Your Presenter Neil Hinrichsen
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Neil's first company Realtime won numerous "Best Company" awards in the IT industry, was the first company on the Internet in South Africa, and was Netscape's third regional partner in the world. It was acquired by Datatec in 1997. During this time he spoke at many industry conferences throughout Southern Africa, including being the concluding speaker at one of DiData's "Top 100 Clients" conferences.
Neil went on to cofound Fundamo, a mobile payments company backed by Sanlam, Venfin and Mark Shuttleworth. Fundamo employs over two hundred people and has installations in over twenty-six countries. It was acquired in by VISA in 2011 for $110m.
Neil now provides strategy consulting to corporates and startups through Koi Strategy. He has worked among others for Sanlam and Avusa and with startups in fields such as healthcare, artificial intelligence and the mobile internet. He also mentors many startups through the Bandwidth Barn in Cape Town and The Innovation Hub in Pretoria, and has been a mentor and judge for the Cape Town Entrepreneurship Competition, Startup Weekend, LaunchCapeTown, and IBM SmartCamp among others. His "Idea Workshop" has been run by both the Bandwidth Barn and The Innovation Hub to help entrepreneurs discover and develop great ideas for new ventures, and the University of Pretoria provides his "StorySelling" workshop to their corporate clients.
Neil is also passionate about working with people. He is an elder in his church where he heads up the youth ministry, runs workshops on parenting teenagers, and mentors township teens. He has a keen interest in civics and was a founding member of the Garden Route Protected Area Committee.
He holds a BCom Honours degree from UCT, is a member of Mensa, has run Comrades, and enjoys watersports, reading and music.
Neil went on to cofound Fundamo, a mobile payments company backed by Sanlam, Venfin and Mark Shuttleworth. Fundamo employs over two hundred people and has installations in over twenty-six countries. It was acquired in by VISA in 2011 for $110m.
Neil now provides strategy consulting to corporates and startups through Koi Strategy. He has worked among others for Sanlam and Avusa and with startups in fields such as healthcare, artificial intelligence and the mobile internet. He also mentors many startups through the Bandwidth Barn in Cape Town and The Innovation Hub in Pretoria, and has been a mentor and judge for the Cape Town Entrepreneurship Competition, Startup Weekend, LaunchCapeTown, and IBM SmartCamp among others. His "Idea Workshop" has been run by both the Bandwidth Barn and The Innovation Hub to help entrepreneurs discover and develop great ideas for new ventures, and the University of Pretoria provides his "StorySelling" workshop to their corporate clients.
Neil is also passionate about working with people. He is an elder in his church where he heads up the youth ministry, runs workshops on parenting teenagers, and mentors township teens. He has a keen interest in civics and was a founding member of the Garden Route Protected Area Committee.
He holds a BCom Honours degree from UCT, is a member of Mensa, has run Comrades, and enjoys watersports, reading and music.