South Africa’s top tech innovators
South Africa’s digital presence is fast becoming one of the most influential in not only the continent, but the world. With all the social, economic and political benefits that can be realised by utilising technology, it’s important to know which individuals/organisations are leading the charge to make SA the high-tech powerhouse that it needs to be.
We here at Techtron have put together a list of the top 10 Tech innovators in South Africa. They are pushing the boundaries and redefining their respective markets of technology, best defined by the newly coined term, “gamechangers”.
This is the criteria we used to rank all the participants and to put the list together.
- The originality of the concept
- Effectiveness of programmes/application/services
- Impression on the market/community
NB: This list was made with information available from www.itweb.co.za, www.iol.co.za and www.broadband.co.za.
So here are your top 10 tech innovators in South Africa by Techtron:
10. Metro Rail SA for the gometro website and smart app.
Railway transport is an essential part of many people’s lives in Gauteng, the Western Cape, Eastern Cape and KZN. Metro Rail SA has developed their gometro websites and applications to make communication with commuters more efficient.
The websites and apps provide commuters with important information around departure/arrival times, delays and cancellations. This level of customer service and interaction is normally reserved for airlines; and is being used to influence the future of railway transport.
9. Triggerfish Animation Studios
With more than 20 years’ experience in the animation industry, Cape Town based Triggerfish Animation Studios have been producing award winning animation and feature films since their inception.
Some of their highlights include producing animation for the Sesame Street children’s TV programme (both locally and internationally), the Adventures in Zambezia film and the internationally released feature motion picture Khumba.
Triggerfish have firmly placed themselves as one of the leading animation studios in Africa.
8. RedButton Mobile
Redbutton Mobile, an Internet Service Provider is certainly one of the most innovative ISPs in the nation. They have packages consisting of free and prepaid network services. Among its solutions are voucher options offered to clients, while it looks to add resellers to promote its vouchers in its prepaid hotspots.
The company sets up hotspots for various clients across a range of different venues; and has support solutions for the maintenance of the networks providing affordable internet access to its users.
7. wiGroup
Seventh place goes to the wiGroup company. Tapping into the growing mobile payment space, wiGroup enables transactions between consumers and businesses using cell phones.
The company enables point-of-sale transactions through either mobile banking or its wallet app, while some of its solutions include mobile rewards, money transfers and coupons or vouchers.
6. Euphoria Telecom
The number six spot goes to Euphoria Telecom. Euphoria positions itself as a proprietary voice over IP, a cloud-based telephone and private branch exchange service provider. The company says its solution is a “comprehensive and customer-centric” business telephone service that taps into cloud infrastructure to drive its offering.
5. ArcAqua
The half way point is occupied by ArcAqua. The company designs sanitising solutions that harness the oxidising properties of the ozone (O3) and uses what it notes is a patented method for cleaning.
The water crisis in South Africa is one that needs to be attended to with the utmost urgency; and ArcAqua’s strategies and techniques are nothing short of original.
Its system converts cold water from an ordinary tap into a sanitising agent that kills 99.9% of all known bacteria, according to the company. “We intend to meet the growing global demand for green tech solutions by delivering an effective, affordable and chemical-free sanitisation alternative,” says ArcAqua’s officials.
4. Energy Partners
The number four position goes to Energy Partners.
In many parts of South Africa, being supplied with a reliable and effective energy flow is a not a guaranteed provision.
By providing energy optimisation solutions, Energy Partners aims to position itself as a leader in bringing companies more efficient means of using power. The company notes its end-to-end solutions integrate different elements of energy management, including maintenance, strategy, intelligence and projects that include photovoltaic technology use, funding and implementation.
3. Entersekt
The bronze medal on this list goes to Entersekt. You will notice that the positions on this list are awarded to initiatives that try to improve the lives of everyday South Africans, Entersekt is doing this in a huge way.
According to Entersekt officials, the company provides consumer authentication systems for online banking, mobile banking and “card-not-present authentication” to counter credit and debit card fraud.
It aims to “restore the bond of trust banks and other enterprises share with their customers” and its patented technology picks up “where password-based approaches have failed”.
2. Mellowcabs
Mellowcabs aims to counter traffic congestion, poor public transport integration, and carbon emission challenges by offering commuters its electric micro-cabs to provide public transport in urban areas. According to the company, it relies on technologies such as regenerative braking, hydrogen fuel cells, illuminated body panels and human-powered charging.
1. IT Schools Innovation Programme
And ranked number one on the Techtron innovators list is the IT Schools integration programme.
eLearning is the embodiment of modern teaching techniques. The IT schools’ integration programme is focused on bring eLearning into the South African school systems in both private and government schools, with solutions including mobile applications and supporting Wi-Fi infrastructure to manage content pushed from teachers to learners.
Its current reach impacts 14 000 learners across the country and the company recently told ITWeb this figure could grow to 100 000 as it negotiates with more schools.
The success of this programme stands to improve our nation’s literacy and technological presence in a huge way. The importance of improving South Africa’s education structure cannot be overstated and using modern techniques to reach learners is not only innovative it’s progressive!
And that is Techtron’s list of the top 10 innovators in South Africa be sure to be back next week for the next gripping post.