SA technology journalist Simon Dingle has been hired by Cape Town-based personal financial management start-up 22seven to head its product strategy and design team. Launched in January, 22seven is headed up by Christo Davel, the former CEO of now-defunct online bank 20twenty.
Dingle will continue to write for Finweek magazine and will also continue to present his (tech)⁵ show on SABC’s 5fm radio station and plans to continue to host the ZA Tech Show, a popular weekly technology podcast.
He says he has already “dived in” with 22seven’s development team.
22seven caused a stir in the local banking industry soon after its launch because the service accesses users’ Internet banking profiles to extract data, which it then presents to users in a graphics-rich format. Banking group Absa moved to bar 22seven’s technology partner Yodlee from accessing its users’ bank accounts.
As a journalist, Dingle defended 22seven’s approach, including in this opinion piece published by TechCentral, but explains that this was before he had engaged with 22seven about the possibility of working there.
“I stopped talking publicly about 22seven the moment my discussions with the company turned to business,” he says.
“All of the tweets, blog posts and articles that I wrote about 22seven were published before I had any idea that I would be working with [the company],” he says.
“From now on, whenever I do talk about 22seven, it will be under full disclosure of my vested interest in the service,” Dingle says. “I am committed to transparency in this regard and always immediately make my business interests known to my audiences.”
Dingle starts at 22seven on 1 April. — Craig Wilson, TechCentral
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