by Ekrem Duman | Aug 26, 2026 | South Africa Company Stories, South Africa Startups & Innovation
⚡ TL;DRLuno was founded in Cape Town in 2013 to give people in emerging markets a straightforward way to buy, store and transfer digital assets. It grew across Africa, Southeast Asia and Europe, prioritised regulatory engagement and custody security when many...
by Ekrem Duman | Aug 26, 2026 | South Africa Company Stories, South Africa Startups & Innovation
⚡ TL;DRJUMO built a technology platform that lets banks and mobile network operators offer small loans and savings products to customers with no credit history, using mobile wallet and airtime behaviour as the underwriting signal. It has originated large volumes...
by Ekrem Duman | Aug 26, 2026 | South Africa Company Stories, South Africa Startups & Innovation
⚡ TL;DRYoco built card acceptance for small South African businesses that banks considered too small, too informal or too risky to onboard. By selling a low-cost reader outright and approving merchants online in days rather than weeks, it brought hundreds of...
by Ekrem Duman | Aug 26, 2026 | South Africa Company Stories, South Africa Startups & Innovation
⚡ TL;DRTymeBank built a retail bank without branches by placing account-opening kiosks inside supermarket chains and using their till points for cash deposits and withdrawals. It acquired millions of customers at a fraction of incumbent acquisition cost, raised...
by Ekrem Duman | Aug 26, 2026 | South Africa Company Stories, South Africa Founders & Dynasties
⚡ TL;DRKoos Bekker ran Naspers for fourteen years without a salary or bonus, taking his compensation entirely in share options. Under that structure he made a modest investment in a Chinese internet start-up in 2001 that became worth many times the entire...
by Ekrem Duman | Aug 26, 2026 | South Africa Company Stories, South Africa Founders & Dynasties
⚡ TL;DRHerman Mashaba built a haircare business in the 1980s serving black South African consumers whom the established cosmetics industry had barely acknowledged, distributing through township salons because formal retail would not stock him. The company became...
