Interview: Root's Louw Hopley and MMI's Jonathan Stewart

Loading player...
Thank you for listening to the TechCentral podcast. In this episode, TechCentral editor Duncan McLeod chats to Louw Hopley, CEO of fintech start-up Root, and Jonathan Stewart, head of Exponential Ventures at MMI Holdings, about Root’s fintech platforms, including its programmable bank card and its new insuretech product, Root Insurance.
In the podcast, Hopley explains the origins of Root and Stewart talks about how MMI started working with the company, along with venture capital provider 4Di Capital.
Root is a financial services platform, built from the ground up, with the aim of opening innovation in the fintech space. The company packages the difficult aspects of financial services and exposes a platform of programmable financial services through application programming interfaces, allowing software developers to prototype, build and launch new financial services products - and to do so quickly.
The company was founded in 2016 and has since built its platform to cater for both banking and insurance innovation.
Listen to the podcast as Louw explains why it developed a programmable bank card, how it works, who it’s aimed at and how software developers have used it. He also talks about Root’s launch last week of an insurance toolkit and platform API to allow start-ups - and others - to develop insuretech products without having to deal with regulation and other complexities.
Louw also talks about Root’s plans for international expansion.
It’s a great discussion. Don’t miss the podcast!
11 Apr 2018 English South Africa Technology · Business

Other recent episodes

TCS | Maziv goes massive: CEO Dietlof Mare on Vumatel’s big roll-out plans

Maziv, the company that owns Vumatel and Dark Fibre Africa, plans to spend R12-billion over the next five years as its ramps its deployment of fibre infrastructure across South Africa. Poised for a big injection of cash and assets from Vodacom, which is buying a 30% co-controlling stake in the…
26 Aug 52 min

TCS+ | Arctic Wolf on cybersecurity in the age of AI

What does it really take to defend a business in an era of AI-driven attacks? In this episode of TechCentral’s TCS+ ,Clare Loveridge, vice president and GM for Europe, Middle East and Africa (Emea), and Johnny Ellis, senior director of Emea channel sales, both at Arctic Wolf, go beyond the…
25 Aug 33 min

TCS | The story behind Nedbank’s R1.65-billion iKhokha deal

Nedbank announced last week that it was acquiring Durban-based fintech iKhokha in a R1.65-billion deal that could signal the start of further consolidation in the payments industry in South Africa. Nedbank described the deal as a “significant milestone” in its strategy to target small and medium enterprises. iKhokha co-founder and…
22 Aug 26 min

TCS+ | Kinetic Skunk: fintechs risk cloud bill shock without proper planning

Fintechs choose cloud technologies in the hopes that the efficiency and scalability of cloud computing will give them a competitive advantage. But cloud adoption is no silver bullet. If done incorrectly, a migration to the cloud can cause costs to balloon instead of decreasing them, leading to frustration and even…
21 Aug 37 min

TCS | Alan Knott-Craig unveils Fibertime’s big bet on township fibre

Alan Knott-Craig’s new fibre internet business has been flying below the radar for some time now, but the serial telecommunications entrepreneur has finally unpacked his plans for the business. Speaking to the TechCentral Show this week, Knott-Craig – who has led a range of well-known tech businesses, including Mxit, World…
15 Aug 22 min