Interview: Hello Group CEO Nadir Khamissa

Loading player...
In this episode of the podcast, Duncan McLeod sits down with Hello Group co-founder and CEO Nadir Khamissa for an update on the company's growth in the past few years and its ambitions in the financial services market.
Founded about 13 years ago by Khamissa and his brother Shaazim, Hello Group has built itself up into a major player in the telecommunications and financial services market by serving mainly migrant workers looking for an affordable way to communicate and do cross-border money transfers.
Khamissa, an actuary and former MD of global equity/derivatives trading at Deutsche Bank, worked on several major projects, including listing Telkom on the Johannesburg and New York stock exchanges in 2003 in his time there.
In the past three years, Hello Group has expanded across emerging markets in Africa and Asia and now employs about a thousand people - up from 300 three years ago.
It was the first company in South Africa to receive an independent money transfer operator licence from the Reserve Bank. It now has big plans to expand its financial services offerings in South Africa next year.
In the podcast, Khamissa explains why he thinks the financial services sector in South Africa is "ripe of re-energisation" and the role he sees Hello Group playing in this regard, particularly in the informal segment.
29 Nov 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