Successful South African Entrepreneurs 2024 Edition

To be a successful entrepreneur in today’s highly dynamic business landscape, one needs to never run out of ideas. Notably, looking to date in 2024, we have understood that successful entrepreneurs are those who innovate. 

Successful innovators consist of entrepreneurs who are not just starting new companies but are also disrupting industries with new ideas and efficient solutions. Among them are young people who are driving change in companies such as AI start-ups and food delivery businesses.

In this article, we will look into the chronicles and the approaches of these entrepreneurs to understand how they started their businesses and what their success is looking like.

Delivery Ka Speed, ‘Speedy Delivery’ in Sepitori is a hot-footed township food delivery service that employs locals familiar with the area’s layout to deliver fast food to residents’ doorsteps. Using mainly bicycles and electric scooters as transport, Delivery Ka Speed drivers make around R1 500 per week, providing a much-needed boost to a struggling local economy and a new avenue of income for the township’s unemployed youth.

Founded in Mogajane’s hometown of Hammanskraal in July 2021, Delivery Ka Speed originally fielded orders via a WhatsApp chatbot and employed just a handful of drivers. By the end of the year, the spring out of the delivery service had processed over 6 500 orders, hired over 20 drivers, employed over 10 administrative staff, and surpassed R1 million in revenue, all in just five short months. Delivery Ka Speed now also operates in Soshanguve, Mabopane, and Mamelodi, with plans to expand to all of Gauteng’s major towns and beyond.

 

Kelebogile Molopyane, CEO of AB4IR (Africa Beyond the Fourth Industrial Revolution) and one of the founding directors of the Drone Council South Africa, is calling for organisations in SA’s tech sector to level the playing field for female representation, especially in the drone industry.

 

The 42-year-old entrepreneur, mindset coach, and published author has 19 years of experience in the enterprise development space and 12 years of experience in professional coaching.

Over the past 10 years, Molopyane has been instrumental in setting up business incubators and accelerators across SA.

 

Founded in August 2017, Chepa Streetwear is an African-print clothing manufacturer and retailer. They draw inspiration from modern designs and infuse them with African print, paying great attention to detail and quality. One of the key factors for their success is manufacturing their range. By owning this function, they can impact their local community by employing skilled individuals and the youth. They can also ensure they manufacture their product efficiently and that the quality is above standards and on time.

Dumisani Mahlangu’s entrepreneurial journey started selling sweets, bakery rolls, t-shirts, and sneakers at a young age. He had great entrepreneurial role models, showing him how to be self-sufficient and care for his family. His father’s entrepreneurial journey, filled with successes and failures, taught him a great deal about the nature of running one’s own business.

Thapelo Nthite, the co-founder and CEO of Botlhale AI and originally from Phokeng in Rustenberg, studied mechatronics at the University of Cape Town and carried out his research in the electrical engineering department at the master’s level on speech-to-text in under-resourced languages. He was looking at creative ways of augmenting speech data that are used for training AI-based transcription models. From this research, he founded Botlhale AI, which has become a big part of his life.

 

Thandi Hartmann founded Blushproof in 2020. She came across something called Period Panties and knew she just had to try them. She was sick of uncomfortable pads and tampons that wedge and stick and smell bad, so she decided to buy her first pair. These were imported at quite a hefty price, but so worth it! Realising this was something her fellow South Africans should have access to (but at a much more affordable price tag), she went on to better understand the fabrics, how they were made, the designs and sizes, what worked, what didn’t work, until she had created her range, made in South Africa for South Africans. 

 

Khoi Tech is a South African technology company providing technology services through its wearable devices and proprietary software platforms. They use AI, big data analysis, and machine learning algorithms to develop solutions that enhance the lives of our customers in the health, wellness, and sports industries.

Khoi was established in 2020 with a mission of disrupting the wearable-tech market sector traditionally dominated by multi-national entities. We collaborated with leading international component manufacturers and suppliers to manufacture and introduce our first offering, the Khoi Afriwatch1 health & fitness smartwatch.

In addition, Khoi Tech aims to empower individuals and organizations with actionable, data-driven insights and solutions to enhance health, wellness, and performance in the health, wellness, and sports industries.

 

 

These entrepreneurs demonstrate that it is possible to succeed today by solving some of the biggest challenges of our society. These stories are very important in giving us a perspective that entrepreneurship is all about innovation, effort, and embracing change. This will remain the legacy of these innovators as the future generation will learn from them. The future is full of opportunities waiting for those entrepreneurs who are creative and innovative to take charge.