How a Zimbabwean startup is going regional
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Loading... - Margaret Njenga
- 26 Jan 2023
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In November 2022, a Zimbabwean digital services firm acquired Altron’s Botswana and Altron Mozambique businesses.
The company behind the acquisition is Tano Digital Solutions (TDS), until recently a largely unheard-of ICT company run by a group of tech-savvy Zimbabweans with international experience.
Already present in South Africa, the fully Zimbabwean-owned and managed digital solutions firm is finalizing acquisition deals in Namibia and Kenya.
From five people in 2019 to current staff of 100, the tech company currently realizes an annual turnover of 600 million rands ($35 million). Now it is set for even bigger growth, with the continent as its market.
We talked to Tano Digital Solutions managing director Wallen Mangere to find out more.
When was Tano Digital Solutions founded, and what was the motivation behind its founding?
My co-founders and I have a technological background. I ran the IBM mid-market business for Africa and the Oracle business in the Southern African Development Community (SADC). I also spent about 18 years working in the US for tech firms.
On returning to Africa, my partners and I realized there was a gap in locally grown techpreneurs. So we started six years ago in South Africa after we realized it was a more mature market. But in 2019, being Zimbabweans, we thought it was an opportune time to open up a location there. Zimbabwe had an even greater gap in terms of the different aspects of tech companies from an infrastructural perspective, software development, and application or systems integration. We got into Zimbabwean right before covid-19 hit.
The motive was to fill the gap in technology by introducing ourselves as a locally grown, Black-owned and managed company in the space. Read More…
