Business & founders stories across Africa
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Born from a consulting project and later acquired by African Rainbow Capital, the bank signed up customers at kiosks in Pick n Pay and Boxer stores,…
A trainee actuary at 22, Adrian Gore founded Discovery as a medical insurer. It became a diversified financial services group.
Refused a clothing licence under apartheid, Richard Maponya built a dairy, shops and dealerships in Soweto, and opened Maponya Mall in 2007.
A University of Cape Town graduate, Mark Shuttleworth founded the internet-security firm Thawte, sold it, and went on to create Canonical and the Ubuntu operating system.
Formed in 1997 from micro-lending businesses and registered as a bank in 2001, Capitec went after the low-income market and grew from 5 million clients to…
A lawyer who became the first black partner at Bowman Gilfillan, Patrice Motsepe began with contract mining, then bought marginal gold shafts and built a mining…
The youngest of nine children of a Durban teacher, Vivian Reddy built Reddy’s Electrical into Edison Power, and has backed clinics, schools and an AIDS orphans…
Founded as Commercial Air Services in 1943, Comair launched South Africa’s first low-cost airline in 2001. It entered business rescue in 2020 and was liquidated in…
From his family’s hotels in Durban, Sol Kerzner built the Southern Sun group, Sun International and Sun City, then took the model to Mauritius and Connecticut.
A retail group founded in 1929 grew to ten brands, then carried heavy debt and too much leased floor space as shoppers moved to cheaper imports…
Started in Cape Town by a former MWEB chief executive and an investment firm, Takealot grew into South Africa’s largest online retailer. Patience was part of…
An accounting graduate who spent time at PwC in Dubai, Theo Baloyi founded Bathu in 2015. It now has more than 30 stores across South Africa…
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