Denis Opudo
The spirit of entrepreneurship and independence is good, entrepreneur South Africa here gives 15 individuals to watch out. These individuals play major roles in technology startups that operate in South Africa.
Lindiwe Zulu
Lindiwe promised during her budget vote speech in May 2017 that her department will develop a roadmap to promote and grow the small business sector. The details of the roadmap have not yet come out. In December 2017 Lindiwe reported on the progress of the department.
Vinny Lingham
Vinny is the founder of Civic Vinny Lingham and Silicon Valley-based entrepreneur majors mainly on cryptocurrency.
Naledi Pandor
Pandor is the minister of Science and technology and is working out on the ways to promote innovation using fewer budgets. However, nothing much has been carried out to overall a research and development (R&D). There are still hopes because a seed fund under the Technology Innovation Agency (TIA) is growing.
Patrick Schofield
Patrick is the founder of Thundafund Uprise.Africa which is a donation crowdfunding platform founded in 2013. In 2017 he spearheaded in the launching of South African’s first equity platform.
Llew Claasen
Llew is the head of Bitcoin Foundation. At the same time, he operates venture capital (VC) company Newtown Partners in partnership with Vinny Lingham. He is a renowned expert in the cryptocurrency field.
Ian Merrington
Ian is the CEO of The Cape Innovation and Technology Initiative (CiTi) and The Bandwidth Barn, a non-profit organization which develops technical skills and job readiness program.
Vuyisa Qabaka
Qabaka is a frequent attendant of local tech startup events. He operates Entrepreneur Traction and also takes parts in the running one of South Africa’s first equity crowdfunding platforms, Uprise.Africa in partnership with Patrick Schofield.
Matsi Modise
Matsi is the managing director of entrepreneurship lobby group Simodisa; she is also a keen commentator on the tech startup sector. Simodisa launched a web portal aimed at unifying the entrepreneurship ecosystem in 2017.
Keet van Zyl
Keet is the co-founder of Knife Capital which is a Cape Town venture capital. His VC fund launched London office with Springbok rugby star Bob Skinstad and made its first investment, in a Swedish startup in 2017.
Andy Volk
Andy has kept a very low profile when it comes to his participation in the tech world. However, Volk is the man at Google who developed the idea of the company’s Launchpad Africa program. The first cohort will begin in 2018.
Llew Morkel
Morkel is the Prosperiprop founder of property fintech and is one of the first SA entrepreneurs to run initial coin offering (ICO). The company was opened after learning some crucial lessons.
McLean Sibanda
McLean is the CEO of the Pretoria based Innovation Hub, which is funded by the Tshwane metro.
Justus Stanford
Justus is the founder of 4Di capital which is venture capital.
Ellen Fischart
Ellen is the head of Silicon Cape in Cape Town. In 2017 the startup pledged to help make the city’s ecosystem more inclusive with a good number of young populations.
