Accenture is on the hunt to find Africa’s top tech start-up superstars – the digital pioneers solving critical challenges with technology across the continent. It’s a search for Africa’s big thinkers and big doers – visionaries who fearlessly push the boundaries of progress to shift African innovation to the next level.
Around the world, diverse players are coming together – forming new ecosystems to solve social and business problems. Africa is no exception. Some of the most pivotal parts within these ecosystems are the disruptive tech solution providers – those creating new ways of solving problems, supplying innovative products and offering faster development times and cost-effective delivery.
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The Africa top 30 tech start-ups initiative, powered by Accenture Africa alongside publication partner Forbes, runs as part of Accenture’s market-leading focus on open innovation. “Open innovation allows a path for collaboration between established businesses and innovative start-ups with great products, but no direct route to market,” says Sandiso Sibisi, Open Innovation Africa Lead at Accenture South Africa. “African start-ups often struggle to find an opportunity to plug their great technologies into established client value chains. Yet, with the right support, this all becomes possible, opening the doors to amazing opportunities for value creation, benefiting Africa and its people.”
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About the initiative
The initiative is open to start-ups from across Africa who are solving the continent’s challenges in business, government, civil society and more. All qualifying entrants are welcome (see rules below). Accenture is also particularly interested in entrants working in the spheres of artificial intelligence, blockchain and security, big data and analytics capabilities, Industry X.0, DevTech and Automation as well as extended reality.
Through careful research and field surveying, Africa’s Top 30 tech start-ups will list and fairly reward Africa’s best. The judging panel will include directors of VCs, tech incubators and accelerators from across the continent, academics as well as corporate sector specialists familiar with open innovation and the integration of start-up technologies into established value chains.
In addition to media exposure, listed companies will also participate in the Accenture Africa led Corporate Market Access Week taking place in Johannesburg in February 2019, where they will have an opportunity to showcase their offerings, sell their ideas to corporates, learn how to pitch for new business, and co-create solutions based on issues faced by Accenture clients. They will also get a chance to display their offerings within the Accenture South Africa’s Liquid Studio for a year and be part of the global Accenture Open Innovation network.
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The judging process
Entrants will undergo two rounds of judging. Round 1 will involve quantitative assessments and questionnaires, after which a longlist of top candidates will be decided upon.
Round 2 will identify the final top 30, with judging including a set of qualitative survey questions and analysis of key business metrics, among others.
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Rules, important information and how to enter
Applications for Africa’s Top 30 start-ups opened 07 September and will close 07 October 2018.
List of top start-ups will be finalised November 30th and announced alongside the survey results in the Feb/Mar 2019 edition of Forbes Magazine.
Highlights and results of the research process will be published alongside the Africa’s top 30 tech start-ups.
To qualify, start-ups must:
<ul>
<li>Be an African start-up, founded by an African</li>
<li>Be a registered business</li>
<li>Have been in operation for less than 9 years</li>
<li>Demonstrate innovation</li>
<li>Target and fill a significant market gap</li>
<li>Demonstrate exponential growth</li>
<li>Provide a product or service unconstrained by geography</li>
</ul>
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Additional evaluation criteria will include, but not be limited to, businesses’ financial metrics and performance, innovation measures, team experience, knowledge and media attention. Number of employees, impact creation, representation of diversity, patents, business models and more will also be factored into the judges’ final decision.
To enter, visit <a href="https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__platform.younoodle.com_competition_africas-5Ftop-5F30-5Ftech-5Fstartups&amp;d=DwMFaQ&amp;c=eIGjsITfXP_y-DLLX0uEHXJvU8nOHrUK8IrwNKOtkVU&amp;r=O_d6gfGZe3omUngrk9mlhituvBHT9ju2h9DEa9g5Cz0&amp;m=nM3PXdtowo-SBRBnVFCCn4XtlFK2k3XKKVannZYiWZg&amp;s=-c_g_4vPlaGntyIhl__p_gXbqJW076fRaPXJOQWBqeQ&amp;e=">https://platform.younoodle.com/competition/africas_top_30_tech_startups</a> and follow the instructions.
Fire Starters don’t wait in line. They see further and reach further, always going beyond to solve the challenges they know they can find unique solutions to. Accenture seeks to recognise these unique start-ups and accelerate the transformation of how Africans everywhere work and live.
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Accenture

Africa’s Top 30 Tech Start-Ups Opens for Entries

With Africa having a big share of the global malaria burden, technologists are developing new, cost-effective ways to detect the disease – minus the needle. 

A needle, blood drawn and waiting time are the three aspects of a traditional malaria test.
In Kampala, Uganda, 24-year-old Brian Gitta has created a device that eliminates all of the above, in a first for malaria testing.
Matibabu, meaning ‘treatment’ in Swahili, tests malaria without drawing blood and can deliver results instantly.
The device, clipped on to a patient&#8217;s finger, beams a red light, and the results are available within a minute on a mobile phone linked to the device.
Growing up, Gitta had a passion for computers and went on to pursue a degree in computer science at the University of Makerere in Kampala.
Little did he know his eagerness and passion for tech would lead him to the medical field.
“I’m not one who grew up saying I wanted to be a doctor or a lawyer. I mean I’m not a doctor but I’m glad I can make a change in the medical realm from there,” Gitta tells FORBES AFRICA.
Gitta, who is often in and out of hospitals, now runs Matibabu, a company that takes its name from the device he created. He runs it with a team of six full-time staff. Although he is the CEO and founder of Matibabu, he prefers to be called a team leader.
It all started six years ago. In his first year at university, Gitta got together with his fellow students to change the way malaria was diagnosed. The prevalence of malaria continues to be high in Africa, rated as a top killer.
“I remember the first year when we started it, a lot of people were excited about what we were doing,” Gitta says.
Their project got them accolades such as the UN Women&#8217;s Empowerment Award in 2013.
“I think what we are doing has a lot of potential and we can definitely do something about this.”
The team decided to turn the project into a company with a social objective. But nothing prepared them for what was to come.
<div id="attachment_36983" style="width: 750px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-36983" class="wp-image-36983 size-large" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Brian-Gitta_18a-1024x683.jpg" alt="" width="740" height="494" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Brian-Gitta_18a-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Brian-Gitta_18a-300x200.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Brian-Gitta_18a-600x400.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Brian-Gitta_18a-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Brian-Gitta_18a.jpg 2048w" sizes="(max-width: 740px) 100vw, 740px" />Brian Gitta. Picture Provided: James Oatway</div>
<blockquote>“As a bunch of people that didn’t know how to run a company, neither did we know how to do anything in terms of management; we actually had to learn on site, so we made a lot of mistakes in the beginning,” says Gitta.</blockquote>
But the more word got out about the company, the more support Gitta and his team received.
They got to learn more about strategic solutions, and managing development processes and the expectations of partners.
The prestigious 2018 Africa Prize for Engineering Innovation they won in Kenya in June, have now helped them map the product for the world.
Gitta won prize money of $33,000. He will also receive support, funding, mentoring and business training from the Royal Academy of Engineering in the United Kingdom.
In 2016, he was on an MTV Base panel discussion with billionaire Bill Gates to share his views on the future of technology, innovation and development in Africa, with a group of African youth.
Gitta aims to create a low-cost malaria-testing device for medical institutions. Currently, the price is set at $100, but he hopes to lower the cost so it’s more accessible.
<a href="http://www.forbesafrica.com/woman/2017/11/24/birth-control-mosquitoes-malaria-cure/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">READ MORE: Birth Control For Mosquitoes – Is This The Malaria Cure?</a>
Gitta, himself once a victim to malaria, was frustrated with the healthcare system in Uganda. Blood tests had failed to diagnose his condition. He says this is one of the common problems malaria patients face. Another is people would rather self-diagnose than seek medical help.
“There’s a lot of self-medication because people tend to treat every fever as malaria and that creates additional strain&#8230;,&#8221; says Gitta.
But he believes with Matibabu, these issues may be eliminated.
Far from Kampala, in the South African capital of Pretoria, Professor Leo Braack at the University of Pretoria has been studying malaria for over five years.
“The new device developed by Gitta and his colleagues suggests multiple potential benefits not just for patients, [but] especially small children intimidated by the current need for a drop of blood,&#8221; says Braack.
According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), children under the age of five are at a high risk of malaria because they are more susceptible to infection, illness and death.
Braack believes this device could be the first of its kind in the world. However, that may provide a challenge for Matibabu to enter the market.
<div id="attachment_36984" style="width: 310px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-36984" class="size-medium wp-image-36984" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/DSC_4660-300x199.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="199" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/DSC_4660-300x199.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/DSC_4660-600x398.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/DSC_4660-768x510.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/DSC_4660-1024x680.jpg 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/DSC_4660.jpg 2048w" sizes="(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />Leo Braack. Photo Provided.</div>
&#8220;The device still has a way to go before it will be widely accepted within the medical and scientific communities, and ultimately it will depend on cost-effectiveness, and particularly how accurate and sensitive the diagnosis is,&#8221; he says.
“If the device has a margin of error, it is better that it has false-positives than false-negatives. It is better to treat a false-positive person than to ignore a false-negative person who may go on to get seriously ill.
“The ideal is to get the device to reach as close to 100% accuracy and sensitivity, [it’s] very difficult to reach.”
Despite the immense strides taken in eradicating malaria, one of the biggest challenges is the mosquito’s resistance to insecticides and drugs.
Technology has introduced short-term solutions to combat outdoor mosquitoes.
<div id="attachment_36985" style="width: 210px" class="wp-caption alignright"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-36985" class="size-medium wp-image-36985" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/option1-highRes-200x300.jpg" alt="" width="200" height="300" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/option1-highRes-200x300.jpg 200w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/option1-highRes-300x451.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/option1-highRes-600x902.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/option1-highRes-768x1155.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/option1-highRes-681x1024.jpg 681w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/option1-highRes.jpg 1362w" sizes="(max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px" />Vinet Coetzee. Photo provided</div>
Like Gitta, Dr Vinet Coetzee, a lecturer from the University of Pretoria, has been on the quest to identify affordable, non-invasive ways to detect malaria. Her method was tested in Nigeria on children.
“The device uses sensitive skin color measurements in the palm of the hand coupled with Artificial Intelligence to accurately detect whether a person has malaria or not,” says Coetzee.
According to Coetzee, sensitivity is the ability of the method to correctly identify people who have the disease. In this case, WHO recommends a sensitivity of 95%.
The University of Pretoria has filed a provisional patent for this method and Coetzee and her team are currently working on improving the device and its overall accuracy.
She was selected as a Next Einstein Forum fellow and member of the World Economic Forum Young Scientist Community for her work on the bloodless malaria detection device.
Dr Taneshka Kruger, who has been studying malaria since 2012, also believes technology can aid in the fight against malaria. Her focus in malaria research is malaria education and awareness, and public health, looking into new and modern ways to inform communities in both malaria-endemic and non-malaria areas through the use of social media and mobile apps.
<div id="attachment_36987" style="width: 217px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-36987" class="size-medium wp-image-36987" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/20180613-MR2_9443-207x300.jpg" alt="" width="207" height="300" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/20180613-MR2_9443-207x300.jpg 207w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/20180613-MR2_9443-300x436.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/20180613-MR2_9443-600x871.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/20180613-MR2_9443-768x1116.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/20180613-MR2_9443-705x1024.jpg 705w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/20180613-MR2_9443.jpg 1410w" sizes="(max-width: 207px) 100vw, 207px" />Taneshka Kruger. Photo provided</div>
<blockquote>“In order for malaria elimination to be achieved in sub-Saharan Africa and globally, new and innovative methods and strategies need to be developed that focus on all aspects of the disease,” she tells us.</blockquote>
“The institute [University of Pretoria], in collaboration with Travel with Flair, also developed the ‘Malaria Buddy’ app to inform mainly tourists about malaria. The app is continuously expanding with the aim to become a one-stop malaria information app,” she adds.
WHO is tracking the E2020 initiative in 21 countries identified as having the potential to eliminate the disease by the year 2020. Six of them are African – Algeria, Botswana, Cape Verde, Comoros, South Africa and Swaziland.
The African region carries a disproportionately high share of the global malaria burden.
In 2016, the region was home to 90% of malaria cases and 91% of malaria deaths. Therefore, a lot more effort and focus to eradicate malaria is necessary.
Despite only being in the field for a few years, Gitta is positive that with these technological enhancements, the fight against malaria will surely end.
&#8220;I think the strides toward elimination are happening although it will take a bit of time. But we just want to be a part of the journey as a whole,” says Gitta.
“I think the opportunity has been humungous and I don’t look at age as a definition of how to be an entrepreneur and that’s what makes this generation a big difference,” he says. 
Hopefully, the new generation of tech tools they develop will also offer a big difference to malaria cure.
<blockquote>&nbsp;</blockquote>

Brian-Gitta_36x

The Bloodless Battle Against The Malaria

Perhaps most famously, Route 128 and Silicon Valley in the United States developed around the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Stanford universities, while key European knowledge regions developed at the Sophia Antipolis high-tech park in Côte d’Azur, France, and the Leuven region in Belgium.
In Africa, however, it is a relatively new phenomenon. But some universities on the continent are working towards setting themselves up as catalysts of innovation and entrepreneurship. Notable mentions must go to the University of Nairobi and the American University in Cairo, but South Africa is leading the charge.
The likes of Stellenbosch University, the University of Cape Town (UCT) and University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) are focusing more than ever on equipping their students to be entrepreneurs, primarily in response to unemployment issues in the country. Almost 50% of those aged between 15 and 24 in South Africa are without a job, and some tertiary institutions are adapting by equipping them to become job creators.
<a href="http://www.forbesafrica.com/30-under-30/2018/06/04/under-30-technology/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">READ MORE: Forbes Africa Under 30 Technology Entrepreneurs</a>
Bakang Moetse is Impact Investing Project Manager at the Bertha Centre, a dedicated entrepreneurial unit within the Graduate School of Business at UCT. She says high youth unemployment had made the promotion of entrepreneurship an imperative for many African governments.
“Whilst government may be responsible for creating an enabling environment for the development of businesses, universities play a key role in delivering skills and expertise, as well as creating enabling environments for incubation of entrepreneurs,” says Moetse.
Universities also stand to gain. At a time when the relevance of university degrees has come into question due to the number of unemployed graduates and lack of employment readiness of those graduates who do enter the workforce, promoting entrepreneurship provides a way of ensuring universities continue to be recognized as key to the development of societies and economies.
“For universities interested in taking on a more active role in this regard, there is a competitive advantage to be gained in becoming leaders within this field of research, which can further bolster their credentials,” says Moetse.
Stellenbosch University runs its own incubator – LaunchLab – and also invests in some student-run tech startups. Head of Incubation Brandon Paschal says universities that do so will produce more employable and resilient graduates, and their reputations will grow as such.
“Also, with the current student fee climate, if universities are not backing and pursuing commercializing university technology, their financial sustainability and broader access to tertiary education is in jeopardy,” he says.
So how have startups incubated by universities benefitted? G-J van Rooyen was an associate professor at Stellenbosch, and launched his bitcoin-based anti-piracy startup Custos Media Technologies out of LaunchLab. He says it had been a great space from which to grow an early-stage company.
“At a startup, you&#8217;re constantly juggling concerns and issues. Being in a supportive environment where space and facilities are one less thing to worry about makes a huge difference,” Van Rooyen says. “Since LaunchLab is a hub for startups and investors, it directly impacted our fundraising efforts, and introduced us to our angel investor.”
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter wp-image-36756 size-large" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/edit-launchlab-12-of-94-1024x679.jpg" alt="" width="1024" height="679" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/edit-launchlab-12-of-94-1024x679.jpg 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/edit-launchlab-12-of-94-300x199.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/edit-launchlab-12-of-94-600x398.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/edit-launchlab-12-of-94-768x509.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/edit-launchlab-12-of-94.jpg 2048w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" />
Michael-John Dippenaar’s on-demand storage space startup Sxuirrel first encountered LaunchLab after winning a competition run by the incubator, earning funding and support.
“Amongst other intangibles thereafter, and in the period leading up to then and now, we gained help in the form of advice, community and networks,” Dippenaar says.
“We had support in finding lawyers, connecting to additional entrepreneurs to learn from, and access to soft-skill building resources.”
<a href="http://www.forbesafrica.com/focus/2018/06/05/investment-marketplace-coming-to-africa/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">READ MORE: Investment Marketplace Coming To Africa</a>
Training students – and professors – in entrepreneurial skills and providing them a safe space from which to launch their ideas in one thing, but universities also need to ensure they have solid links with corporates and funders to help incubated startups scale. This can be a challenge.
However, Tine Fisker Henriksen, Senior Project Manager, Innovative Finance, at Bertha Centre, says the credibility associated with university brands lends itself to bringing in new partnerships and streams of funding entrepreneurs on their own would not be able to tap into.
“We are seeing increased interest from the corporate sector to get involved in supporting entrepreneurship, and we have managed to establish partnerships that have been valuable in this regard,” she says.
“From our point of view, there is great potential to expand this beyond mere sponsorship of events and once-off fundraising, as is commonly the case, and move in the direction of more sustainable partnerships approaches for rising entrepreneurs.”
The initiatives at places like Stellenbosch and UCT are well developed, with a track record of helping startups launch and raise funding for their next stage of development, but are enough universities following their lead?
Paschal says there is some evidence of this, but it takes time to transform very traditional and conservative institutions. Part of the challenge is that “startup skills” are intangible, EQ-related things that you cannot learn in a classroom.
“The push for universities spinning out companies, and supporting startups and SMEs, is disrupting the traditional role of universities. The trend is going in this direction, but generally universities are battling to get beyond the academic side,” he says.
Henriksen agrees more needs to be done.
“We have seen the top universities develop more entrepreneurial courses, hubs and initiatives. But there is definitely room for greater involvement, and coordination of efforts in this space to create a synergized impact,” she says.
&#8211; Tom Jackson

BANNER-LaunchLab-12-of-67

Africa’s New Silicon Valleys

Eleven years of CNBC Africa…on a personal level, what has the journey been like for you? 
They have been 11 very good years. Looking back to when we first moved to South Africa to establish it, we had challenges from a regulatory point of view and a distribution point of view. But all that is now behind us. We are looking at business confidence picking up in South Africa and the rest of Africa. We are looking forward to the future.
What is the future of the media industry in Africa? 
There are challenges in emerging markets. I sincerely believe universities and educators look at the curriculums across Africa. The whole environment is changing. We have digital coming in a big way globally. Print media is dying and how you give birth again to what was print on digital is quite a challenge even for television stations. There are challenges for media moving forward. The owners, from the management perspective, also have to consider what they would do with digital.
With that in mind, what are your plans for CNBC Africa? 
Luckily, we are a niche channel. Niche channels, up to now, have been alright. Whether you have a food channel or a fashion channel, music channel or news channel, you will have to look at how you mix both the digital part and TV part moving forward. Having a business channel depends on how the economies are moving. I believe Africa is on the verge of explosion as far as investment is concerned. There are not many places in the world that have the resources Africa has. People are looking at these things.
How are you looking to growing the company in the near future? 
When I started off [in the Middle East], we did the whole of Arabia, which was 37 countries, I did Africa and I did Pakistan – these are the three CNBC franchises, and we learned from each of these franchises, and we have an excellent relationship with CNBC. Moving forward, we are looking at various ways to grow. You need to target your demographic. On the digital side, it has to be millennials. Forget about the over 50s, and mobile is the way to go if you want to target the millennials.
<a href="http://www.forbesafrica.com/30-under-30/2018/06/04/under-30-technology/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Read More: 30 Tech Entrepreneurs Under 30 </a>
What advice would you give young people trying to break into the media space? 
Go digital. Take advantage of the technology and keep your costs down when you start. You don’t have expensive cameras because you can use mobile. Also use citizen journalism, stick to quality and concentrate on demographics.
Should we be following global trends in the media space as a continent? 
People want things to drop from the sky. You have to market yourself well, make sure there are transparent rules and regulations for foreign investors who want to come in and make sure you have a level playing ground in the countries that make up the African Union…
How significant is the power of networking for young entrepreneurs? 
Networking works but remember to be yourself and be original. That’s how you succeed. Originality comes through. We know when a young person is trying to ‘network you’.
What lies ahead for CNBC Africa? 
We are looking forward to the next five years. We are positive both in Nigeria and South Africa. We might be going more digital and taking advantage of other niche channels we are thinking of partnering with outside of Africa.

Zafar-Siddiqi-559

How CNBC Africa Plans To Go Digital

Godwin Gabriel has always had the gift of the gab. At 17, he closed the biggest deal in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, supplying food and beverages to a five-star luxury hotel overlooking the picturesque Indian Ocean.
As he recalls, it all happened in a flash: one minute he was a youngster looking for extra income and the next, he was sat across a table, suited and booted, having lunch with the food and beverages manager of the hotel and her team with only $55 in his pocket.
“I was scared I could not afford the bill. When the bill came, it was literally 55bucks. I remember sweating and I was literally getting ready to prepare to wash dishes, but it all worked out in the end and I got the deal,” he says of that meeting.
Then came the hard part. With no money to pay suppliers, Gabriel had to rely on his gab yet again to get the trust of suppliers to deliver on credit. His natural flair for business made his parents uneasy; fearing he would not return to school, they shipped him off to the United States (US) in an attempt to get him back to his books, but it was too late: Gabriel had already caught the entrepreneurial bug.
For the next three decades, that gift of the gab combined with grit, self-confidence, and perseverance would serve Gabriel well, driving him beyond personal and professional setbacks to create a business that would compete with giants like Uber and Lyft.
Gabriel is the founder of Moovn, an app that seeks to capture a piece of the billion-dollar ride-sharing market and that he hopes will eventually dethrone Uber, which, over the past few years, has experienced significant challenges. The company suffered several scandals and allegations which led to the #deleteuber campaign and the resignation of CEO Travis Kalanick. In South Africa, Uber drivers have had several clashes with taxi drivers, some deadly, prompting the company to hire private security forces to protect them.
Despite these woes, Uber still has an imposing 74% of the ride-sharing market with operations in over 633 countries and a valuation of $72 billion. Regardless, Gabriel remains unperturbed.
<a href="http://www.forbesafrica.com/30-under-30/2017/11/07/top-african-tech-startups-need-know/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">READ MORE: These Are The Top African Tech Startups You Need To Know About</a>
“We are in our own lane, and before the end of the year, we will be a complete threat to them. They are studying us, and they know who we are. We know this because in the search words or key words on Google, when someone types in Moovn, you get an Uber or Lyft ad and it is something that is in their metadata. So they must have put our company’s name in their metadata,” says Gabriel.
He believes the key to any ride-sharing service’s success is taking care of its drivers. To avoid the mistakes made by other ride-sharing apps, he has redesigned his app’s user experience to empathize with the driver, a trick he learned in his early days in the hospitality business.
Gabriel’s journey has been a natural evolution marred by a series of ill-timed events. Like the time he came close to fulfilling his childhood dream.
“When I was younger I dreamed of being a pilot; I was actually hired by American Airlines to become a junior in their flight-training program. Everything was lined up to make that dream happen but just before I reported to the job, 9/11 happened and that was a wrap. I went back into a different industry and never returned.”
Then there was the time he was working as an asset manager. Gabriel had spent a significant amount of time building his expertise in the hospitality industry, acquiring an enviable clientele that included Marriott and Starwood hotels. But just when it seemed like the world was Gabriel’s oyster, disaster struck.
“It was a very strong area for me, but it wasn’t until 2010 when the aftermath of the economic recession was really felt and a lot of these real estate portfolios went belly-up. It was a really tumultuous time in terms of most industries and I found myself constantly working long hours and getting burned out. So, by the time the last assets were taken off my hands, I wanted to change my career,” says Gabriel.
The US subprime mortgage crisis that sparked a nationwide banking emergency left most of Gabriel’s portfolios in receivership. Portfolios previously worth billions of dollars were now being sold for about $100 million, and with that, it was time for Gabriel to yet again look for a new industry and start all over again. But luckily, he had stumbled on an idea to provide a cab service to the guests of the hotels he managed.
“Back in 2006, I started a luxury car hire business with a chauffeur in Seattle for business executives, because I had already made access to these hotels. It was a little side hustle that turned into a big deal. I went from a couple of cars to 15 to 20 cars, and I had to outsource a large volume of demand to independent operators.”
“It was one of those things that I was always interested in, so when Uber came, and they were doing what we did back in the day with technology, I said to my partner what if we had that technology when we were doing our business back then?”
For Gabriel, an MBA from the University of Washington’s Foster School of Business would prove instrumental in helping him to spot the potential of technology.
“Towards the end of my course, we did a consulting bid for Microsoft for an education software for two of the largest economies in the world, India and China, and I led that project. I was exposed to technology and I thought this was amazing. I had no tech background and never worked for a tech company before. I was just amazed at the margins and I thought this is the industry for me,” says Gabriel.
And that was how he began to look for opportunities in the tech space. He initially approached several developers to build an app for him, but getting people to buy into his vision proved difficult. So instead of giving up, he decided to build it himself. Hours of YouTube videos and discussions in chatrooms later, Gabriel developed a working prototype which he used to test the viability of his idea.
“We had the clientele; we had the relationships; and we had the drivers and so I sent out a little survey to some of them and the clients I had and asked ‘what if I created something like this, would you be interested?’ The response was overwhelming. At around the same time, It was also at the time that some of the drivers were complaining about being mistreated by some of these larger platforms, about not being able to earn a decent living and working long hours.”
That was when Gabriel decided that he would go the B2B route instead of chasing the consumer market that Uber was already dominant in. In addition to being the mastermind behind Moovn as well as its chief executive, Gabriel sees himself as an activist fighting to give the forgotten driver a voice.
Moovn differentiates itself by taking a 15% commission per ride instead of the 25% or more its competitors take. The rationale: if you take good care of your drivers, they will take good care of your customers.
<div id="attachment_36501" style="width: 310px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-36501" class="wp-image-36501 size-medium" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/IMG_4327-300x225.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="225" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/IMG_4327-300x225.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/IMG_4327-600x450.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/IMG_4327-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/IMG_4327-1024x768.jpg 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/IMG_4327.jpg 1241w" sizes="(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />Gabriel demonstrates how to use his app called Moovn.</div>
Gabriel began by targeting hotel partners who wanted to book rides for their guests, which helped to drive revenue and get the platform to where it is today. Another way Moovn set itself apart is through a strategic alliance with Vodacom in Africa, which helped offset the operational costs of launching the app. Lastly, there is Gabriel’s personal touch which he uses to recruit his drivers.
“I was in the airport parking with my laptop recruiting drivers, and sometimes I have lunch with our ambassadors too. So being able to connect with people and speak to them and find solutions to their issues is where I get most of my juice. You get to hear things firsthand. This is where we fly, and we are different from other platforms. We don’t have to wait to hear via email but hear it firsthand and that helps us. Whether it is via improvement in the app or improvement in our processes, it is easy to make decisions right there and then without the hierarchy.”
The company already has a presence in nine states in North America with the planned addition of three more states, and an employee count of 150 people across its various divisions. The company has also expanded into Africa with a presence in Tanzania, Johannesburg and Nairobi. It is also present in Dubai.
<a href="http://www.forbesafrica.com/30-under-30/2018/06/04/under-30-2018/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">READ MORE: Under 30 2018</a>
The ride-sharing market has been plagued in recent years by several challenges, mostly from local taxi drivers who meet the invasion of technology with animosity, often leading to violent clashes in some African countries. Gabriel, however, believes it’s a matter of negotiation.
“One of the things I often say is that taxi cabs have long existed in most countries. Taxis cannot fulfill the public demand on their own, however, and they depend on the informal sector to offset some of this demand.,” he says.
And with that, the old gift of the gab has managed to successfully bridge the gap between the two parties.
Next up, the Herculean task of getting the world Moovn.

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The Tanzanian Who Aims To Dethrone Uber

Picture this: remote rural Africa, where communities assiduously farm vast stretches of arable land not knowing anything about digital technology or drones that can transform their lives.
Now picture this: forward-thinking innovators and entrepreneurs who swap the city for the village and lend these communities the tech and savvy to change farming – and their fortunes – forever.
Agriculture, the mainstay of Africa’s informal economies, needs a facelift, and some new faces to talk tech to power. Agri-tech is the buzzword, and we profile three innovators spearheading change in their communities. They grew up on these farms, and knowing their earth best, have created the technology they need, in turn revolutionizing agriculture, from the little corners of Africa.
<h4>‘Clarity From Above’ 
James Paterson, South Africa</h4>
<div id="attachment_36233" style="width: 310px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-36233" class="size-medium wp-image-36233" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/James-Paterson-CEO-300x300.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="300" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/James-Paterson-CEO-300x300.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/James-Paterson-CEO-100x100.jpg 100w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/James-Paterson-CEO-600x600.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/James-Paterson-CEO-150x150.jpg 150w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/James-Paterson-CEO-768x768.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/James-Paterson-CEO-1024x1024.jpg 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/James-Paterson-CEO.jpg 1181w" sizes="(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />James Paterson. Photo supplied.</div>
An unidentified flying object hovers over a 150-hectare orange farm in a small town called Clanwilliam in the Western Cape Province of South Africa.
It’s the first time James Paterson is testing his homemade drone. The object flies over the mountainous terrain offering a bird’s eye view, then singles out a tree with stunted growth. The object detects that the tree is not receiving enough water.
The object looks like a prop out of the Transformers movie series. It has eyes too – a camera lens – to monitor what’s happening on the ground. Paterson, 29, controls this propeller-enhanced technology using a controller. He is the co-founder and CEO of Aerobotics, a company that interprets satellite and aerial drone analytics to enable farmers.
He calls it “clarity from above”.
The drone space in Africa has significantly developed over the years, and the view from below has certainly changed too. In Rwanda, drones are a common sight, famously used to deliver blood and medical supplies to remote areas, and here in this small South African farm, it’s being used to improve the way we grow food.
<a href="http://www.forbesafrica.com/entreprenuers/2018/05/02/drones-by-africa-for-africa/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">READ MORE: Drones By Africa, For Africa</a>
Aerobotics’ core mandate is to provide data on tree crops, enabling farmers with information on disease, pests and water usage. They are able to tell the farmers if a tree lacks nutrition and what it needs.
“Find one small thing that is going to improve the farmers’ life and then focus on that,” says Paterson.
“Instead of just giving the farmer a picture or a map, we give him exactly what’s going on with the tree and we can track that over time.”
He believes this would be useful in areas such as Cape Town with the ongoing water crisis.
He co-founded the company with Benji Meltzer in 2014 after they built drones in Paterson’s garage. Paterson, who grew up on a fruit farm, had always loved aeronautics. Meltzer is also the Chief Technology Officer of Aerobotics.
Now, he is able to merge farming and tech into something he enjoys doing on a daily basis; running an aeronautical company providing farm analytical services.
<blockquote>“Some farmers… like the older way of doing things.”</blockquote>
<div id="attachment_36240" style="width: 310px" class="wp-caption alignright"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-36240" class="size-medium wp-image-36240" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/farmer-using-Aerobotics-Flight-Planner-app-for-DJI-300x200.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="200" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/farmer-using-Aerobotics-Flight-Planner-app-for-DJI-300x200.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/farmer-using-Aerobotics-Flight-Planner-app-for-DJI-600x400.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/farmer-using-Aerobotics-Flight-Planner-app-for-DJI-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/farmer-using-Aerobotics-Flight-Planner-app-for-DJI-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/farmer-using-Aerobotics-Flight-Planner-app-for-DJI.jpg 2048w" sizes="(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />Aerobotics interprets satelitte and aerial drone analytics to help farmers.</div>
But running the company hasn’t always been easy. Apart from competing with drone companies providing similar services, their biggest challenge has been trying to convince farmers to use their product.
“Some farmers… like the older way of doing things,” says Paterson.
“But even then, after we have met with them and we show them what that can do, they can really understand this is something that can help them on the farm.”
Currently, they have over 200 clients in countries such as the United States, Russia and South Africa.
Paterson has been one of the few to benefit from drone innovation in agriculture. He says he and the team were the only South African startups amongst 24 companies around the world to be part of Google’s Launchpad Accelerator in San Francisco early this year.
They have also secured an R8 million ($663,000) fund from two venture capital firms who Paterson says saw the benefit of their software for farmers. They are currently undergoing a new round of funding.
Aerobotics’ Chief Financial Officer, Timothy Willis, believes that technology in farming can assist in better risk mitigation and enhancing efficiencies around yields.
“I think those two things together will add to making a more efficient agricultural sector in Africa,” he says.
Five years from now, Paterson predicts drones will become more autonomous.
“In the future, you won’t be concerned about the drone, it will just do all the work for you.”
<h4>Smart Farming 
Ndubuisi Ekekwe, Abia State, Nigeria</h4>
<div id="attachment_36235" style="width: 210px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-36235" class="size-medium wp-image-36235" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/NdubuisiEkekwe_IMG_82841-200x300.jpg" alt="" width="200" height="300" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/NdubuisiEkekwe_IMG_82841-200x300.jpg 200w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/NdubuisiEkekwe_IMG_82841-300x450.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/NdubuisiEkekwe_IMG_82841-600x900.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/NdubuisiEkekwe_IMG_82841-768x1152.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/NdubuisiEkekwe_IMG_82841-682x1024.jpg 682w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/NdubuisiEkekwe_IMG_82841.jpg 1181w" sizes="(max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px" />Ndubuisi Ekekwe. Photo supplied.</div>
From a farm in the Abia State of Nigeria, Dr Ndubuisi Ekekwe talks to us about a table.
Not just any table, but a small square-shaped table resting on one leg, which actually is “an electronic farm diary” that records and collects crucial information for farmers.
Ekekwe calls it Zenvus, which he created in 2011. It collects data on the soil’s pH, moisture and temperature, and records the sun’s intensity and humidity in the air. An inbuilt solar panel charges it.
The device is his contribution to smart farming. It wirelessly transmits the recorded data to a cloud server from which farmers access it on a mobile app and get real-time data.
“2020 to 2030 will be the decade of agri-tech,” Ekekwe tells FORBES AFRICA.
Zenvus services corporates, and have supplied to 500,000 farming entities. He says it’s currently in a partnership with the government of Cross River State in Nigeria, as well as Abia State.
Ekekwe says he has been approached by a number of international companies wanting to cash in on Zenvus. However, he has been reluctant to sell it.
“Someone wanted to buy Zenvus for $5 million five years ago. I wouldn’t even sell it for $15 million, just to tell you the kind of value it has,” he says.
For Ekekwe, it’s more important to service farmers. To date, he prides himself in having the largest farmers’ cooperative in Africa.
<blockquote>“I wouldn’t even sell it for $15 million.”</blockquote>
<div id="attachment_36239" style="width: 310px" class="wp-caption alignright"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-36239" class="size-medium wp-image-36239" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Field-Photos-of-Both-Devices-300x200.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="200" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Field-Photos-of-Both-Devices-300x200.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Field-Photos-of-Both-Devices-600x400.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Field-Photos-of-Both-Devices-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Field-Photos-of-Both-Devices-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Field-Photos-of-Both-Devices.jpg 2048w" sizes="(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />Zenvus collects crucial data for farmers in Nigeria.</div>
Ekekwe grew up as a farm boy in a village called Ovim in Abia State. Growing up, he received distinctions throughout his high school year and went on to acquire an engineering degree, four master’s degrees, two doctorates in management and microelectronics, as also a medical robotics degree from the United States.
He chose to move back and stay on in his village.
Ovim is known for the Ajonkwu festival when the Igbo community gather to celebrate the harvesting season.
According to Ekekwe, farmers rely on the moon to obtain a greater yield. As a result, tech for farming isn’t something a lot of people in his community are open to.
“Farmers are not literate and that is why we are not selling tech to them, we are selling the service,” he says.
According to the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), 65% of Africa’s labor force is engaged in agriculture. Despite this, agricultural productivity on the African continent still lags behind significantly compared to other continents. AGRA suggests that farming only accounts for 32% of the continent’s GDP. Africa therefore does not reap the benefits of agriculture.
<a href="http://www.forbesafrica.com/politics/2017/06/05/agriculture-behind-africas-health/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">READ MORE: Agriculture Behind Africa’s Health</a>
Ekekwe says the future of Africa is farming. He believes the convergence of tech and agriculture will result in more people wanting a piece of the pie of agri-tech startups and open up more opportunities for Africans across the continent.
<h4>‘Uber For Farmers’ 
Brian Bosire, Kisii, Kenya</h4>
<div id="attachment_36237" style="width: 310px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-36237" class="wp-image-36237 size-medium" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/RS16164_DSC_17101-300x181.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="181" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/RS16164_DSC_17101-300x181.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/RS16164_DSC_17101-600x361.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/RS16164_DSC_17101-768x462.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/RS16164_DSC_17101-1024x617.jpg 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/RS16164_DSC_17101.jpg 2048w" sizes="(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />Brian Bosire. Photo supplied.</div>
On a farm in southwestern Kenya, in the small town of Kisii, a field agent reads data off a yellow square-shaped monitor, which has wires running into a smaller device connecting to the soil. It takes him about five minutes to read data regarding the soil’s PH, water levels, and disease and pests found on it. In almost two minutes, the data is sent to the farmer.
The field worker’s job is done and he looks at his phone to find his next requested farm match.
The device that has helped him is named UjuziKilimo, which is Swahili for ‘knowledge farming’. Its founder, 24-year-old Brian Bosire, calls it “an Uber service for farmers”, and this on a farm that even Uber might find difficult to access.
The field worker travels to the nearest farmer who has requested his services. This kind of smart farming service costs the Kenyan farmer about $20.
Bosire had always wanted to become a key contributor to Kenya’s agricultural industry. He grew up in Kisii, a town known for its highlands and wet weather – favorable climate for farming. Frustrated by the lethargic technological growth in the agricultural space in his town, he sought to create something innovative that would improve the yields for the farmers of Kisii.
“We aren’t selling tech, we are selling the solutions,” he tells FORBES AFRICA.
Bosire says what he tries to do is become as close to the farmer as possible. As a result, he and his team target small-scale farmers and read data on vegetable crops, maize being one of them. The UjuziKilimo can read data from about five to 10 acres of land. Farmers can request data on their farms by simply sending an SMS so even farmers with the most basic cellular devices can benefit.
<blockquote>“We aren’t selling tech, we are selling the solutions.”</blockquote>
<div id="attachment_36238" style="width: 310px" class="wp-caption alignright"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-36238" class="size-medium wp-image-36238" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Ujuzi-Kit-300x200.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="200" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Ujuzi-Kit-300x200.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Ujuzi-Kit-600x400.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Ujuzi-Kit-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Ujuzi-Kit-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Ujuzi-Kit.jpg 2048w" sizes="(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />UjuziKilimo helps improve yields.</div>
When Bosire moved to the big city of Nairobi to study, he took advantage of every opportunity to pursue his dreams as an entrepreneur. To date, he has founded three companies, all operating in the tech innovation space, UjuziKilimo one of them. 
It’s old hat that Kenya, the country which pioneered M-Pesa as one of Africa’s leading startups, is home to a lot more players in the tech space. But Bosire says his business is different.
Earlier this year, his other innovation company, HydroIQ, won the Startup of the Year Africa 2018 award. Slightly linked to agri-tech, it’s a virtual water network operator which connects water utility companies and water consumers through an online platform. It allows for mobile money payments, data analytics, leakage detections and water use and consumption through sensors that relay information.
All this leads one to believe that the future face of farming in Africa is young.
Bosire hopes UjuziKilimo can grow to reach from 10,000 farmers to over 50,000.
“We want to become the largest data center of agriculture analytics in Africa,” he says. Future plans include launching UjuziKilimo in the United Kingdom under the name ‘Soil Pal’.
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Green Combine harvesting small path of wheat

‘2020 to 2030 Will Be The Decade Of Agri-Tech’

The former CEO of First National Bank (FNB), Michael Jordaan, is launching a new app-driven bank early next year. He says Bank Zero will not inflict exorbitant fees on consumers.
“It is possible to create a mobile bank at a much lower cost than the traditional banks… If we can stimulate a savings culture in South Africa, as well as help individuals and businesses to waste less money on bank fees, it will help the economy grow,” he says.
<a href="http://www.forbesafrica.com/focus/2016/11/01/banking-at-your-fingertips/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">READ MORE: Banking At Your Fingertips</a>
Jordaan has worked in the banking sector for over 20 years and will need all his experience as he becomes a competitor of his former employers.
The idea came about three years ago, over a good bottle of wine with his co-founder Yatin Narsai, who is the former head of retail at FNB. The two were inspired by the app-driven businesses such as Uber and Airbnb.
<div id="attachment_35972" style="width: 210px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-35972" class="wp-image-35972 size-medium" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/image001-1-200x300.jpg" alt="" width="200" height="300" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/image001-1-200x300.jpg 200w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/image001-1-300x450.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/image001-1-600x900.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/image001-1-768x1152.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/image001-1-683x1024.jpg 683w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/image001-1.jpg 1365w" sizes="(max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px" />Micheal Jordaan. Photo Provided.</div>
“We hope to solve many of the everyday problems that individuals and businesses still have when making payments or investments,” says Jordaan.
They spent the last year applying for a banking licence with the South African Reserve Bank (SARB). This year, they are working on integrating the bank into the South African payments system.
In 2014, Jordaan launched MonteGray Capital to invest in disruptive start-ups. Now, his own business is set to shake up the banking industry.
“It has been an incredible privilege to start with a blank sheet of paper and develop a bank from first principles. We will have no legacy technology and no reliance on income streams that should not exist, like electronic banking fees. The functionality of the app will be far richer than any bank we have seen locally or abroad,” he says.
Though, like most banks, Bank Zero will have an app and a card, it will not have a branch.
“Branches are old-fashioned. If you could design a bank from scratch you would never think of doing it around paper and bricks and mortar. Just like WhatsApp and Facebook don’t have branches, the bank of the future will be mobile&#8230;” he says.
In addition to South Africa’s big four banks – FNB, Standard Bank, Absa and Nedbank – Adrian Gore’s Discovery is launching a bank later this year. Is there room in South Africa for another bank?
“South Africa has 33 banks and the sector is highly sophisticated and competitive. The fact that [South Africa’s] bank fees are high in international comparative terms means that there is still a lot of room to lift the competitive intensity,” says Jordaan.
To differentiate itself, Bank Zero will only cater to those with smartphones and tablets.
Jordaan is intent on making his bank technologically innovative. He learned this lesson the hard way when he was chairman of Mxit. The messaging app was blown out of the water by WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger.
“It is a powerful lesson why businesses must build for the future rather than hang on to the past. That is why Bank Zero will be built for smartphones and tablets, rather than for dumb phones.
<a href="http://www.forbesafrica.com/homepage/2017/06/27/cash-falling-fashion-will-disappear-forever/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">READ MORE: Cash is falling out of fashion – will it disappear forever?</a>
“In a few years the only phones that will be sold will be smartphones. Today there are entry-level smartphones available for less than $40 but this could still halve in three years,” he says.
If Jordaan had his way, in the near future, brick-and-mortar banks will be as redundant as those dumb phones.

image001

Banking On Technology: New Mobile Bank Set To Launch

The smartphone industry has been stagnant and lacking innovation for a good few years. With each new iteration, we witness handsets becoming thinner, faster, and lighter yet somehow bigger than before. The latter is due to screen bezels shrinking in size with very minimal to no borders around the edges.
Stand-out moments in recent years have been Samsung’s curved “infinity display” introduced on the S8, and Apple’s face-mapping feature on the iPhone X that projects 30,000 invisible dots on to your face.
For the most part, there has not been anything revolutionary, but we’re still holding out for a breakthrough in battery technology.
<div id="attachment_35822" style="width: 310px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-35822" class="wp-image-35822 size-medium" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Noka-8110-4G-copy-1-300x300.png" alt="" width="300" height="300" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Noka-8110-4G-copy-1-300x300.png 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Noka-8110-4G-copy-1-100x100.png 100w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Noka-8110-4G-copy-1-600x600.png 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Noka-8110-4G-copy-1-150x150.png 150w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Noka-8110-4G-copy-1-768x768.png 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Noka-8110-4G-copy-1-1024x1024.png 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Noka-8110-4G-copy-1.png 2048w" sizes="(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />Nokia&#8217;s revived 8110 slider phone. Photo supplied.</div>
At Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2018, the largest mobile event of the year held in Barcelona in February, we saw announcements from several big mobile players, while some opted not to unveil anything, others simply refreshed existing devices.
<a href="http://www.forbesafrica.com/technology/2017/06/29/understanding-real-innovation-behind-iphone/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">READ: Understanding the real innovation behind the iPhone</a>
Additionally, Formula 1 made its first-ever appearance at MWC to launch a live stream ad-free grand prix subscription service, and Spanish football league La Liga showed off new broadcast technologies like its cutting-edge 4K HDR broadcasts, a skycam for drone-like footage, professional analysis of the game during the game, and physical and tactical reports.
Meanwhile, Ford made Google’s popular live traffic, community-based app Waze available on its SYNC 3 infotainment platform globally from April. Another motor manufacturer, Land Rover, unveiled its first-ever smartphone, the Explore. The Android device is developed by the Bullitt Group and has durable features like handling extreme temperatures, surviving 1.8m drops and being underwater – including salt water, with a massive battery.
Google introduced a light version of its mobile operating system Android Oreo Go Edition at the end of last year, and at MWC 2018, we got to see these entry-level devices running it for the first time. It is created for phones with 1GB of RAM or less with minimal storage, processing power so performance won’t take a hit, and for limited connectivity, as in the African market. The six devices powered by Android Oreo Go Edition initially will be the Nokia 1, Alcatel 1X, ZTE Tempo Go, Lava Z50, Micromax Bharat Go, and GM 8 Go.
On the premium smartphone side, Samsung’s new S9 and S9+ flagships put focus on both the consumer and business user. The new camera has variable aperture, a mobile smartphone first. Regular smartphones have fixed aperture, but the S9 and S9+ have dual aperture that switches mechanically between F1.5 for low-light photography and F2.4 for bright, outdoor shots. It also shoots 960 frames-per-second slow motion video; and introduces AR Emoji, augmented reality based emoji similar to Snapchat’s Bitmojis. Business users get the Enterprise Edition software straight out of the box, a paid for service tailored to businesses. Powerful features include disabling of the camera, SD card or screenshots while at workplace, preventing sensitive information from leaking.
Sony’s XZ2 and XZ2 Compact devices come six months after its previous-generation flagships with a major physical change – new round edges (gone are the signature blocks). Both handsets do 4K HDR recording, a smartphone first, and following suit from Apple, the headphone jack has been removed. The front-camera takes 3D selfies, and rear does 960fps slow-motion videos, introduced last year. Wireless charging is available on the larger device, and the Compact is anything but, at 5-inches.
<a href="http://www.forbesafrica.com/technology/2015/02/01/is-there-a-future-in-cellphones/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">READ MORE: Is There A Future In Cellphones?</a>
Nokia once again played the nostalgia card and revived the 8110 slider phone in an eye-catching bright yellow color, dubbed the ‘banana phone’. It has 4G support, runs on a new platform called KaiOS so apps will be made especially for it, with WhatsApp, Twitter and Facebook announced. Nokia brought out four other handsets in addition to the 8110 4G: a flagship Nokia 8 Sirocco; a mid-range Nokia 7+, an updated Nokia 6, and entry-level Nokia 1.
Once again, MWC felt like an incremental update with some great new features thrown in here and there. In the age of instant gratification, it’s getting increasingly difficult for long-term excitement.
&#8211; By Nafisa Akabor

Noka-8110-4G-copy

The Banana Phone?

The Internet of Things (IoT) has shown us how almost every item in a household can be connected to offer smart features, from appliances to toothbrushes, to light bulbs and speakers. If you’re not sold on it yet – sometimes in Africa we don’t always have a choice – one of the more useful IoT cases is smart luggage.
For the frequent traveler, smart luggage is genius; and is set to revolutionize the way we travel. What makes luggage ‘smart’ are core features like GPS tracking, built-in batteries with USB charging ports, app or fingerprint locking, and weight scales.
The all-important GPS tracking feature will let you track your bags through a smartphone app. It’s the most accurate way to confirm your luggage was loaded onto the plane, and arrived at your final destination; more efficient than an airline attempting to provide you with the same information.
According to 2017’s The Baggage Report, published by SITA, the global IT and telecoms company that services the air transport industry, approximately six bags per 1,000 passengers were mishandled in 2016, down 12.5% from the previous year; and 47% of all delayed bags occurred during transfers.
The company expects these figures to drop further in 2018, due to the International Air Transport Association’s (IATA) Resolution 753 that will come into effect in June this year. Cross-industry luggage tracking between airports, airlines and ground handlers are expected to be in place, which aims to reduce lost or delayed baggage from drop-off to pick-up.
<a href="http://www.forbesafrica.com/technology/2018/02/08/5-ai-innovations-need-aware/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">READ MORE: 5 AI Innovations You Need To Be Aware Of</a>
Smart luggage has already empowered travelers to keep track of their luggage instead of waiting for airlines to improve; and have now gone a step further with next-generation features showcased at CES (Consumer Electronics Show) in Las Vegas in January 2018.
If you don’t want to be ‘that’ adult riding their suitcase across the airport to reach the boarding gate even faster (Modobag came up with the ‘world’s first motorized, rideable luggage), you can now get smart luggage that follows you around, like a dog.
Chinese company 90Fun worked with Segway to create a prototype called the Puppy 1, a suitcase that follows you around the airport using a remote control. It makes use of Segway’s self-balancing technology so the suitcase won’t fall over while navigating, and is bi-directional. A demonstration at CES showed that the suitcase can drive around by itself, or be controlled by a person. There’s no word when it will hit production or what it will cost.
In the meantime, you can pick something up from the world’s largest suitcase manufacturer, Samsonite, who came up with what they call the first “web connected” travel bag. The company says that each year, over 30 million lost luggage claims are filed, and their partnership with LugLoc provides users the technology to track their bags. Each bag is fitted with a GeoTrakR, which lasts 15 days when fully charged, and can be accessed via a smartphone app. A Bluetooth proximity sensor will let your app know once bags have reached the carousel. It won’t interfere with aviation rules as the device shuts off when the plane takes off, and powers back on upon landing.
Rival Delsey also has a smart range called Pluggage. The French luggage manufacturer crowd-sourced the top six features that travelers wanted most via an online campaign. The most sought-after features were a dedicated mobile app; fingerprint opening; international tracking; digital scale; device charger; and carousel alert mode. They are available in small, medium and large, all within airline specifications.
However, there are numerous brands with smart features out there, some of which you may not have heard of but appeared on crowd-sourcing platforms; all trying to outdo each other with design, battery capacity, built-in chat support, or notifications when your luggage has been opened out of sight. Ultimately, it boils down to buying a trusted brand versus a new one with nifty tech features.
<a href="http://www.forbesafrica.com/investment-guide/2017/09/13/tech-can-close-gap-africa/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">READ MORE: How Tech Can Close The Gap In Africa</a>
The downside to buying smart luggage with built-in batteries is that, at the time of writing this article, three airlines in the United States have banned smart luggage that don’t have removable batteries, namely American, Delta, and Alaskan Airlines. American Airlines says “smart bags contain lithium battery power banks, which pose a risk when they are placed in the cargo hold of an aircraft”.
Subsequent to this announcement, smart luggage manufacturers are reportedly trying to comply with the new rules. Until then, we suggest purchasing smart luggage with removable batteries only. Two brands worth looking at that sell airline compliant bags are Away and Raden.
Meanwhile, Qatar Airways is the first airline to comply with Resolution 753 a year ahead of schedule by allowing passengers to track their luggage in real-time via its Track My Bags feature on the web and its mobile app. It also provides real-time notifications relating to checked-in luggage for all passengers.
Similarly, Delta has introduced RFID-embedded luggage tags that go onto all bags, a $50 million investment covering 344 airports, and 4,600 scanners. With sensors in place at various stages of handling, passengers are able to track their luggage via the free Delta app, available on Android, and iOS.
In a hyper-connected world, it is completely normal to check the status of your car, electricity at home, appliances, coffee-machine or luggage from a smartphone app. The only time you should be truly concerned is if you can’t adapt to your steadily-changing surroundings, or you run out of power. &#8211; Written by Nafisa Akabor

Luggage That Can Check Itself In?

Dropbox has filed confidentially to go public, setting in motion what could be one of the most closely-watched tech IPOs of the year.
The company valued by private investors at $10 billion has tapped Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase to lead the listing process, a source with knowledge of the company has confirmed to Forbes. Dropbox declined to comment on the news, which was first reported by <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-01-11/dropbox-is-said-to-file-confidentially-for-initial-offering" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Bloomberg</a>.
According to that report, Dropbox reportedly aims to list within the first half of 2018. That timeline is disputed by Forbes&#8216; source, who declined to provide an alternative target date.
<a href="http://www.forbesafrica.com/investment-guide/2017/09/13/tech-can-close-gap-africa/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">READ MORE: How Tech Can Close The Gap In Africa</a>
One of tech&#8217;s youngest billionaires at 34-years-old, Dropbox CEO Drew Houston announced in January 2017 that the company had passed $1 billion in annual revenue run rate, meaning that its quarterly revenue at that time, if extrapolated across a one-year interval, would produce revenue of $1 billion. At the time, <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/briansolomon/2017/01/30/dropbox-hits-1-billion-revenue-run-rate/#43eafb6db6bb" target="_blank" rel="noopener">the company said</a> it was the fastest software-as-a-service company to reach that milestone. Dropbox had about 500 million users and 200,000 paying business customers on its books a year ago.
In June 2016, Houston, who cofounded Dropbox with Arash Ferdowsi in 2007, <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2016/06/14/dropbox-says-it-is-cash-flow-positive-in-no-rush-to-ipo/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">told</a> a tech conference in San Francisco that the company was cash flow positive. In April 2017, the company <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-08-10/dropbox-has-whipped-itself-into-shape-but-going-public-won-t-be-easy" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> it was profitable on an EBITDA basis, which would include its stock-based compensation.
In what may prove to have been anticipation of the IPO process, Dropbox announced in September 2017 that it was appointing Hewlett Packard Enterprise CEO Meg Whitman to its board of directors. Then in December, the company beefed up the board&#8217;s financial makeup by adding former Nike CFO Don Blair.
<a href="http://www.forbesafrica.com/woman/2017/11/22/billionaire-meg-whitman-will-step-ceo-hpe/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">READ MORE: Billionaire Meg Whitman Will Step Down As CEO Of HPE</a>
How Dropbox fares on the public markets will provide a prominent beacon for tech &#8220;unicorns&#8221; valued at $1 billion or more who have watched Blue Apron and Snap struggle with their public debuts in recent months and remained on the sidelines. Other high-profile companies that could follow Dropbox in upcoming months include Airbnb, WeWork and Uber, as well as companies without quite the same buzz but with the financials to go public, such as Qualtrics.
While Dropbox has faced concerns about its ability to grow new products and the struggles that have beset some of its closest peers, <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-08-10/dropbox-has-whipped-itself-into-shape-but-going-public-won-t-be-easy" target="_blank" rel="noopener">sources told Bloomberg</a> in August that the company was growing its revenue at a healthy clip of about 30%. For comparison, Salesforce reported 32% annual growth for its fiscal 2015 on revenue of $5.37 billion.
In July 2017, Dropbox featured as No. 2 on the Forbes <a href="https://www.forbes.com/cloud100/#467fd7615f94" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Cloud 100</a> list of top private cloud companies. Should it go public, its exit would dwarf cloud&#8217;s most recent biggest, AppDynamics&#8217; acquisition <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2017/01/24/why-the-3-7-billion-appdynamics-acquisition-happened-right-before-ipo/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">for $3.7 billion</a> in January 2017. A successful IPO would mean a windfall for early venture capital investors Sequoia Capital and Index Ventures as well as a slew of firms with smaller stakes in the longtime Silicon Valley favorite. &#8211; Written by <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/alexkonrad/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-ga-track="contrib block byline">Alex Konrad</a>, FORBES STAFF

Dropbox Just Confidentially Filed To Go Public, Setting Up A Bellwether IPO

The Instagram influencer marketing industry is expected to exceed $1 billion by the end of 2017, and more than double by 2019. A Santa Monica-based influencer marketing industry Mediakix forecast these figures by studying the #spon #sp and #ad hashtags on the platform, which saw over 9.7 million posts tagged in 2016, with 14.5 million expected for 2017.
While South Africa may be late to the party for most things digital, there are a fair amount of influencers making waves locally. No matter the niche, there are bloggers and influencers who, through their combined digital platforms, are regarded just as important as journalists when it comes to making an invite list; or taking part in a campaign best aligned with their brand. It is predominant with fashion, beauty and lifestyle bloggers in South Africa where some have quit their full-time jobs to focus on being an ‘influencer’.
<div id="attachment_34458" style="width: 310px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-34458" class=" wp-image-34458" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/Aqeelah-Harron-Ally-200x300.jpg" alt="Aqeelah Harron Ally" width="300" height="450" />Aqeelah Harron Ally (Photo supplied)</div>
Aqeelah Harron Ally, a 27-year-old fashion, beauty, and travel blogger at <a href="http://fashionbreed.co.za/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">FashionBreed</a>, from Cape Town, worked full-time for five years before quitting her job, and tells us she could have afforded to leave sooner, but didn’t have the courage.
Ally, who has been blogging for seven years, initially started her blog so she could work for a magazine to ultimately become a fashion editor. She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Film, Media &amp; Writing, and Drama from the University of Cape Town; and a Diploma in Make Up Artistry.
The decision to quit her job has worked out well for Ally, who says she is much happier now, even though being her own boss can be stressful at times.
“I’ve been lucky because for the last two years, I’ve landed many contracts which span over four, six, or even eight months; this helps a lot with stability, however I’m also fine without those kinds of jobs.”
She has other once-off campaigns that are booked a month or two in advance, and out of the events she attends, about 60% are paid attendance, which is generally tied to a campaign she is already creating content for.
“I seldom get paid just to attend an event and cover it, but I have done it in the past.”
Another digital content creator who quit her full-time job after five years is 26-year-old Anna-Belle Durrant from Parktown North in Johannesburg. She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in English Literature and Philosophy from the University of the Witwatersrand. She started her blog <a href="https://shesaid.co.za/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">SheSaid</a> back in 2013 initially to share her love for Johannesburg, but it has blossomed into stories about travel, fashion, healthy living and design.
“So far it’s worked out incredibly well; I love that I am the master of my own time and creations, and I’m still very fortunate to work closely with agencies like Cerebra [previous employer],” says Durrant.
To her, blogging is like freelancing; work comes in when it comes in and you just have to go with the flow. “However, I do work with brands on a retainer basis to create content around their offerings; and my campaigns run across all my social channels and blog. When you become a blogger, your mind-set changes completely, what you earn is in line with how much you work… so work hard and you should be ok,” she says.
<a href="http://www.forbesafrica.com/woman/2017/10/06/sharing-economy-400000-guests-home/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">READ MORE: The Sharing Economy: 400,000 Guests At Home</a>
However, the industry has been marred by a fake follower problem where users deceive brands into paying them for being an influencer. Mediakix ran an experiment on two accounts proving how easy it is by purchasing fake followers from as little as $3 for 1,000 followers and $4 for 1,000 likes. Once these accounts reached a threshold of 10,000 followers, they signed up for campaigns – and got accepted for two paying jobs each.
The onus of this falls on PR companies or marketing agencies who need to ensure they’ve done thorough research before approaching an influencer. A quick search on Memeburn.com for an article titled Fake followers are a massive problem, as SA duo proves shows the extent of it in South Africa.
Ally says what they’re doing is illegal.
“It is straight-up fraud because you’re telling a brand to pay you for something you can only pretend to offer. Buying followers is selfish and entitled, but more than anything it’s a charade they won’t be able to keep up with because there are so many tell-tale signs that reveal the cracks in the lie.”
<div id="attachment_34459" style="width: 310px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-34459" class=" wp-image-34459" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/Anna-Belle-Durrant-200x300.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="450" />Anna-Belle Durrant (Photo supplied)</div>
Durrant on the other hand feels that while you can cheat anything in life, rather focus on your own content and what you need to do to build your brand as the truth always comes out in the end.
Both Ally and Durrant work extremely hard at being full-time bloggers and share similar sentiments that it’s not all freebies, fame, travel and parties. “You’re a stylist, photographer, writer, curator, art director, model, negotiator/businesswoman, social media manager, video maker; the ultimate definition of a jack-of-all-trades,” says Ally.
Durrant compares it to running a magazine that needs to be published constantly except she’s the CEO, photographer, stylist and janitor, all while fighting for invoices to be paid. “It’s a lifestyle of work hard, play hard.”
Ultimately, both find it very rewarding. For Ally, it’s all about the relationships with her readers, and stresses on how much she values it. “YouTube really extended my reach in this sense which has been so great. It’s also been rewarding growing as a content creator and actually getting paid for it. I’m really thankful for this because creatives don’t often get to say that. It’s really special being able to work for brands I grew up loving and respecting, even more so when their international teams fly to South Africa and get closely involved in what we do.”
<a href="http://www.forbesafrica.com/woman/2017/07/11/workplace-future-now/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">READ MORE: The Workplace Of The Future &#8211; Or Now?</a>
Durrant loves that she gets to do things and go to places she could only have dreamed of.
“A highlight was exploring a music festival on the coast of Wales last year. Traveling makes me happy, I get to do that for my job; I honestly couldn’t ask for anything more. I also get to meet really incredible people and work with truly inspiring charities and brands, I have inspiration around me 24/7.” &#8211; Written by Nafisa Akabor

When It Pays To Be Online

Google hosted a much-anticipated hardware event on Wednesday in San Francisco to refresh its premium Pixel line of phones. The company, which is fresh from <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/miguelhelft/2017/09/20/google-pays-1-1-billion-for-htc-team-behind-pixel-phones/#284786db67e3" target="_blank" rel="noopener">buying the HTC unit that made the original Pixel</a>, introduced Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL models. In a major push into hardware, Google also announced new versions of Google Home, its smart speaker, including a low-cost model that could be priced below $50. Google also unveiled a new version of Daydream, its VR headset, as well as a new high-end (and very pricey) Chromebook.
Forbes reported the announcements live:
9:05 am Google CEO Sundar Pichai takes the stage and begins by touting Google’s commitment to AI. &#8220;It is radically rethinking how computing should work,&#8221; Pichai said. &#8220;Computers should adapt to how people live their lives,&#8221; not the other way around, he adds. Computing will be conversational, ambient and contextual. It&#8217;s a unique moment in time, when Google can bring AI, software and hardware together, Pichai says, to lead the way forward. &#8220;The rate at which we are seeing progress in AI is amazing,&#8221; Pichai adds, highlighting how Google&#8217;s latest vision algorithms outperform human vision.
9:20 am Hardware SVP Rick Osterloh takes the stage. He says it’s, you guessed it, “early days” for Google hardware, but the company is off to a good start. “Pixel had a great year,” he says, acknowledging Google didn’t make enough phones to meet demand. But here&#8217;s the catch. “The playing field for hardware components is leveling off,” he says. That makes it harder and harder to develop new products each year, and that’s why Google is taking a different approach, he says. “Innovation will happen at the intersection of hardware, software and AI,” he says. &#8220;That&#8217;s where the big leaps forward will happen in the next 10 years.&#8221;
9:30 am Rishi Chandra, head of home products, takes the stage to update Google’s smart speaker line, claims Google has the best voice recognition in the market, in part because it has the most data. That’s allowed Google to create Voice Match, which recognizes the voices of different people in a family, Chandra says. He then introduces Isabelle Olsson, lead designer for Google Home. She introduces Home Mini, a small round speaker that comes in 3 colors. It costs $49 and is available for pre-order today.
9:35 am Yoki Matsuoka, CTO of Nest, is up next to talk about how Google and the Alphabet subsidiary are working together on smart home tech. Here’s one example, the Google assistant can activate a smart TV to show you what’s happening on a Nest smart camera, say to monitor your fromt door. Here&#8217;s another. with a single command, “Hey Google, Goodnight” arms the security system, tells you what’s on your agenda tomorrow and sets your alarm. “This really simplifies my life,” Matsuoka says.
9:45 am Chandra introduces Google Home Max, a high end smart speaker that&#8217;s clearly aimed at competing with Apple&#8217;s upcoming smart speaker. It comes equipped with Smart Sound, a new tech that adapts the sound to fit your context, for instance, raising the volume when the dishwasher is running. &#8220;It&#8217;s about delivering consistent, crisp sound experiences. Available in December, for $399. Watch out Apple.
9:55 am As expected, Google introduces a high end Chromebook called Pixelbook, with a 13.2-inch screen. Thin, convertible into tablet mode, 16GB RAM and 10 hours of battery life. If there is no wifi, it instantly tethers through your phone. Google Assistant comes built-in. It comes with a pen/stylus &#8212; circle a photo of an artist, and the Google Assistant will tell you who it is. Google Play smartphone apps run on the Pixelbook. Snap is working with Google to bring a &#8220;large screen&#8221; experience to the Pixelbook. Here&#8217;s the catch. It&#8217;s not cheap. Available in 3 configurations, starting at $999, with the pen for an extra $99. Available in the US, Canada and the UK. Pre-orders start today and in stores on Halloween.
10:05 am Mario Queiroz, head of Pixel phones, is now on stage for the main act, the Google Pixel 2, which comes in 5-inch and 6-inch XL versions. Lots of goodies: OLED display in the small version, which comes in 3 colors, including Kind of Blue, black and white. Larger version comes with a slightly curved display that goes all the way to the edges, in black or black and white. Here&#8217;s the obligatory dig at Apple. Both devices have the same capabilities. &#8220;We don&#8217;t set aside feature for the larger device,&#8221; Queiroz says.
10:18 am Google execs demo a bunch of software/hardware updates that work with the Pixel 2. You can squeeze the phone to invoke the Google Assistant. The Assistant integrates between the Pixel and Home, so you can send messages like &#8220;I&#8217;ll be home in 10 minutes&#8221; that will get played on your Google Home. Finally Google has notification dots on its apps. Google Lens help you understand the world. It can &#8220;read&#8221; emails, addresses and phone numbers; it can give you a movie or book review by &#8220;looking&#8221; at a poster or cover; it recognizes historic monuments. A preview of Lens is coming to Pixel users. Google Lens also comes with AR capabilities that let you bring virtual objects into real places through the screen; or virtual characters into real scenes.
10:30 am Queiroz is back to tout the Pixel 2&#8217;s camera. The excellent camera from the Pixel 1 had a <a href="https://www.dxomark.com/About/Lens-scores/DxOMark-Score" target="_blank" rel="noopener">DXO score</a> (an industry standard for the amount of information captured by a camera&#8217;s lens and how well the lens and camera perform together) of 89. The <a href="https://www.dxomark.com/category/mobile-reviews/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">new one has a score of 98</a> &#8212; the highest score of any smartphone camera. It&#8217;s a 12 MP, f 1.8 camera. It comes with a portrait mode that creates depth of field effects on both the main and selfie cameras. A new thing called &#8220;fused image stabilization&#8221; that improves the stability of videos. Pixel 2 users get free storage for all their photos and videos in the highest resolution. The results look pretty amazing, but we&#8217;ll have to test it in real life to know for sure. Pixel 2 starts at $649 and Pixel 2 XL $849, available in six countries in Australia, Canada, Germany India UK and US with preorder today. For a limited time, Google will throw in a Google Home Mini for free.
10:40 am After introducing updates to Google Daydream, the VR headset, Google moves quickly to its latest shot at Apple: A set of premium wireless headphones Google Pixel Buds designed to work and pair easily with the Pixel. Google&#8217;s AI is built in, you can speak to the headset in one language, like Swedish, and the phone will translate in real time into English. The demo worked flawlessly. It works in 40 languages. Available in 3 colors, for $159, with preorders starting today and availability in November.
10:45 am Google pulls a &#8220;one more thing.&#8221; Google Clips, a small, clippable/wearable camera that could well portend the end of struggling action camera maker GoPro. It&#8217;s packed with AI to make cool images. It will sell for $249 and will be available soon. Osterloh comes back on stage for a wrap up of the #MadeByGoogle line of products.
&#8211; Written by <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/miguelhelft/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-ga-track="contrib block byline">Miguel Helft</a>, FORBES STAFF

Google Introduces Impressive Array Of New Hardware

In the latest Africa’s Investment Destination Index released in April, Nigeria was ranked 19 out of 54 African countries. In effect, if a foreign investor was to make a choice in which economy to do business, Nigeria would be their 19th choice. It is a steep fall for a country, which not so long ago was ranked as the third-fastest growing economy in the world.
For much of Africa, the ‘Africa rising’ slogan is wearing thin. A big problem is that many African economies are rentier states. In effect, when there is a boom in the sale of natural resources, the economy looks healthy. At best, this creates a superficial climate of prosperity; at worse it fosters complacency. The revenues from such booms are largely frittered away by the political class. Little effort is ever made to close the infrastructural gaps that could aid SMEs.
According to the index, some economies are steaming back to life. Zambia is a clear case in point, in fifth position. Egypt’s economy stands third; a clear sign that it has put the political turmoil of the last few years firmly behind it. This strengthens my belief in an Africa that is capable of rising above its challenges, an Africa that has the resources to courageously confront the future. At the same time, there is a sadness that some African countries are not focusing on their economies enough to become favorable destinations for foreign direct investments.
More African countries need to start paying attention to changing economic and investment realities. When we understand how money and investment works on a global level, we can better understand how to attract it. The digital takeover is the new conversation, and start-ups that have found brilliant and effective ways of simplifying daily life are the new magnets for venture capitalists.
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Previously, governments shaped the economic focus in African countries. Now the private sector has more opportunity to drive growth, even against the backdrop of infrastructural and institutional gaps. Nigeria’s tech incubator, the Co-Creation Hub, which is solely private sector driven, appears more vibrant than the Botswana Innovation Hub (BIH), which is piloted by the government. The former attracted the attention of Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg, <a href="http://www.forbesafrica.com/technology/2017/08/07/google-ceos-visit-nigeria-means-africa/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">culminating in his first visit to Nigeria</a>.
At the Forbes Under-30 Summit in Israel, in April, where I was one of the selected speakers, venture capitalism and foreign direct investments in emerging economies was predictably top of the agenda. Since I featured on FORBES AFRICA’s 30 under 30 list in 2016, I was fortunate enough to attend the Forbes Under-30 Summit in Boston, USA, in October last year. It gave me the opportunity to interact with investors and entrepreneurs. These events create opportunities for young African entrepreneurs, like myself, to find ways to shape the future of our own businesses and economies, in collaboration with important global capitalist actors.
The discussions at the summit in Israel touched on new frontiers for investment. Interestingly, Africa hardly features in this conversation. There are investors with money to spend, but the continent is yet to position itself to welcome these opportunities.
This is where tech incubators can act as catalyst for economic growth. Zambia and Côte d’Ivoire are showing promising signs in attracting this sort of FDI, but Nigeria has the potential to attract much more if there is a policy to develop spaces for tech incubators to thrive. Tech incubators can generate ideas to solve economic, social and even governmental problems, while also attracting foreign capital.
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In Nigeria, BudgIT uses charts and infographics to explain government revenues and remittances. Initially, investment group Omidyar Network injected $400,000 in BudgIT. Less than two years later, it won a $1.4-million grant from the Bill &amp; Melinda Gates Foundation. BudgIT proves start-up ideas can plug governance gaps and attract foreign capital at the same time.
This is not to suggest that every tech company has to solve governmental problems. Tech incubators can be used for economic and social needs, while making a profit. Every round of funding an organization receives puts it in a position to scale up its activities.  This is one way the private sector drives growth in an economy.
Tech incubators, and other spaces for technology-driven solutions, are urgently needed on the continent if we are to join the global business train. Currently, Africa is still stuck on the platform at the station. &#8211; Written by Obinwanne Okeke, a FORBES AFRICA 30 Under 30 alumnus

How Tech Can Close The Gap In Africa

A House subcommittee approved critical legislation for the fast-developing driverless car movement this week that sets specific rules for how many such vehicles can be on U.S. roads and the federal government’s role in regulating them. While it would give companies developing the technology the national framework they want, it also raises questions over who is best-suited to ensure this cutting-edge technology is safe.
Under <a href="http://docs.house.gov/meetings/IF/IF17/20170719/106309/BILLS-115pih-HighlyAutomatedVehicleTesti-U2.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">proposed rules</a> that will come before the full House for a vote in September, manufacturers could put up to 100,000 autonomous vehicles per company on U.S. roads every year, with a requirement that they certify the safety of those vehicles with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, or NHTSA. If approved, the proposal would preempt the current patchwork of state-level rules for operating self-driving cars and trucks. They build off a basic set of guidelines <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/alanohnsman/2016/09/19/u-s-gives-green-light-to-self-driving-car-push-setting-federal-ground-rules/#672c0ad13652" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">issued by President Barack Obama’s Transportation Department</a> last September.
“The need for this legislation was laid out by the Obama Administration,” said Rep. Bob Latta, the Ohio Republican who chairs the House Subcommittee on Digital Commerce and Consumer Protection. “From the front bumper to the back bumper, whether it is a car, a pickup truck or a van, how the vehicle works and is designed should be the province of the federal government as has been the case for more than 50 years.”
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California, which has <a href="https://www.dmv.ca.gov/portal/dmv/detail/vr/autonomous/testing" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">issued permits to 36 companies</a> testing about 200 autonomous vehicles in the state, would no longer be able to set its own guidelines if the federal proposal becomes law. But whether federal safety officials ultimately are better-suited to validate manufacturers’ safety claims for the artificial intelligence, algorithms and next-generation vision and sensing technologies that go into self-driving cars remains in question.
“There’s this whole gray ground about who is in the best position to regulate these new cars, which go beyond the traditional car into almost driving a computer and software,” said attorney Sharon Klein, a partner in the autonomous vehicle practice for Pepper Hamilton LLP. “There’s been this debate about whether NHTSA as an agency should continue to be involved in deployment as well.”
The new rules rely on companies to certify the safety of their systems. The concern is that NHTSA, the country&#8217;s primary auto safety regulator, lacks the software and computer science expertise needed to validate their technical claims, Klein said.
“It comes down to a question of who is going to be watching the manufacturers?” she told Forbes.
Along with the growing number of robotic vehicles in California, states including Michigan, Massachusetts and Nevada are home to ever larger test fleets. Waymo, the Alphabet Inc. unit created last year to commercialize Google&#8217;s self-driving car technology, has already begun a large-scale public test in Arizona that may eventually grow to hundreds of driverless vehicles <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/alanohnsman/2017/04/25/waymo-taps-phoenix-for-a-big-public-test-of-google-self-driving-car-tech/#3769032c6141" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">ferrying people around Phoenix</a>.
General Motors, Uber, Lyft, Ford companies are following suit, and Tesla intends to give its electric vehicles full autonomous capability within the next year or two via over-the-air updates.
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In 2016, NHTSA and the Transportation Department <a href="https://www.transportation.gov/AV/federal-automated-vehicles-policy-september-2016" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">defined 15 areas</a> that manufacturers need to comply with when they put self-driving vehicles on the road. That basic framework will put the agency in an administrative role, ensuring certain benchmarks are met, despite lacking specific knowledge of the software and algorithms powering autonomous systems.
“There’s no way NHTSA has the technical capability to do this right now,” said Mike Ramsey, an automotive tech analyst with Gartner Research in Detroit.
“NHTSA is really the arbiter of ‘does it appear that you have done all the things you need to do?’ It’s counting on the fear of deaths and lawsuits that could arise to prevent carmakers from doing something egregious,” he said.
Insurance companies will also act as a “shadow regulator” to keep manufacturers honest in their technical claims, Ramsey said. “The fact is unsafe (autonomous) technology would quickly become uninsurable.”
<a href="http://www.consumerwatchdog.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Consumer Watchdog</a>, a safety advocacy group, called on congress to give NHTSA more resources to better address this major technological shift and opposed the reduced role of individual states to regulate robotic cars and trucks.
“Lost in the hyperbole over robot cars is a realistic assessment of the likely costs to both consumers and taxpayers particularly over the coming decades, when robot cars and human drivers will share a ‘hybrid highway,’ John Simpson, director of the Santa Monica, California-based group’s privacy project, said in a <a href="http://www.consumerwatchdog.org/newsrelease/consumer-watchdog-calls-california-representatives-oppose-congressional-robot-car-legisl" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">statement</a>.
“Pre-empting the states’ ability to fill the void left by federal inaction leaves us at the mercy of manufacturers as they use our public highways as their private laboratories however they wish with no safety protections at all,” said Simpson, who called on California House members to oppose the subcommittee proposal.
For its part, the California DMV said it doesn’t comment on pending legislation. The department has been tasked with setting regulations for the testing and deployment of autonomous vehicles on state roadways since 2014. &#8211; Written by <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/alanohnsman/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Alan Ohnsman</a>, FORBES STAFF

Push For Self-Driving Car Rules Overlooks Lack Of Federal Expertise In AI Tech

The time for an intervention of the workplace has arrived. The traditional office as we know it, bound by a desk with set working hours, being present for meetings, and processing paperwork, is no longer functional. Technological advancements have changed the way people work so that it’s no longer where it gets done but that it gets done. These are some of the key insights shared by Deloitte in a series of reports released towards the end of 2016.
One of the reports revealed that the work place of the future will be mobile and not bound by location; it will be independent (contractors); more people will be working from home; and co-working spaces will be an alternate to working from home; all this ties in with a traditional workplace no longer being functional.
The future is mobile
Technology such as laptops, tablets, smartphones; wireless connectivity; and networking software will be a key driver to this paradigm shift. Mobile manufacturers are catering to this – the new Samsung S8 offers a “Dex” mode that lets you switch to a desktop mode by attaching a few peripherals to its smartphone. According to Deloitte, many workers may still have a designated office space for themselves but they are treating work as something they do rather than where they do it.
Not bound by location
The combination of portable devices, WiFi and modern software solutions, means employees can work from anywhere and don’t necessarily have to come into an office, or sit in traffic to get there – an issue South Africans can identify with. As more companies shift to cloud-based or custom solutions, it means one can work from any location yet still collaborate via shared documents in the form of Google Docs, Office 365 or Dropbox, to name a few.
Co-working spaces
There has been an increase in co-working spaces in South Africa with companies renting out ‘hot-desks’ to freelance individuals. These spaces come with desks, phones, high-speed internet, boardrooms, meeting areas, coffee, and whatever other amenities are required to work from ‘anywhere’. Provided one isn’t bound by specific machinery; one could find themselves sharing office space with individuals from varying industries. Access to a set-up with all amenities is usually tied to a daily/weekly/monthly/annual fee, offering greater flexibility for contract work.
Gig economy
The gig economy is one of the major elements of the workforce of the future. It is where independent contractors and freelancers will be used for short-term projects, and also ties in with not being bound by location. If a job can be done remotely with the right hardware and software, a greater pool of employees are available for the picking. With people changing jobs more frequently, the gig economy is said to be an evolution of this. Additionally, businesses save on other costs such as office space, training, and employee benefits.
No more paperwork
Going digital or moving to the cloud means no more unnecessary paperwork, saving businesses a huge chunk in costs. All it takes is moving to smarter solutions such a digital HR software; electronic contracts; accounting software; online project management tools; collaborating via shared documents, and online video chats instead of face-to-face meetings.
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Could this work in a South African context? Forty-year-old Daniel Calbacho, Managing Director of RED Marketing based in Illovo, Johannesburg, took an interesting, non-traditional approach with his company. He “fired” all his staff and re-hired them as independent freelancers.
Calbacho manages a team of young writers and recognizes that people are all different, have a life outside of standard working hours and want to pursue their passions as part of their lifestyle.
“Each person in the business is encouraged to see themselves as an entrepreneur, and focus on their predominant skillset, which is linked to their passion to earn a living.” His team comprises of individuals who are motoring journalists, photographers, writers, bloggers and even a pop singer.
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They are also encouraged to grow at their own pace, and if they’d like to earn more, they don’t have to wait for an annual increase.
“Millennials are about instant gratification – ‘I want this now’. If someone in the team would like to earn a specific amount, we work towards that. Obviously this means taking on more work, much like earn-as-you-go.”
RED Marketing has offices with all the mod-cons, allowing the team to use its facilities at leisure. Cost saving for the company has presented itself in the form of equipment, bonuses, and benefits. As independent contractors, the team supplies their own laptops, cameras and smart devices, which they’ve insured. “Bonuses are no longer a cost consideration albeit we do believe in sharing the company’s profits for outstanding work, and there are no costs for medical aid or pension.”
Skills development has not stopped, says Calbacho. “Every three weeks the team gathers and a person within the group presents knowledge or a skill they’ve been elected to share.”
Leave has also become a secondary HR issue, with each team member allocated 18 days a year to take off completely. “Days are logged, not scrutinized; and most of them don’t take all of it because they are free to manage their time without the construct of a nine-to-five job.”
Calbacho says what they are doing currently works for the business. “The company is successful because the team is happy. Our main focus is delivering the best product to our clients.” &#8211; Written by Nafisa Akabor

Tag: Technology

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