South Africa’s brilliant tech innovations

South Africa is known for producing excellent technology entrepreneurs, including Elon Musk, Mark Shuttleworth, and Vinny Lingham (also see Great South African inventions).

Local men and women were behind many of the world’s great technology services like Paypal, Ubuntu, Thawte, WooThemes, and Gyft.

Many local technology entrepreneurs are following in the footsteps of Musk and Shuttleworth, and are producing exciting new tech products and innovations.

Here are some of the latest products and services from South African tech entrepreneurs who are looking to break into the international market.

LifeQ by Laurence Olivier and others

LifeQ was co-founded by Laurence Olivier, Riaan Conradie, Kora Holm, and Franco Du Preez – experts in the field of computational systems biology.

LifeQ uses computational systems biology and continuous body monitoring to create an on-demand record of a person’s personal physiology and health.

The information can be used to give insight into a person’s health, which can be used to make better choices around lifestyle, food, exercise, medication, and almost anything that impacts one’s health.

Know Roaming by Gregory Gundelfinger

KnowRoaming launched its “smart sticker” SIMs in South Africa towards the end of 2014.

The service, which was launched by South African Gregory Gundelfinger, gives travellers the ability to switch to a network that offers cheaper roaming rates without needing to swap SIMs.

Backtracker bike radar by Franz Struwig

Backtracker is a low-energy bike radar, a device that provides situational awareness by giving the cyclist the speed and distance of vehicles which are approaching from behind.

The road is scanned by a rear-facing radar module that also doubles as a flashing caution light, and the information is sent wirelessly to a handlebar-mounted head unit.

iKubu, the company behind Backtracker which was founded by Franz Struwig, was recently sold to Garmin.

Xeero smartwatch for kids by Steven Ferraris

Origin Wireless CEO Steven Ferraris and his team designed Xeero – a “fully integrated and stand-alone smartwatch for kids”. The watch supports voice and video calls, chat, speech to text, photo and video sharing, and location services.

Ubuntu phone by Mark Shuttleworth

Canonical (Ubuntu) founder Mark Shuttleworth unveiled the second Ubuntu phone – the Meizu MX4 – at Mobile World Congress 2015. The Meizu MX4 runs mobile Linux OS, and features a 5.36-inch IPS screen, an octa-core processor, and a 20.7MP camera.

Payment Pebble handset by Stafford Masie

Stafford Masie’s ThumbsUp developed the Payment Pebble handset, which it calls “the most advanced, simplest, cost effective, feature rich” mobile point of sale platform.

Nomanini prepaid vending machine by Vahid Monadjem

Cape Town based Nomanini, founded by Vahid and Ali Monadjem, developed a range of rugged point of sale terminals aimed at informal markets. These terminals are easy to use, highly configurable, and can be used to sell airtime, electricity, insurance, and process other cash-based transactions.

Mobile World Congress 2015 discussion

Tech Busters host Aki Anastasiou talked to Mark Shuttleworth and Steven Ferraris at the 2015 Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.