What’s Happening in South Africa
During the Plug and Play Summer Summit in Silicon Valley, we had a special guest from South Africa, Rhenier de Beer, Head of Innovation at Motus Group. Motus is one of the biggest automotive groups in South Africa with businesses in Import and Distribution, Retail and Rental, Motor-Related Financial Services, and Aftermarket Parts.

After the Summit, Karen Airola and I from Plug and Play sat down with Rhenier to discuss what’s happening on the other side of the world and why South African corporations are flying over 15 hours to Silicon Valley.

Here are some highlights and thoughts of our conversations.

1. Digitalization is key

The country can easily be updated by using all things digital, ranging from e-payment and e-commerce to digital claim processing in insurance. The successful IPO of Jumia, an e-commerce startup founded in 2012, validates how digitalization can go a long way in South Africa. More and more South Africa corporates are coming to the Silicon Valley to find digitalization models or solutions.

2. Transportation is a constant headache.

Less than 5% of the people in South Africa own a car. Uber is an expensive option. Most lower working class people go with the Minibus, which is a vehicle you literally need to jump on at a chaotic crossroad and jump out in two seconds when the car stops for your destination.

This is what a Minibus looks like in South Africa

Minibuses like this don’t follow traffic rules. This does not mean simply driving through red lights, it means going in the opposite way on a freeway! With wild violations of traffic rules, car crashes are taking place at a rate that is out of our imagination. That leaves lots of room for financial services companies to create more technology enablers to record and prevent car crashes. For example, Rhenier loves Owl Camera, a Silicon Valley startup that provides real-time video protection for people, cars & trucks. Any technology solution like Owl Camera that can provide value-added products for the local South Africa market will have strong potential to thrive.

3. Very little local innovation

Big corporations are doing innovation internally with R&D. Economic conditions are uncertain after the country’s political election, and people are afraid to invest money to build something new and unknown. Limited mentorship network is another hurdle for local startup innovation because people have very little clue about how to build a game-changing tech company.
['Siqi Lin']
['Innovation', 'Silicon Valley', 'Startups', 'Technology', 'South Africa']