Building High Growth Tech Companies in South Africa

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Ends:

Format: In person

Location: Workshack, Workshack, 16 Elektron Rd, Techno Park, Stellenbosch, 7600, Stellenbosch

Organiser: The Open Letter

About this event

Building High Growth Tech Companies in South Africa Two conversations about what it takes to build a great business from South Africa: the founder doing it right now, and the investor who has spent 15 years backing the builders. Drinks, snacks and networking before we dive in. Panel Chat: Building Right Now, with Thalia Pillay (Co-founder & CEO, Orca Fraud) and Michael Maas (Founder and CEO of Zimi) Thalia started Orca Fraud in her living room in January 2024. Two years later, Orca protects over $5 billion in monthly transactions across 70+ countries for banks, telcos and payment providers. An engineer who cut her teeth at Investec, Aerobotics and Stitch before building her own, Thalia joins us to unpack how you build a world-class product from SA: finding the gap, winning enterprise customers, and yes, the oversubscribed seed round that followed. Michael co-founded Zimi in Stellenbosch in 2021 on a contrarian bet: skip consumer charging entirely and go all in on commercial fleets. Rather than building speculative public networks, Zimi deploys its EV-as-a-service platform (vehicles, charging, solar and energy management) straight into client depots and routes, and its first electric trucks are already running on Bakers SA's 1,000-plus vehicle fleet. An electronic engineer who built products at MOHARA and Hubble Studios before founding Zimi, Michael joins us fresh off a R50m round led by the DBSA to unpack how you build a capital-intensive hardware company from SA: finding the wedge, landing enterprise fleet customers, and the plan to put 200 charging stations and 2,000 EVs on the road in 18 months. Main Conversation: Lessons From One of South Africa's First Venture Capitalists Brett Commaille has spent more time inside SA's best businesses than almost anyone. He ran Invenfin, Remgro's venture capital arm. He founded AngelHub, one of the first angel investment groups on the continent, backed by Michael Jordaan. Today he's Partner and Co-founder of Hlayisani Capital, built alongside Dr Reuel Khoza, and fresh off an investment in Wamly. Fifteen-plus years in the boardrooms of companies that made it, and plenty that didn't, means Brett knows what separates the businesses that last from the ones that fizzle. Expect a no-spin conversation on both. If you're building something, or deciding what to build next, this is the room to be in. Our Stellenbosch events sell out. Don't sit on it. Tickets include: Drinks, Food, Talks, Networking and live music.

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