Startups, Stay in South Africa (Interview)

By Duncan McLeod, TechCentral - November, 12th 2014

Technology start-ups and the entrepreneurs who lead them should tackle the “many great opportunities” in South Africa and Africa more broadly rather than trying to emulate his decision to move to the US, says Gyft founder Vinny Lingham.

Lingham, now one of the “dragons” in the South African version of reality television series Dragons’ Den, tells TechCentral that there are so many business opportunities at home that technology start-ups should “focus their energies on building the next big thing for South Africa and the African continent”.

In July, Lingham hit pay dirt in the US when he agreed to sell Gyft, an online gift card service, to First Data, a big player in the payment technology space, for a rumoured US$54m-plus. Gyft pioneered the concept of a mobile wallet for gift cards.

Lingham founded Gyft in January 2012. The company raised $6m in total funding prior to the acquisition from several investors including Google Ventures, Canyon Creek Capital, The Social+Capital Partnership, Karlin Ventures, David Sacks and Hass Portman.

TechCentral: You relocated from South Africa to San Francisco to take Yola, your previous business, big. What did the decision to leave South Africa for Silicon Valley have on your ability to grow Yola and later Gyft?

Vinny Lingham: I decided to leave South Africa in 2008 to pursue my goal of competing in the global technology market with millions of Internet users. It’s very hard to do from South Africa and at the time broadband penetration or mobile were not even options to build a business on top of. Things have changed somewhat in seven years, but we still have a way to go before the country is fully connected. Internet access in South Africa is expensive, but I think that’s changing.

TC: Where did the idea for Gyft come from and how did you go about launching and growing the business?

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