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Discovery Global Entrepreneurs Programme
21 – 28 OCTOBER 2017
Congratulations on being selected onto the Discovery Global Entrepreneurs Programme. We are very pleased that you were able to join En-novate and Discovery’s Financial Service Innovation Trip, this time to Amsterdam!
We trust that you will connect and network with your fellow South African and Dutch colleagues in the Financial Services Innovation industry. We chose Amsterdam as a destination because of its innovative approach to making the best use of technology in your sector, as well as to provide you with the opportunity to explore some of the most disruptive financial services-related start-ups, corporates and the working relationships between the two.
The trip aims to expose you to new ways of thinking and global technology-driven innovation in the financial services sector, assisting you to grow and build yourself as entrepreneurs in the Financial Services Innovation industry. We hope that you identify Dutch companies with which you can collaborate, and that our visit will inspire Dutch companies to do business with South Africa.
The week ahead will give you exposure to businesses, partners and technology that can enable your growth and development as a professional in a rapidly changing industry. We encourage you to be bold, present and engaged. This will create connections, knowledge and insights during the sessions planned and facilitated for your benefit. Please keep us informed of your progress during and after the trip.
Amsterdam is the capital and largest city of the Netherlands, and is often called ‘Europe’s Silicon Valley’. The city is populated by talented migrants from throughout the world and is appealing to entrepreneurs for its lack of restrictions, simple tax structure, ease of incorporation and proximity to hundreds of millions of European consumers.
In 2016, 178 new international companies established offices in the Amsterdam metropolitan area. Global technology companies in the area include the European headquarters for Tesla, Uber and Netflix. The increase in new businesses is indicative of Amsterdam living up to its ranking by PricewaterhouseCoopers as the fourth most competitive and innovative city in the world, alongside London and Berlin.
Cutting-edge technology is often first tested in Amsterdam, as it is commonly believed is that if something works in the Netherlands, it will work anywhere else on the planet. The Dutch government actively provides early stage start-ups with a fertile breeding ground to experiment with technology; Adyen, Elastic, Usabilla and WeTransfer are all global companies that grew their businesses out of Amsterdam. Leading multinationals such as KLM, Philips, Heineken and Booking.com are also based in this vibrant city.
Amsterdam has been able to attract some of the best engineers from across the world. As a result, we now have WiFi and Bluetooth - two proudly Dutch inventions. Over the course of the past two years, several scaleups (start-ups at growth and expansion phase) have opened their European headquarters or Research & Development centres in the city, such as Uber, Travelbird, Peerby, 3D Hubs, Blendle, Optimizely, Atlassian, Revinate, AVG, ServiceNow and DoubleDutch. It is no wonder that the European Commission awarded Amsterdam the 2016 European Capital of Innovation Award.
FinTech is rapidly increasing in popularity in Amsterdam, with 350 companies currently active in the city. The sector is especially well advanced in payments (e.g. Adyen, Payvision, GlobalCollect), trading (IMC, Optiver, Flow Traders) and alternative finance (Funding Circle, Symbid, Spotcap).
The combination of a strong financial services sector, a fast-growing tech ecosystem, high adoption of new technologies and the fact that it is an ideal test market, makes Amsterdam a perfect hub for FinTech companies. The financial sector is the largest sector in the Netherlands, with innovative banks such as ABN Amro, Rabobank and ING, and a large capital base (pension funds/insurance).
Dutch regulators (AFM and DNB) have a strong reputation and are keen to work with innovative companies. Service in English for foreign newcomers and clarity upfront is common practice. The AFM and DNB have set up the InnovationHub to support market operators that seek to market innovative financial services or products but are unsure about the rules. The Hub aims to create room for innovation in the financial sector.
Almero Oosthuizen
EasyEquities
Almero is a seasoned marketer with a unique combination of marketing and business management experience. He is a founding member of EasyEquities, and currently fulfills the role of VP Business Development & Partnerships at EasyEquities. Almero is looking to change to the world of investing.
Altesh Baijoo
RainFin
Prior to joining RainFin as its Chief Marketing Officer and shareholder, Altesh held various management and leadership positions at global businesses within the FMCG and advertising/media industries.
He gained his initial entrepreneurial experience by establishing an intrapreneurial/innovation division within a corporate environment, leading a team that was tasked to develop and pilot products to determine commercial feasibility relative to the objective of establishing alternative sources of revenue to the Corporate’s core business. In addition to his corporate experience, Altesh founded and established TheFuturesMuse Media Company, a marketing and management consulting business, which resulted in an acqui-hire by RainFin.
Amit Bholla
Carter
Amit Bholla is a co-founder at Carter, responsible for technology in the business. He is interested in learning about different businesses (and their underlying models), the practical application of technology to improve the lives of people and animals, as well as interesting (even if at times frivolous) trends in technology.
He is an aeronautical engineer by training and spent two years as a management consultant at McKinsey & where he was exposed to various industries and functional areas. Thereafter, Amit joined a young long-term insurance provider called AllLife, a social venture-capital initiative which provides innovative life and disability insurance products to people living with HIV and/or diabetes. At AllLife, Amit served as an executive in charge of product development.
Bevan Ducasse
wiGroup
In 2008, at the age of 24, Bevan founded wiGroup, a company focused on improving how the world transacts, through building leading mobile transaction products and solutions.
Today, wiGroup employs over 140 people across 5 countries, has processed more than 400 million dollars, and their clients include 8 of South Africa’s largest retail groups, the 2 largest telco’s, 3 of the largest banks, and 2 of the largest insurance companies.
Bevan’s passion outside of work are his friends, family, most sports, great coffee, and the outdoors.
Daniel Guasco
Click2Sure
Daniel has been involved in a number of entrepreneurial ventures and blue chip companies across 10 countries – from forming start-ups and SMEs; to launching Twangoo in South Africa in 2011, later bought by Groupon to become one of the most popular group buying sites on the African continent. He has worked across Africa, the UK and Central and Eastern Europe - including extensive experience in developing markets such as Poland, Ukraine, Hungary, the Czech Republic and Croatia. He is a founder and currently CEO of Click2Sure, a fullstack digital insurance company.
David Glass
Electrum Payments
Dave is a founder and CEO of Electrum. Born in Cape Town, he has dedicated his career to the payments industry, and is extremely proud to play a part in the vibrant African fintech environment. His interests include reading, kite surfing and rock climbing.
Emmanuel Luthuli
LanteOTC
Emmanuel has a background in actuarial science and previously held multiple posts at Discovery. He also served as a pension/provident fund trustee. Emmanuel’s passion for complex problem solving and using innovative actuarial and technology techniques to discover new frontiers led to the birth of LanteOTC after conceiving the idea of a specialist risk management company offering clients innovation, flexibility and great value.
Evan Robinson
TaxTim
Evan is a born inventor and passionate problem solver. His cross-disciplinary interests favour the use of innovative technology for broad and disruptive societal change and the upliftment of humanity. Evan studied a Masters degree in Biotechnology and Biochemistry to extend his problem solving abilities from hardware into wetware, but ultimately went back into computer programming and entrepreneurship after his studies. Since leaving school Evan has started four online businesses, the most recent being TaxTim – an online digital tax assistant – that was seed funded by Google in 2011. TaxTim has since helped over 3.5 million South Africans, and expanded into Namibia in 2015 with African expansion plans in progress. Evan is keenly interested in the human psyche, what drives human happiness and promotes freedom. Yoga and meditation are an important daily practice.
Lorien Gamaroff
Centbee
Lorien Gamaroff is the founder/CEO of Bankymoon, a blockchain and cryptocurrency consultancy and co-founder/CEO of Centbee, a cryptocurrency payments and remittance company.
As South Africa's foremost blockchain expert, Lorien has been invited around the world to speak on digital/crypto currencies and decentralised/distributed ledgers and their benefits for emerging economies. He has addressed the IMF, World Bank, FBI and Commonwealth Secretariat, the South African Reserve Bank, TEDx and a host of banking professionals and attorney generals throughout the world. He offers insight and guidance to business executives and advises government on blockchain technologies and their implications.
Lorien pioneered blockchain payments for utility smart metering and was the co-founder of the Blockchain Academy which educates professionals on all aspects of blockchains from regulations to software development.
Luke Warner
Intergreatme
Luke is the CEO and Cofounder of Intergreatme. Luke is a dynamic leader who was inspired to develop a solution to the administrative hassle of filling out application forms and FICA regulation. Luke holds an honors degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Cape Town. He has a broad understanding of the banking industry after spending 4 years in the Corporate and Investment Bank at Standard Bank. Luke has been a salesman/entrepreneur since the age of 6.
Martin Ras
Byte Orbit
Martin Ras, started his career in the creative and retail industry heading up the marketing for a well known educational institution. During this time, the experience spiked his interest and he continued to pursue his entrepreneurial calling. He proceeded to found his first financial tech startup - Ching Payments, which lead him to cross paths with Byte Orbit. The synergies with Byte Orbit and his sheer passion for tech and innovation, meant that he would transition into the role as their CEO in the short space of 5 years.
Martin’s vision and strategy has lead the company to expand the team and its service offering. Furthermore his keen interest in fintech solutions and exponential industries ultimately resulted in revenue growth. To back his practical skill-set he also completed a variety of relevant courses and currently holds an MBA and a Diploma in Marketing.
Marc Ashton
Moneyweb
Marc is MD of media group Moneyweb. He is a passionate about developing entrepreneurship and financial education in South Africa. He has assisted with capital raising, content development, marketing and associated activities to assist high-growth entrepreneurs.
Matt Coquillon
Mama Money
Matt brings over ten years of sales and marketing experience to Mama Money. Having worked in sales, marketing and recruitment in the UK and South Africa, Matt’s latest position was as MD of a leading online coupon company. Matt has traveled vast parts of Africa and his key interest was always how to bring technological advances and the promises of the internet to underserved communities.
Ruan Geyser
TuYu
Ruan is the founder and MD of TuYu, a prepaid mobile wallet platform. Ruan founded TuYu in 2013 after being involved in the prepaid card industry, two online platforms and the startup of a Fractional Ownership business in the UK. TuYu focuses on three areas within the South African prepaid space – Rewards (Enables corporates to instantly reward their staff or consumers directly to their mobile phones), Stokvels (Enables saving groups/stokvels to communicate and transact in a secure, convenient and transparent manner and Payroll (Enables employers to instantly pay unbanked staff directly to their mobile phones). TuYu is backed by Crossfin Technology and Crossgate Technologies.
Ryan Canin
DocFox
Ryan Canin, 27, is the CEO and Co-founder of DocFox, a web application that simplifies Know Your Customer (KYC) compliance for financial services firms, including data collection and verification, risk rating and international watchlist screening. DocFox helps customers submit their KYC documents electronically with just a few taps. Customers can upload copies of their proof of identity and address documents, or submit documents using their smartphone camera. Since it was launched three years ago, DocFox has established a presence in the US, with Silicon Valley funding and US clients that include two banks. DocFox has also managed to secure a partnership with global law firm Norton Rose Fulbright. It was while serving his clients in his first software development business, which included large financial service institutions such as Liberty, Barclays and Standard Bank, that he spotted the need for a KYC solution. Entrepreneurship has always pumped through his veins. At the age of 13, Ryan raised R240 000 to fund a Guinness World Record to build the world’s largest canned food construction. After one year of planning, he built a canned food rocket out of 26 656 cans of the 36 000 cans collected. He broke the record, and it took the efforts of Montana State University to break it in 2008. In 2013, Ryan graduated with a BSc Engineering from Wits and went straight into the entrepreneurial world.
Thabo Mongoma
Imafin
Having completed his Commerce degree at the University of Cape Town and an MBA from GIBS, Thabo spent most of his corporate career working for BP. During his 6 year tenure, he held various roles, including Strategy, Sales and Marketing and delivered Supply Chain and Marketing initiatives for BP in developing countries. In the payments space Thabo headed the BP Card and Payments function where he successfully introduced the acceptance of wide card payments at fuel stations in South Africa, a major milestone now replicated across the fuel industry. He further crafted the now popular BP and Discovery Vitality loyalty offering.
Having left BP, Thabo was employed by MasterCard as the lead for Card Acceptance and Loyalty for 11 countries in Southern Africa. Thabo has honed his payments skills through a number of senior engagements across payment strategy, methods of payment initiatives, loyalty and acquiring engagements.
In 2012, Thabo co-founded a payments and commercial credit firm, Imafin, which is a partnership with Diners Club International.
Thomas Pays
i-Pay Secure Payment
Thomas Pays is the co-founder and CEO of i-Pay. He is an entrepreneur and angel investor. Prior to i-Pay. Thomas founded 3 multiple international businesses, one of which was Just Perfect a digital agency that he founded in 2013 and sold recently and another was Smokoo, an auction website that he grew internationally to France, the UK, the USA and Russia before exiting successfully.
Tsepo Headbush
Bright On Capital
Tsepo Headbush is a co-founder of Bright On Capital. Prior to establishing Bright On Capital Tsepo led the formation and fund raising of Alternative Equity Partners (“AEP”), a US$100 million pan-African private equity fund-of-funds division of Brait South Africa Limited. Tsepo led AEP as its Chief Executive Officer for 3 years. Tsepo also spent 3 years at Eskom Pension & Provident Fund where he managed the pension fund´s R3 billion alternative asset portfolio.
Tsepo´s previous experience also includes 3 years as a private equity investment manager at the Southern Africa Enterprise Development Fund, where his core responsibilities included managing the fund´s financial services and technology, media and telecommunications investments across Southern Africa.
Ntuthuko Shezi
Livestock Wealth
Ntuthuko Shezi is a 37-year-old Electro-Mechanical Engineer and former strategy consultant at Accenture. In the past eleven years, he has built various startups, the most successful of which being Scratch Mobile, the mobile vehicle scratch and dent repair business with facilities at Johannesburg’s O.R. Tambo International Airport. It is the only airport-based auto body repair facility in the world and caters for the flying individuals and car rental companies. The business employs 28 people and has annual revenues of more than R10 million.
His latest venture, Livestock Wealth is a crowdfarming stock exchange that enables individuals to invest in listed organic beef cattle farms and share in the profits of the farm. Livestock Wealth simplifies investments for the majority of the African population through the use of an asset class they know and understand, cattle.