GQ South Africa — May 2017

Wealth

The smart money: HOW TO STAY SOLVENT s BE AWARE OF INVESTING RACKETS s A REBEL VENTURE CAPITALIST

MAY 2017 GQ.CO.ZA 53

Words byPaul Sephton

AFRICA’S TECH

STARTUP STARS

Yossi Hasson

There are plenty of rich opportunities for

tech startups with balls, says Yossi Hasson

Y

ossi Hasson co-founded internet

tech company SYNAQ when

he was just 22. After scaling to

1-million users and selling to Dimension

Data, he co-founded WehinkCode_,

a tuition-free tech talent incubator that

has its sights set on building Africa’s next

10 0 000 developers. Currently MD of global

accelerator Techstars Africa, he screens

hundreds of startups annually, and invests

in and mentors those that are accepted

into the programme. He shares his opinion

on entrepreneurship on the continent.

GQ: If we gave you $1bn right now,

what would you do with it?

Yossi Hasson: I’d give a chunk of it to my

family and set them on a good course.

hen, I’m involved with an organisation

called WehinkCode_ so I would put a big

amount into the foundation. I would

also use it to build relationships with

billionaires around the world to pour

more money into the continent. here is

a strong opportunity to bridge capital that

is available overseas and use it to leverage

opportunities in Africa’s infrastructure and

‘Some 80 per cent of adults

on the continent are unbanked,

which is a massive opportunity’

development and make an impact, in

terms of a return and the actual net result

of what it’s able to do.

GQ: If you were going to invest in one

company right now, what would it be?

YH: here’s a company I’m invested in

called i-Pay that has great global ambitions

• it’s an EFT payment solutions company.
  GQ: Which industry will the next tech
  unicorn come from?
  YH: I’m heavily involved in intech and
  there are a fair share of unicorns from that
  sector and there will be more over time,
  speciically relevant in Africa. Some 80
  per cent of adults on the continent are
  unbanked which is a massive opportunity.
  Outside of that, education is probably
  where the next big unicorn will emerge.
  GQ: Has there been a trigger point for
  the fintech industry to have been so
  disruptive over the past few years?
  YH: he irst was when the mobile device
  became more than just a phone and seeing
  its potential to be used as a utility tool.
  Number two, the world of big data and the
  potential transactions that can take place
  through information collected by service
  providers. New companies are able to
  move faster and come from a diferent
  space which allows them to see diferent
  opportunities. For a long time, Facebook
  has had the ability to accept payments,
  and they’re testing it now, but when they
  have all your information there’s no better
  company, potentially, to provide you with
  credit facilities and know whether you’ll
  be good for it.
  GQ: Credit is an issue in Africa,
  particularly getting a credit rating.
  Are any startups addressing this?
  YH: We invested in the Nigerian company
  Social Lender, which allows people
  without a credit history to use their social
  reputation to build a credit proile. So your
  Facebook proile is used to build a credit
  proile, and people on Facebook can be
  social guarantors. It gives you a fortune of
  information and a powerful tool to get an
  idea of a person’s credit worthiness outside
  the typical methodologies. >>