Phiwa Nkambule (born 24 January 1992) is a technology entrepreneur, technology businessperson and

internet activist Internet activism is the use of electronic communication technologies such as social media, e-mail, and podcasts for various forms of activism to enable faster and more effective communication by citizen movements, the delivery of particular infor ...

best known for co-founding

Riovic Riovic Capital Group, or simply Riovic, is a financial technology company and private equity holding company that provides a platform that lets private companies discover private equity funds, raise capital, manage their capitalization tables ...

and leading it as its CEO. He previously founded Cybatar and sat on the board of the Royal Science and Technology Park.

Early life

Phiwa Nkambule was born in

Manzini Manzini may refer to: *Manzini, Eswatini, a town in the Manzini Region of Eswatini *Manzini Region, a region of Eswatini *Manzini (surname), an Italian surname See also *Roman Catholic Diocese of Manzini The Diocese of Manzini ( la, Manzinien(si ...

where he also spent his childhood. In 2006, as a 14-year-old, he began fixing and building computers with his uncle in a small township in

Eswatini Eswatini ( ; ss, eSwatini ), officially the Kingdom of Eswatini and formerly named Swaziland ( ; officially renamed in 2018), is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. It is bordered by Mozambique to its northeast and South Africa to its no ...

. Nkambule moved to South Africa in 2007 for academic purposes. Phiwa was a

law student Legal education is the education of individuals in the principles, practices, and theory of law. It may be undertaken for several reasons, including to provide the knowledge and skills necessary for admission to legal practice in a particular j ...

at the

University of Pretoria The University of Pretoria ( af, Universiteit van Pretoria, nso, Yunibesithi ya Pretoria) is a multi-campus public university, public research university in Pretoria, the administrative and de facto capital of South Africa. The university was ...

before quitting to start his first technology company Cybatar from his garage in 2014. It was at the university where he taught himself web and app development.

Entrepreneurship

Before leaving the

Phiwa attempted to work with the Swaziland National Library and the Manzini Regional Education Office in 2013 but was rejected. After dropping out of university in 2014 Nkambule founded Cybatar, a technology company focused on fuel delivery from his garage in

Pretoria Pretoria () is South Africa's administrative capital, serving as the seat of the Executive (government), executive branch of government, and as the host to all foreign embassies to South Africa. Pretoria straddles the Apies River and extends ...

, South Africa. In 2015 Nkambule co-founded

, an insurance technology company. The company owns and operates online platforms that connect consumers with insurance, credit and investments. In May 2019 Princess Sikhanyiso, the eldest daughter of

King Mswati III Mswati III (born Makhosetive; 19 April 1968) is the king (Swazi: Ngwenyama, Ingwenyama yemaSwati) of Eswatini and head of the Swazi royal family. He was born in Manzini in the Protectorate of Swaziland to King Sobhuza II and one of his younger w ...

and the

Minister of Information, Communication and Technology appointed Phiwa to the board of the Royal Science and Technology Park, a state-owned enterprise created to foster the conception of inventions and facilitate their patenting and help knit various elements of the R&D cluster together.

Politics

In September 2021 Phiwa Nkambule discovered that he had been removed from the board of the Royal Science and Technology Park through the company's website without any official communication following his public support for the unbanning of political parties after the political unrest that took place in June 2021 in

. The Ministry of Information, Communication and Technology claimed that his 3-year term which started in May 2019 had lapsed.

Philanthropy

On 24 October 2015, he released the first tuition crowdfunding platform in South Africa in the wake of the

FeesMustFall #FeesMustFall was a student-led protest movement that began in mid-October 2015 in South Africa. The goals of the movement were to stop increases in student fees as well as to increase government funding of universities. Protests started at the ...

protests that saw the country's tertiary institutions shut down to help save students from tuition debt. He also launched a free online learning platform for digital skills aimed at reducing the youth unemployment rate in South Africa.

Awards and recognition

Phiwa Nkambule was invited to deliver a keynote address on Digital Technologies in Insurance at the 13th International Microinsurance Conference in Peru, South America in November 2017. Phiwa Nkambule Forbes Under 30

In June 2018, he was named in the Forbes Africa 30 Under 30 list of most promising entrepreneurs in the technology category. In October 2018 he was named in Destiny Man’s Power of 40 list, a list of 40 trailblazers under the age of 40.http://www.pressreader.com/south-africa/destiny-man/20181201/282716227967510 In September 2020 Nkambule was one of the entrepreneurs named in a book titled "''Entrepreneurs Who Changed History''" published by

Dorling Kindersley Dorling Kindersley Limited (branded as DK) is a British multinational publishing company specialising in illustrated reference books for adults and children in 63 languages. It is part of Penguin Random House, a subsidiary of German media co ...

, profiling more than 90 leaders of industry across the world and throughout the ages – from the enterprising bankers of the medieval world and the merchants of empire, to the titans of industry and the geniuses of Silicon Valley. In December 2021, Phiwa was named Social Media Personality of the Year by the

Times of Swaziland The ''Times of Swaziland'' is a newspaper in Eswatini Eswatini ( ; ss, eSwatini ), officially the Kingdom of Eswatini and formerly named Swaziland ( ; officially renamed in 2018), is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. It is bordered by ...

. He was recognized as an influential and well-loved persona on the internet for being vocal and eloquent about the

political unrest Politics (from , ) is the set of activities that are associated with making decisions in groups, or other forms of power relations among individuals, such as the distribution of resources or status. The branch of social science that studies ...

in Eswatini through his

verified Verified is a United Nations project to improve access to accurate information. In the project the United Nations seeks to organize a network of millions of online volunteers to curate and fact check information online. Verified has held a socia ...

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

account by the national publication.https://pressreader.com/@nickname23490532/csb_vLxFHbyKcljdcCkG7tB6965iCERgtDvBs3vhrmiG43W8BUQv3HLkGmhkQHDreEUvFtJDGL_0jBEs3NUAuelSkQ

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Nkambule, Phiwa South African businesspeople Swazi businesspeople 21st-century South African businesspeople Businesspeople in software Businesspeople in information technology Businesspeople in insurance African computer businesspeople Financial company founders South African business executives South African chief executives South African company founders South African computer programmers South African corporate directors South African engineers Swazi chief executives 1992 births Living people University of Pretoria alumni Technology company founders Internet company founders Chief executives in the technology industry