It’s often said that young people are the future -- and this is no different when it comes to technology. This Youth Month, we take a look at what some local young people are achieving in South Africa’s tech industry...

Tsitsi Marote

Tsitsi Marote is a co-owner of Guardian Health, a maternal and foetal health solution that won the ITWeb Business Intelligence Summit data hackathon earlier this year. The app helps healthcare professionals by using AI and data to help determine risks for complications, ITWeb reports. For her work as a data scientist and in developing Guardian Health, she was also named among Geekulcha’s Top 15 Geeks.

Karidas Tshintsholo and Matthew Piper

Karidas Tshintsholo and Matthew Piper are the founders of agritech app Khula. The pair have been business partners for some time and were named in Forbes Africa’s 30 Under 30 list in 2019 for their work in the technology industry. Their app connects small-scale and emerging farmers with buyers across a range of industries -- including restaurants, distributors, and bulk buyers. Khula was named the overall winner of the MTN Business App of the Year Award in 2018.

Dudu Mkhwanazi

Dudu Mkhwanazi became the CEO of Project Isizwe in 2017 when she was just 26 years old, according to htxt.africa. The non-profit organisation aims to bring free Wi-Fi internet access to low-income areas through partnerships with the public and private sectors. The same year, she also presented a talk at TEDx in Johannesburg to make the case for free Wi-Fi as a human right. It’s not surprising then that she was also named in the 2019 Inspiring Fifty list of women role models in South African tech.

Sorene Assefa

Sorene Assefa is the founder of Cyber Czar, a local cybersecurity firm that aims to protect the most vulnerable in our society by providing training and education. For her work, she was listed in Mail & Guardian’s 200 Young South Africans list for 2019 and as an ICT role model in the 2018 Inspiring Fifty list for South Africa.

Brandon Bate and Zander Matthee

Brandon Bate and Zander Matthee are the 22-year-old creators behind the Merge investment platform. The pair founded the company in 2017, soon after leaving school, with the app being described as a “Tinder for investors”. Their app recently received a large investment from Platform Capital, which will likely extend Merge’s reach into West Africa, Ventureburn reports.

Lethabo Motsoaledi and Matthew Westaway

Lethabo Motsoaledi and Matthew Westaway are the co-founders of Voyc.ai, software that uses AI and machine learning to monitor customer service interactions, interviews, and feedback. Using Voyc, companies can task the platform’s algorithm with analysing customer feedback to improve their services. Motsoaledi is a Mandela Rhodes Scholar and built the company’s algorithms, according to her profile on the Mandela Rhodes Foundation website. Westaway’s experience managing a customer experience agency helped them identify the need for companies to be able to analyse recorded market research interviews without needing to manually transcribe them -- a slow and labour-intensive process.

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