Former BCX CEO Isaac Mophatlane has joined the board of Crossfin, a financial technology investment business that has taken stakes in a number of businesses, including Innervation, WiGroup, Emerge Mobile (including iKhokha), Alacrity and Blue Garnet.
Capital Eye Investments and Durban-based investment firm Multiply Group are co-investors in the group, which has said it plans to float its shares on the stock market at some future date.
Mophatlane joins executive directors Dean Sparrow and Anton Gaylard, co-founders of Crossfin, as well as nonexecutive directors Neil Michelson of Capital Eye, Matthew Blewett (former BCX chief operating officer) and Craig Coombe.
Crossfin CEO Dean Sparrow said in a statement that Mophatlane will play a “key role over the next year as the fintech group aims to aggressively grow its positioning on the African continent with an eye on a future listing”.
“Isaac has a depth of experience in building a business up from a small company to a large listed entity with operations across multiple countries, both in Africa and abroad,” Sparrow said.
“His extended network in the ICT, financial services and retail industries in a number of African countries is hugely relevant to Crossfin, and will support our organic and acquisition-led growth strategy over the coming months.”
In a surprise move at the time, Mophatlane stepped down from BCX in April. Telkom acquired the IT services group in 2015 in a R2.7bn all-cash deal.
Mophatlane, the twin brother of late former BCX CEO Benjamin Mophatlane, led the company since his brother’s death in 2014.
The Mophatlane twins founded what would eventually become BCX. They merged their business, called Business Connection, in 2004 with Comparex Africa (itself the result of the merger of Persetel and Q Data) to create Business Connexion, later renamed BCX by Telkom. — (c) 2017 NewsCentral Media
