South African digital bank Bettr nears launch: An interview with the founders

Loading player...
South Africa will soon have a new "digital bank" in the form of Bettr, a fintech start-up that has been working on building a "new challenger" in the country's finance sector that promises to offer a "better alternative".
In this episode of the podcast, TechCentral's Duncan McLeod interviews Bettr co-founders Tobie van Zyl (CEO) and Andrzej Stempowski (chief technology officer) to find out more about their plans, how the idea to build the bank came about, why it's specifically targeting the youth (millennials and Generation Z) and how hyperscale cloud service providers have made launching a bank in 2020 to challenge the big incumbents much easier than in the past (Bettr is using Amazon Web Services).
Van Zyl and Stempowski explain what it is that Bettr will and won't offer, what consumers can expect and how the company plans to drive better financial decision making.
The bank will offer not only accounts tailored for individuals, but also for small and medium enterprises as it is hoping to attract entrepreneurially minded people and then grow with them as their needs adapt.
It's a fascinating discussion about a sector ripe for disruption and a company that hopes to do the disrupting. Don't miss the podcast!
1 Oct 2020 English South Africa Technology · Business

Other recent episodes

TCS+ | How AI is turning hardware into a subscription service

For most of business history, buying technology meant owning it. Capital was set aside, servers and laptops were hauled into the building alongside the software licences, and the business then sweated those assets for as long as it practically could. In the age of AI, that logic is starting to…
6 Aug 19 min

TCS+ | iStore Business on why Apple makes sense for SMEs

For small and medium enterprises, technology must do one thing above all else: get out of the way. Unlike large corporations with dedicated IT departments, SMEs run lean – and every hour spent wrestling with systems is an hour not spent on the business itself. In this episode of TechCentral’s…
30 Jul 37 min

TCS | Icasa's rules skip the real bottleneck: ACT

Communications regulator Icasa’s draft rapid deployment regulations – a critical intervention for the sector – risk failing unless the regulator brings municipalities into the process, according to Nomvuyiso Batyi, CEO of the Association of Comms & Technology (ACT). Speaking on the TechCentral Show with TechCentral editor Duncan McLeod, Batyi said…
30 Jul 29 min

TCS+ | A smarter approach to cloud for South African businesses

South African businesses are spending millions on cloud – and many have very little to show for it. That is the uncomfortable starting point for this episode of TCS+, in which Nkosinathi Ndlovu speaks to Joel Chacko, executive head of department for cloud services at Vodacom Business, and Jonathan Oaker,…
28 Jul 21 min

TCS | How Optasia lends billions to people banks can’t see

Optasia is on target to distribute more than US$6-billion in credit across its markets in 2026 – and it carries every cent of the default risk itself. In this episode of the TechCentral Show, CEO Salvador Anglada unpacks how the JSE’s biggest recent fintech listing actually works. Formerly known as…
23 Jul 25 min