Inside SA; The One African Tech Nest For Globally Scalable Solutions?

Some 4 months ago, news broke that Go1, a Brisbane-based edtech company with a South African founder, received the unlikely touch from Masayoshi Son’s SoftBank. 

As expected, the VC colossus' lead in the USD 200 Mn Series C hatched the unicorn in Go1 and geared it for the global game. Though the enterprise learning firm’s true local identity remains questionable, it is referred to as the first-ever tech unicorn to be born out of South Africa. 

In September 2021, Australia’s BNPL giant Zip acquired Payflex, the first and largest buy-now-pay-later company in South Africa to bring the buying-on-credit frenzy to the African continent. In the same month, African AI-driven financial inclusion tech firm, Finclusion, bought South Africa’s HelloHR—a payroll software startup. 

Before that (June 2021), FM: Systems—a Raleigh-based leading provider of digital workplace solutions worldwide, bought over South Africa’s WizzPass in a rare Johannesburg-N...