Rapelang Rabana went from free mobile calls to teaching 700,000 children with tablets
The South African technologist co-founded one of the country’s first free mobile VoIP services, built a learning company, and now co-leads an education charity serving children across Africa.
Rapelang Rabana was born in Gaborone, Botswana, grew up in Johannesburg and studied business science and computer science at the University of Cape Town, graduating with honours in 2005 and later earning a master’s degree there. It was at university that her first business began.
Yeigo
In 2006, she and fellow students built Yeigo, a mobile voice-over-internet application that offered South Africans cheap and free calls. It won the first Enablis Business Plan competition. In 2009, Telfree, a South African operator, bought a majority stake, and Rabana led its research and development until 2012.
Rekindle Learning
In 2013 she founded Rekindle Learning, a company that offers digital learning experiences designed for mobile phones, aimed at workers adapting to a changing economy. McKinsey cited it in a 2013 report on the internet’s impact in Africa as a “striking innovation in mobile learning”. She later served as Chief Digital Officer at BCX, one of South Africa’s large IT companies, in 2017 and 2018.
Imagine Worldwide
In 2023 she became co-chief executive of Imagine Worldwide, a non-profit that delivers literacy and numeracy to children across Sub-Saharan Africa using tablet-based learning. By early 2025, the organisation reported serving around 700,000 children and planning expansion, including a national rollout in Malawi and replication in countries such as Sierra Leone and Tanzania. Imagine received the 2024 Klaus J. Jacobs Best Practice Prize.
Standing and influence
Rabana has appeared on the cover of Forbes Africa, been selected by Fast Company as a Maverick, and named a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum. She sits on the board of Standard Chartered Bank Botswana and has served on the boards of African Leadership Academy and Project Literacy.
Her path shows a quiet but consistent logic: build the technology, then apply it to the sector where scale matters most. Voice calls taught her how mobile reaches people; learning is where she chose to use it.
