SovTech Invests in New Joint Venture; TrashBack

SovTech Invests in New Joint Venture with Zambian-Based Waste Recycling Company; TrashBack

SovTech
March 1, 2023
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SovTech Invests in New Joint Venture with Zambian-Based Waste Recycling Company; TrashBack

SovTech, a leading Johannesburg-based software development company, has entered into an agreement to invest in a new joint venture alongside TrashBack, a Zambian-based waste recycling company.
The new entity, to be named BioEx Tech (Biometric Exchange Technology), is the creator and distributor of an innovative recycling management software product. The company will operate initially in both Zambia and South Africa, with an eye to expanding into nine other African countries where their clients are based within the next 36 months.
Gerald Neves, SovTech’s CEO, is enthusiastic about the prospects for BioEx Tech. “The opportunity for waste management in Africa, especially at the bottom of the pyramid, is a multi-billion dollar opportunity. We are excited about embarking on this continental journey with dedicated partners such as Kathryn Warner (Trashback Group MD) and her experienced management team.”
Wastepreneurs, as they have been dubbed, are individuals who make an independent living reclaiming recyclable waste from the waste stream – predominantly from landfill sites – and selling it on to recycling companies. In South Africa it is estimated that 85,000 people make a living as wastepreneurs. Andrew McNaught, TrashBack’s Director of Business Development says that “TrashBack’s waste management software is built from the ground up with a focus on enabling and formalising the informal sector. It gives key insights into the waste and recycling value chain through interactions with informal waste collectors, waste traders and buy back centres. The platform utilises alternative value payouts, whereby cash management and cash payments that were previously risky and expensive are now traceable, safe and reliable given the use of mobile and electronic payments. The system also provides valuable market insights as information that was previously difficult to access is now collated across the value chain providing transparency at all levels and enabling access to information for even the entry level collector to make informed business decisions.”
BioEx Tech’s innovative software simplifies waste management operations and provides the required functionality to monitor operations, material flow and finances; delivering a system which not only provides access to key operational insights in a business, but fulfils the role of a waste management financial platform.
The system is built around biometric fingerprint recognition, allowing the monitoring of suppliers across multiple buy-back recycling centers. Offering both online and offline functionality as well as being able to run off of a desktop computer or on mobile devices, this allows the system to be adapted to any environment, from urban centres in major cities to more rural or shorter term implementations. The BioEx Tech also integrates with a range of digital scales as well as advanced material tracking modules for supply chain management.
Over the next few months, BioEx Tech will begin installing the new software platform in partnership with key clients, Zambian Breweries (a subsidiary of AB InBev) and SAPPI before rolling it out to the wider market across Zambia and South Africa from early 2017.

About SovTech

SovTech is a leading software development platform for businesses in Africa. Believing that rapid innovation in software, cloud and mobile technology will fundamentally revolutionise business for small, medium and large enterprises, SovTech’s platform offerings give businesses instant access to world class software development, leading cloud-based software-as-a-service products and a library of enterprise technology services.

About TrashBack

TrashBack unlocks the value in waste to create a form of sustainable income in base of the pyramid communities. From its humble beginnings in Cape Town, South Africa, to a now multi-national enterprise with collection hubs situated in Cape Town, Lusaka and Johannesburg, TrashBack has succeeded in creating over 2000 opportunities for the homeless, informal & base of the pyramid sectors

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