Discussing Inclusive Value Chains With Simon Carpenter of SAP Africa

We are one week away from returning to our regular coverage of the week’s biggest digital, tech and innovation headlines, once the team at the African Tech Round-up returns from the Festive break.

This week’s show features yet another sneak preview of Season 6 of the African Tech Conversations series. I chat with Simon Carpenter, Chief Technology Officer at SAP Africa, and with 2017 well and truly underway, I find out what innovation trend Simon is most excited about.

Now, as many of you know, last week the world’s largest tech conference, CES 2017, went down in Las Vegas, Nevada last week. If you follow us on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram— which of course I encourage you to do, then you’ll know that this year we teamed up with the Swazi Bridge Project to bring you Africa-focussed highlights from the expo, courtesy of CEO and Founder of the Swazi Bridge Project, Nicholus Steward.

Be sure to take in the insights we gleaned from CES 2017– like this conversation that Nick had with Steve Perlman, CEO and founder of Artemis:

I’m looking forward to having Nicholus on the show next week to unpack some of the more interesting announcements made at CES, and to discuss key issues that emerged which are likely to impact the continent in 2017.

First published on AfricanTechRoundup.com.

 

Zebra Cabs Raises $21.6 Million To Take On Uber And Taxify In South Africa

SA Taxi-owned Zebra Cabs has raised just over $21.6 million from Futuregrowth Asset Management to expand their owner-driver scheme in Johannesburg, and to take on Uber and Taxify. Their big hairy audacious goal is to have 3 000 cabs on the road by 2020.

This development has got me wondering how many players Africa’s ride-sharing market can sustain. There must be easier ways to make a buck, but it seems the prospect of carving out a chunk of what is potentially a multi-billion dollar industry is clearly too much to pass up for VC’s like Futuregrowth. The FOMO is real!

It’s going to be interesting to see how quickly Zebra Cabs burns through their newly-found cash. Will they withstand the fierce price war that’s almost guaranteed to ensue? How long will their financiers be willing to wait before they turn a profit? And will more funds be forthcoming when Zebra Cabs needs to extend their runway further down the line? Only time will tell.

In this week’s African Tech Round-up we publish snippets from two conversations I taped at SAP’s Executive Digital Exchange in Camps Bay, Cape Town last week. First, I spoke with SAP’s global Digital Transformation Officer, Dr Chakib Bouhdary, who shared some of the most common misconceptions he encounters regarding digital transformation when he interacts with executives around the world. Chakib also touched on the strategic mindset driving the trend towards large enterprises keenly making big plays outside their traditional businesses.

Then, I chatted with SAP Africa MD, Brett Parker, who revealed some of the most critical strategic decisions made by SAP’s global leadership back in 2010, that helped the software giant maintain its dominant position in an increasingly competitive global market. You should definitely listen in to hear Brett highlight some of the fascinating greenfield opportunities SAP is pursuing on the continent.

First published on AfricanTechRoundup.com.