Meet the bold women who are shaping the future of tech in South Africa New YouTube series features successful business owners with unique stories to tell

What do you do when you’re a woman who has an idea for a radical business solution in a male-dominated field?  This was the challenge two female entrepreneurs faced when they decided not just to change with the times, but to embrace new technologies and to shape the future themselves. Ndia Magadagela knew that the needs of large fleet managers were changing and she had a breakthrough concept to help them meet those needs, while Pretty Kubyane knew she could use cloud computing to streamline the agricultural value chain and improve profitability for farmers.

 

Their stories are proof that when you have a great idea,  you just get started, no matter what the obstacles may be. It takes time, hard work and bucketloads of determination, but the results speak for themselves.

 

Ndia’s story

“Don’t be scared to start small,” says Ndia, the co-founder and CEO of Everlectric, a company that is facilitating the transition to electric mobility in the logistics sector by providing electric vehicles (EVs), charging infrastructure and innovative financing solutions for businesses.

 

A Chartered Accountant by profession, Ndia began her career in the auditing division at Deloitte Pretoria and later moved into development finance, first taking up the role of Senior Deal Maker at the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) and later the role of Principal in Mergers and Acquisitions at Momentum Metropolitan Holdings.

 

Five years ago, with loadshedding and fuel price hikes an ever-present reality, she set about formulating a commercial transportation solution that would decouple logistics operations from both. It was an idea that time had come!

 

“Most South Africans don’t believe electric vehicles can work in South Africa,” she says. “Many don’t even know there are EVs available here and, above all, they don’t believe there’s enough electricity available to sustain them.”

 

Ndia’s solution? She brought the first purpose-built panel vans into the country and she built a fast-charging network from the ground up. Needless to say, it was a challenging journey.

 

“It took two years to find our first funder,” she says, “and, when we did, we started out with five vehicles. We slowly built up to a fleet of 40 and, five years on, we have a fleet of 200 vans with access to an extensive network of dedicated 60kW fast chargers.”

 

All of the chargers are connected to the Everlectric cloud, which allows for detailed analytics, route optimisation and, not least, high scores on the ‘polar bear meter’, the company’s measure of its contribution to environmental and business sustainability. That’s because Everlectric vans have no engine and no fuel tank – and produce no emissions. Also, wherever possible, the Everlectric network is integrated with solar power and, when this isn’t possible, the company offsets 100% of its carbon footprint.

 

Pretty’s story

Pretty, who is the co-founder and COO of eFama, an app that connects farmers directly to buyers, says her journey dates back to her village childhood.

 

“From  the age of 6, I worked in my family’s business. My father owned a car repair workshop and several wood-cutting businesses, so I learnt to run a business from the ground up.”

 

This laid the foundation for a career in management consulting, where she specialised in access to new markets.

 

In 2019, she leveraged this experience to found Coronet Blockchain, focusing on supply chain transparency by providing blockchain-vetted commodities. This, in turn, led to the development of the eFama app, which gives farmers direct access to the market, streamlining the agricultural supply chain and enhancing their profitability.

 

“It wasn’t an easy start,” she says, “but I was confident from the experience of our other use cases that there was a gap for this technology in the agricultural sector.”

 

After running a pilot programme in Switzerland, eFama was launched in South Africa, but received a lukewarm response.  It was only when the company got its first big order – and shared the news on various WhatsApp groups – that farmers saw the value of the app. It just took off, she says, and within three weeks, 5 000 farmers had registered to use eFama.

 

Never one to rest on her laurels, Pretty completed 20 qualifications in cloud computing and cybersecurity in 2024, all while running a complex tech business, training a new generation of female engineers, and balancing this with her life as a wife and a new mom.

 

“You have to set boundaries,” she says. “When I’m at work, I’m at work; when I’m at home, I’m at home. It’s the only way it works.”

 

‘I grew it’

Ndia and Pretty share their journeys and their ‘I grew it!’ moments in the third episode of a six-part series that launched on YouTube in April. The ‘I grew it’ Show, showcases young South African entrepreneurs who have beaten the odds to set up and grow their own successful businesses. Sponsored by Absa, it focuses on the unique ‘I grew it’ moments in the lives of the country’s young entrepreneurs.

 

“My ‘I grew it’ moment came on the day when we signed up our first big client, a large retailer,” says Ndia. “It was the culmination of three years of research, hard work and knocking on doors. And in that moment, I knew we were really on our way.”

 

Breaking into the male-dominated field of logistics management wasn’t easy, she says, but understanding the technology inside out and having real insight into the needs of fleet managers was the key.

 

“You’re here to solve a problem,” she says, “and if you’re solving that problem, it doesn’t matter whether you’re male or female.”

 

Pretty echoes this sentiment, saying that understanding your subject matter is what makes it all possible.

 

Her ‘I grew it’ moment came when she received an email from a large US tech company to tell her that the company’s application for funding had been approved. She and her team had worked through the night to complete 40 compliance documents and had faced some difficulties in getting the documents through to the funder but, once they did, their application was approved in just 48 hours.

 

It’s grit and this ‘can do’ attitude that has served both women so well.

 

In 2023, Ndia was honoured as Entrepreneur of the Year by the African Women Chartered Accountants Forum and, under Pretty’s leadership, eFama has gained recognition for its innovative approach to agritech. Among other awards, she has received the  TransUnion Rising Star Award in the Entrepreneurship Category.

 

The ‘I grew it’ Show with Absa is more than just a talk show. It’s a celebration of entrepreneurial stories and the power of what your story could look like if you started today. It’s about inspiring the next wave of business leaders to boldly take that first step, so that, one day, they too can proudly say, “I grew it”!

 

Catch The ‘I grew it’ Show with Absa on YouTube.