South African tech billionaire who is rapidly increasing his wealth

Karooooo CEO Zak Calisto has quadrupled his personal wealth to around R14 billion in five years thanks to the phenomenal success of his vehicle tracking company, Cartrack.

Calisto’s experience in the telematics industry dates back to 1994 — ten years before he officially founded Cartrack as a vehicle tracking technology company.

Born in Portugal, Calisto (57) moved to Africa when he was two years old — first to Mozambique, then South Africa.

He began studying actuarial science at the University of Witwatersrand but dropped out after finding that he didn’t “fit” with his peers and professors.

After his compulsory military service, he completed an accelerated training programme at Standard Bank between 1986 and 1991.

After that, he decided to go into business.

“I initially started as a distributor — working for myself — and doing a lot of the distribution for Netstar,” Calisto told BizNews.

“This is even before Altron bought Netstar.”

In 1999, he helped Netstar expand into South Africa’s neighbours and came back with a track record.

By 2001, he launched Cartrack as a joint venture with Netstar. In an interview with CNBC Africa, Calisto said he had about R100 in his pocket when he began the company.

“In the early days, we had a very good agreement with Vodacom,” he explained.

“In those days, both Vodacom and MTN would give you cash incentive bonuses for taking out a 24-month contract, and that money helped us fund the business.”

Calisto said the joint venture with Netstar didn’t quite work out as either company had envisaged.

“So, in 2004, we went on our own,” he said.

Initially launched as a stolen vehicle recovery company in South Africa, Cartrack has grown into a multinational powerhouse with operations in 23 countries.

It also expanded from recovery to offering tracking, data analytics, and business intelligence.

Cartrack listed on the JSE in 2014 and delisted in 2021 to launch on the Nasdaq under a holding company, Karooooo.

Thanks to his stake in Karooooo, Calisto has been a rand billionaire for some time and is rapidly approaching dollar billionaire status.

Karooooo’s latest annual report revealed that Calisto controls 20,028,811 of the company’s shares, giving him a direct 64.81% stake worth around R11.8 billion.

However, Calisto also controls an additional 3,140,000 shares through a group called One Spire (Pty) Ltd.

He therefore has an effective 74.97% beneficial ownership of the company, valued at R13.6 billion.

In 2018, Calisto’s shareholding was worth about R3.47 billion — meaning his net worth has skyrocketed by 294% over the last five financial years.

The company also has no plans to slow down.

In its unaudited full-year results for the 2023/24 financial year, Karooooo posted an impressive performance.

Revenue increased by 19.92% during the year, growing from R3.51 billion to R4.21 billion.

Profitability also showed strong growth, with a 24% increase in its net profit from R597 million to R738 million.

For the 2024/25 financial year, the company aims to continue growing and set itself the following goals:

• Grow Cartrack’s subscriber base to between 2.2 million and 2.4 million
• Grow Cartrack subscription revenue to between R3.9 billion and R4.15 billion
• Grow Cartrack’s operating profit margin by 27% to 31%
• Increase Karooooo’s earnings per share to between R27.50 and R31.00

Speaking to Alishia Seckam on Daily Investor’s Smart Money, Calisto said that when he began Cartrack, he knew there was demand for its services.

“What I couldn’t foresee is the big expansion of technology,” he said.

Calisto said it’s obvious to him now that no one really knows what they will be doing in ten years because technology is continuously improving.

“What we’re doing today with our technology has nothing to do with what we initially started out with,” he said.

Asked where the name Karooooo came from, Calisto told BizNews: “First of all, I am South African and I love the Karoo.”

Calisto explained that when he externalised his shares around 2019, he formed a company in Singapore called Karoo to hold them.

Later, when they needed a legal entity to list on the Nasdaq, they tried to buy the karoo.com domain.

However, Calisto told Daily Investor that the American who owned it wanted a few million dollars for it.

“Then I just registered ‘Karoo’ with three o’s up to ten o’s — so now we own all those domains,” he said.

“Over time, we also learned it’s just a name — you can call it whatever you want.”