Page 38 - EngineerIt February 2021

INDUSTRY AND TECHNOLOGY

Bumper year for African tech start-ups expected

t’s an exciting time for the continent’s start-up and investor communities”, says Ian Lessem,
“Imanaging partner at HAVAÍC, one of South Africa’s most active venture capital investors. He believes
the economic, social and commercial prospects for investing in the African technology sector looks
promising, especially as the acceleration of technology adoption continues. Fintech, e-commerce and e-
health show immense promise for further growth both in terms of funded ventures as well as for their
local and international adoption and revenue growth.
HAVAÍC says 2020 saw the commercial adoption of technology increase at unprecedented rates, as
illustrated by the performance of HAVAÍC and its portfolio companies. 2020 saw HAVAÍC’s portfolio
companies grow their revenue by a staggering 93%, and in the coming months the economic, social and
commercial prospects for investing in the African technology sector looks promising, especially as the
acceleration of technology adoption continues.
According to the recent African Tech Start-ups Funding Report 2020, published by Disrupt Africa, the
year produced a record for funding activity in the African tech start-up ecosystem. This was due to the
increased number of active investors on the continent that continued to grow in tandem with additional
investment opportunities across more geographies in an increasing number of verticals.
In line with this, last year, the Cape Town-based early-stage, high-growth technology investor Ian Lessem
concluded eight investments in technology companies located in South Africa, Kenya and Nigeria.
HAVAÍC says its track record for investing in diversified African technologies, and niche for unlocking adapt and re-strategise in obvious ways, Lessem
the potential of globally relevant companies in sectors needing real-world solutions, is especially relevant says the coming months will be interesting as
as demand for technology-enabled cloud-based solutions crosses over from early adopters’ changing more subtle, but no less impactful solutions come
personal needs, as we saw in 2020, to their business needs, as we continue to see today. to the fore. “Innovation thrives in times of
He adds that African start-ups are reaching new heights in terms of broad global appeal. “With our challenge and uncertainty, and given the disruptive
portfolio servicing close to half a million clients in over 180 countries across the globe, and with the nature of our investments, HAVAÍC’s investment
majority of our investments having successfully moved their intellectual property or operations into thesis to support local and act global, is resulting in
markets such as the US and UK, as well as achieving multiple international exits, HAVAÍC’s portfolio capital inflows and foreign investment into Africa,
companies are well on track to fulfilling their international potential.” while delivering ‘dollarised’ returns to our portfolio
While the Covid-19 pandemic has forced people and organisations the world over to pivot and quickly companies and investors.” n

SANParks harnesses the power of SD-WAN

ollowing its appointment in 2018 by South African National Parks (SANParks) as the single service inaccessible, meaning that communications are
Faggregator for all ICT services to the organisation for five years, Datacentrix has been working on a – at best – difficult”, said Jaap Scholten, Chief
number of projects to support SANParks in its digital transformation journey. This includes the national Operating Officer (COO) at Datacentrix company,
rollout of software-defined networking (SD-WAN) technology, one of the largest South African projects of eNetworks, an ISP and network specialist.
its type, with more than 300 end devices. SANParks’ mandate for the new network
“From a networking point of view, SANParks’ requirements are unique. One has to consider that its was to drive a more reliable, high-speed and
network of 19 parks is scattered across a combination of coastal, arid, mountain and bushveld cost-effective network that minimised reliance
environments, covering more than four million hectares over seven provinces and making up 67 percent on high-latency connectivity, such as satellite
of the land under formal conservation in South Africa. Most of these national parks are fairly communications.

Why SD-WAN was the right fit for
SANParks
One of the major advantages of SD-WAN for
SANParks has been its simplified installation.
Appliances deployed at remote sites with
scarce resources, as is the case with SANParks,
do not require a technician or engineer on site.
The devices are easy for any staff member to
install, downloading its own configuration when
connected to the internet, and becoming part of
the network. They are also fan-less, with no
moving parts, which means that they don’t take
in dust and also don’t require cooling, all of
which are critical points for deployment in
these regions. n

EngineerIT | February 2021 | 36