South African business duo Eldrid Jordaan and Goitse Konopi listed their new technology venture, Suppple, on the Luxembourg Stock Exchange on Tuesday.
The market cap is £200 million (R4.6 billion) and the share price £2. The listing enhances Suppple’s financial stability and investment attractiveness, facilitating expansion into new markets and sectors.
Several years ago, I said the potential demographic dividend of South Africa was poised for a demographic disaster.
Jordaan and Konopi are staring the challenge in the face. Through their new company, Suppple, they have focused on the mission of education, health and product safety, especially food. They are putting technology to good use.
They have challenged not only South Africa but the world, and achieved a major milestone today. That is why in my article yesterday was a teaser when I said: “Watch the space today.”
Jordaan is the former CEO and founder of citizen engagement platform GovChat, and Konopi its chief data officer.
As part of Suppple’s organisational structure, Jordaan takes on the role of founder and CEO, while Konopi is the co-founder and chief data officer.
I am proud to say that I am the chairperson of Suppple’s board and am proud of what it brings to the table.The name “Suppple” is derived a synonym for resilience, and represents the creation of “Social impact Using Public-Private-Partnerships”.
Jordaan and Konopi have focused on the mission of leaving no one behind.
It reminds me of Mosotho philosopher Morena Mohlomi who established an ethical leadership school in Ngolile in the 18th century. The philosophical foundations of the school were “a responsible leader pursues peaceful and productive alliances, accommodates stakeholders, and uses new instruments of power to create intergenerational value”.
The challenge tackled must result in intergenerational value through transformative leadership. Importantly, the results must be integrative.
Today, May 14, history has been made in the families of Eldrid Jordaan and Gontsi Konopi as their team tirelessly met the demanding challenges of listing on a stock exchange. It is a wonderful realisation of their hard work and vision.
Suppple’s value their values in matters that count for a nation.
GovChat was born out of pain. Jordaan saw a technological gap. GovChat was launched as South Africa’s platform for citizen-government engagement and it became a crucial vehicle, especially during the crucial and painful years of the Covid-19 pandemic. It facilitated real-time communication and service delivery, supporting more than 10 million users with access to critical health updates, social relief applications and government services.
Suppple too continues to go where there is pain and creates intergenerational value.
Suppple is an infrastructure-as-a-service) API technology platform designed to assist governments of all sizes, across the globe, to rapidly organise, digitise and automate their functions.
It answers the challenges that face the industry and consumers in retail and supply chain management. To this end, the Consumer Goods Council of South Africa and GS1 South Africa, a leading supplier of barcodes in South Africa, use Suppple’s technology to play a pivotal role in the verification and tracking of products. The partnership supports the scanning and verification of more than 500 billion products globally. Ten billion products are scanned daily across 115 countries.
The robust system aids in addressing illegal trade activities valued within an inestimable range of billions to trillions. The magnitude of leakage will be visible and known because of its power of integrated reporting.
The operational reach is facilitated by the extensive use of GS1 barcodes across various products and markets. This allows for seamless international operations and thus elevates the Suppple technology as essential, if not the tool for global trade and regulatory compliance in the consumer goods sector.
This is what the South Africa of Struggle is achieving in front of our eyes.
Suppple’s Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) through Resolv Global, call centre and collection agents, also enhances BPO services in South Africa, Kenya and Columbia with customised call centre solutions. By integrating chatbots and AI technology, Suppple improves customer and employee experiences, optimising operational efficiency and effectiveness, thus yielding service quality.
At the level of the continent in public administration initiatives, Suppple operates in cities like Dakar and Nairobi who use its software for managing public services including social welfare, public health and urban planning. The technology’s adaptability enhances civic operations.
The Senegal partnership has led to the co-creation of platforms for citizen-government engagement and the digitisation of social grants, driving transparency and accessibility.
Financial and market prospects in the context of the Luxembourg Stock Exchange Listing enhances Suppple’s financial stability and investment attractiveness, facilitating expansion into new markets and sectors.
With that in mind, the company’s growth strategy is targeting expansion into small and midsize business markets and scaling operations across global cloud marketplaces within two months.
The board of directors consists of conscientious people. These are Jordaan; Konopi; Dr Lwazi Manzi, the head of the AU’s Covid-19 response; Professor Randall Carolissen, the dean at Johannesburg Business School and former CEO of the National Student Financial Aid Scheme; Marina Short, the chairperson of the Credit Bureau Association of South Africa and CEO of the Consumer Profile Bureau; and I am the chair.
Jordaan and Konopi are the perfect leadership protégés of Lesotho’s Morena Mohlomi. Their business concepts help leave no one behind and improve people’s lives.
Dr Pali Lehohla is the chairperson of the Supple board, a Professor of Practice at the University of Johannesburg, a research associate at Oxford University, a board member of Institute for Economic Justice at Wits and a distinguished alumni of the University of Ghana. He is the former statistician-general of South Africa
BUSINESS REPORT