Metacom, a Cape Town-based company, has spent 25 years developing its own routers and managing private networks for several of Africa's largest retail chains without seeking venture capital.
Metacom's Expenses
During the TechCentral Show program, founder Rian van Niekerk told Fanny van Ruyn how the Cape Town company managed to connect over 6000 ATMs, all Pep stores in Africa, and, according to him, more than half of the communications Eskom uses to control and monitor electricity distribution.
He explained the reason for Metacom's in-house equipment development instead of purchasing Asian branded routers, and also justified why using one device per store is more effective than using equipment from four different suppliers. Furthermore, he noted that satellite services, such as Starlink, can become a 'wonderful provider' rather than a threat.
Rian van Niekerk also discussed corporate technology expenses in 2026, memory shortages caused by artificial intelligence, which forces Metacom to order some components a year in advance, as well as the company's cautious approach to AI, which retains human staff on support lines, and explained why Africa is not a single market.