacle: moving money across the continent remains slow, fragmented, and expensive. Despite years of fintech innovation and billions of dollars flowing into African startups, cross-border payments across Africa are still heavily dependent on foreign currencies, fragmented regulatory systems, and infrastructure...

For years, journalism has had a love-hate relationship with technology. First came social media, then podcasts, and now AI, each wave bringing both opportunity and disruption. The rise of content creators and independent publishers has broken traditional media monopolies, giving audiences more voices and perspectives than ever before. But it has also created misinformation, audience fragmentation,...

What synergies can 87 startups, scaleups, VCs and corporates explore when housed under the same roof? That is exactly the kind of sandbox experiment that is going on at 8 Darter Road, Gardens, Cape Town, the home of Innovation City. Founded by Stephan Ekbergh and Kieno Kammies in November 2021, the hub’s business enablement model has proved to be a hit, as shown by the tenants who currently call I...

In computer network design, a supernode refers to a highly capable node in a peer-to-peer (P2P) network that acts as a central hub, relay, or proxy server for ordinary, less-capable nodes. If there is one analogy to describe Will Green’s role in South Africa’s tech startup ecosystem, it would be exactly that—a supernode. From running one of the country’s most efficient accelerators and helping wet...

There is a convergence that is happening in Africa’s banking ecosystem. Banks, which were originally seen as the subjects of disruption driven by the emergence of digital assets such as cryptocurrencies, stablecoins and tokenised assets, are embracing them. Traditional finance and decentralised finance, once thought to be sworn enemies, are forming new use cases which are addressing some longstand...

Zachariah George is a lot of things. He is a guitarist, pianist and vocalist, has been to over a hundred countries, holds a Stanford MBA and is a member of MENSA, meaning he has an IQ score at or above the 98th percentile. In Africa’s tech startup ecosystem, Zach is known as the managing founder of Launch Africa Ventures, one of the most prolific early-stage VC investment firms on the continent. H...

What does it take to take the leap from a manager role at one of the biggest technology companies in the world to founding an AI startup? According to Kevin Kissi, it takes a belief that what starts as just an idea can change the world. Hailing from Ghana, Kevin has pivoted his career from mechanical engineering to software engineering, swapping CAD-rendered designs for writing code. Through Zof A...

A fortnight ago, Showmax, which for the last ten-plus years had been pan-African broadcaster Multichoice’s answer to the arrival of global streaming platforms on the continent, shut down. Canal+, Multichoice’s parent company, pointed to the streaming platform’s not-so-pretty financials as the reason for pulling the plug. With Showmax gone, which was the closest Africa-born competitor to Netflix at...

As Africa tries to catch up to the world in adopting emerging technologies such as AI, the importance of digital infrastructure cannot be overstated enough. Data centres are at the forefront of this infrastructure, providing the requisite environment to build out application layers, resources such as fintech apps and e-commerce platforms. In this episode, Hlumelo Fungile, Chief Commercial Officer...

Why did TymeBank rebrand to GoTyme? A few weeks ago, South African digital bank TymeBank announced a rebrand from its widely recognised yellow-and-black brand to “GoTyme”, featuring a Tiffany blue and charcoal black colour palette. But beyond the change in logos and colours is a much broader view of the bank’s service provision, which is now more globally oriented for a natively South African bank...

How has South Africa’s venture capital landscape changed from the time Mark Shuttleworth sold Thawte to Verisign, up to now? One person who is well placed to answer this question is Keet van Zyl, co-founder and managing partner at Knife Capital. Having cut his teeth in VC at Shuttleworth’s family office, Here Be Dragons, Keet went on to found Knife Capital, which has since evolved into one of the...

Early-stage startup founders in South Africa face various challenges, including a lack of capital, struggling to achieve product-market fit, and even loneliness. In 2022, after he himself faced similar challenges when building his early-stage venture, Mathew Marsden founded Startup Club ZA. The community, which comprises in-person events, awards, and now a platform to enable ecosystem stakeholders...

Why do black tech startup founders get disproportionately less funding than their white counterparts in South Africa? It is a question that has faced the ecosystem for years, but one that is yet to be addressed or even discussed in the mainstream via LinkedIn or at ecosystem events. But Ntsako Mgiba, founder and CEO of the Darkies in Tech community, is actively working to change that. Founded in F...

For most companies, cybersecurity is not something that is discussed at the board level, but is often relegated to underfunded and underequipped IT teams. This is even though a serious cyberbreach could have detrimental financial and operational consequences. In this conversation with Tony, he outlines the findings from ESET’s latest H2 2025 Threat Report, which flagged phishing as the most promin...

How do you run a business when you are under investigation by South Africa’s Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA) for two years? This was the predicament faced by South African agritech startup Livestock Wealth when it became the subject of an investigation by the FSCA in January 2024. Two years later, according to Livestock Wealth CEO Ntuthuko Shezi, the investigation has completed with a po...

How much equity should you allocate to a co-founder and first hires? Is it easier to build a B2B or B2C startup in South Africa? Should you be trying raise from local or international investors? Is an IPO a realistic path to exit in South Africa? There are some of the questions that founders ask themselves every day as they navigate the complexities of building a venture-scalable company in South...

As we get 2026 fully underway, which startups in South Africa should you have an eye on as an ecosystem stakeholder? Stephen Timm wrote about six startups he will be keeping an eye on and joins the podcast to explain his selection. Some of what we discussed: * The rationale for picking the startups * Which SA tech startup hub is the most exciting * Why SA startups looking at external markets for g...

What were some of the biggest tech stories in South Africa in 2025, and what does 2026 have in store? The brilliant Lindsey Schutters breaks it all down. What you can expect: * Starlink’s licensing fiasco in South Africa * The digital bank battle royale and how it will evolve * The scramble for stablecoins Read Lindsey’s reporting here and connect with him on Linkedi n. This is a public episode. I...