The Springbok legend who founded his own tech company

Legendary Springbok winger Bryan Habana co-founded an earned wage access (EWA) platform Paymenow in January 2020 with three other entrepreneurs who hoped to tackle overindebtedness in South Africa.

Habana is one of South Africa’s best-known and most respected rugby players and was globally renowned for his speed and try-scoring ability.

He is widely seen as one of the greatest players in the history of the sport and was the most feared winger of his generation.

Habana was born in Johannesburg and attended King Edward VII School, where he played outside centre and scrumhalf.

His talent, speed, and agility helped him to be picked for the South Africa Sevens side in the 2003/2004 World Sevens Series.

He made his Currie Cup debut for the Golden Lions in 2004, doing well enough to be voted the country’s most promising player that year.

He became a Springbok in the same year. He made his debut against England at Twickenham aged 21. Habana came on as a reserve to score a try with his first touch of the ball.

Over the years, he played for the Golden Lions, Blue Bulls, and Western Province in South Africa, as well as for the Bulls and Stormers in Super Rugby, and Toulon in the French Top 14.

One of his best-known tries was in the 2007 Super 14 season, when his last-minute try in the final gave the Bulls a dramatic 20–19 victory over the Sharks.

He also won the 2012 Currie Cup final while playing for Western Province and the Heineken Cup and Top 14 in 2014 and the European Champions Cup in 2015 as part of Toulon.

Despite having a significant impact on these teams, his greatest achievements came as a Springbok winger, characterised by his explosive speed and attacking abilities.

He was a part of the Springbok team that won the 2007 Rugby World Cup. His eight tries equalled the record for a single tournament set by Jonah Lomu in 1999.

He was named the 2007 IRB Player of the Year, and during the Springboks’ 2015 World Cup campaign, Habana equalled Lomu’s career record of 15 tries in World Cups.

He won 124 caps for the South Africa national team, making him one of the longest-serving Springboks in history.

Habana announced his retirement from rugby in April 2018 and ranks second among all-time test try scorers with 67 tries throughout his career.

Bryan Habana enters the business world

After co-founding a marketing agency called Retroactive with former schoolmate Mike Sharman, Habana teamed up with Willem Van Zyl, Gerbrand Potgieter, and university roommate Deon Nobrega to launch Paymenow.

In an interview on Sage’s Sound Advice podcast, Habana explained that Nobrega approached him in June 2019 to discuss the concept of EWA.

“I was initially very, I want to say, hesitant or dismissive,” Habana said, explaining that he was concerned that the practice would be seen as predatory or abusive and damage his brand. “It was Rugby World Cup year, I was like, ‘No.’”

Habana said he allowed Nobrega to twist his arm because of mutual trust. Nobrega introduced Habana to the woman he would eventually marry and was the master of ceremonies at his wedding.

“We had an incredible group of co-founding members — we had me and Deon, as well as our two tech co-founders, an incredible angel investor,” Habana said.

“We really believed in the product, and we were just so excited to take it to market where it hadn’t actually been done before.”

The International Labour Organisation described EWA platforms as third-party services provided in partnership with employers that enable workers to access a portion of their earned wages before the usual payday.

In a 2020 investor pitch, Paymenow stated that South Africans rely on debt more than people from any other country.

It said 86% of South Africans have outstanding debt, and 44% have damaged credit histories.

Paymenow said it lets South Africans access wages they have already earned to give them much-needed liquidity for a set fee of 5%, compared to 27% offered by traditional payday lenders.

However, Paymenow said half of all transactions they facilitate, such as electricity or grocery vouchers, incur zero fees.

Launching during lockdown

While the four entrepreneurs were extremely bullish about Paymenow’s prospects, global lockdowns in March 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic dampened everything.

“The immediate consideration that we had as a business, when funding is limited, you’ve got no clients, where will you go?” Habana said.

“We were very fortunate that we managed to launch our first client literally a week before the first initial hard lockdown in South Africa.”

That provided them with some market validation, which enabled them to continue building. However, Habana said lockdown upended his preferred way of doing things — in-person engagements.

“All of a sudden, you had to do everything online. You were speaking to initials on a screen. You were trying to sell and pitch something that a lot of people didn’t understand,” he said.

“And yes, there was one company that had market validation, but you were just speaking to friends and family.”

A silver lining was that it gave them an opportunity to let employers better understand the financial constraints under which their employees were working.

“Businesses were looking at various ways of stretching their employee value proposition, because all of a sudden people were working from home, costs were getting cut,” said Habana.

“And yes, it was a very torrid, very tough time, but it did allow us to pivot and adapt and innovate, not just in our tech offering, but how we were able to sell.”

Habana said they have a fantastic work culture at Paymenow and that he was extremely proud of the employees they recruited.

“We have grown systematically, incrementally over the last three years,” he said.

“We were four guys thinking and doing things the same on a WhatsApp group in a 20-square-meter office, and all of a sudden, as you grow, you need to start putting better business continuity processes in place.”

Paymenow’s phenomenal growth

As of May 2025, Paymenow serves more than 500,000 employees across over 300 organisations in South Africa, other African territories, and Pakistan.

Paymenow promotes responsible usage of the service by encouraging employees to progress through tiers — from green to gold — by completing budgeting tools, credit score checks, and educational modules.

It said that the average person accesses R2,200 rand per month through the platform but only uses R1,300, which shows responsible behaviour.

In June, Paymenow revealed that young people are leading the adoption of EWA in South Africa. It said active users aged 18–33 grew by 132% over the past year.

This outpaced the platform’s 73% growth amongst older users and reflected the steadily increasing popularity of EWA.

Paymenow said young South Africans were showing financial intelligence by choosing earned wage access over predatory lending options.

The surge in youth adoption also reflected broader workplace trends. Paymenow said employers increasingly recognise EWA as a valuable employee benefit that enhances retention and workplace satisfaction.

These are particularly important for attracting and retaining young talent in competitive job markets.

Bryan Habana as a rugby player and commentator

Paymenow expansion over the years