African Business Stories
African Business Stories is the go-to podcast for insights into the women shaping Africa’s business landscape. Africa is one of the world’s most promising frontiers for growth and innovation—and women are at the heart of this transformation.
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When women win, economies thrive. These stories amplify success, challenge narratives, and create a blueprint for the next generation of female leaders in Africa and beyond.
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African Business Stories
Ndia Magadagela: CEO & Co-Founder, Everlectric - Driving the growth of electric vehicles as a service in Africa
Ever wondered how a young girl from a village in Limpopo could co-found a pioneering electric vehicle business in South Africa? Join us as we sit down with Ndia Magadagela, the visionary behind EverElectric, and unravel her inspiring journey from her roots in Africa's Eden to the forefront of electric mobility. India shares captivating stories of her childhood, the entrepreneurial spirit imbued in her by her parents, and the pivotal experiences that set her on the path to innovation.
Discover the meticulous planning and strategic pivots that helped India transition from a corporate career in mergers and acquisitions to launching a startup in the electric vehicle industry. Learn about the initial challenges of targeting the taxi industry, the clever pivot to logistics, and how India and her co-founders leveraged each other's strengths to navigate the ups and downs of their venture. This episode is packed with insights on the importance of having co-founders, mutual respect, and the dynamics of working together to overcome obstacles like high import duties and inadequate charging infrastructure.
We also delve into the unique challenges and opportunities for female entrepreneurs in South Africa. Ndia opens up about her arduous journey of raising capital, facing numerous rejections, and the eventual triumph of securing seed financing. Hear about the evolving landscape for manufacturing electric vehicles in South Africa, recent policy reforms, and the collaborative spirit within this emerging industry. This episode is a heartfelt testament to the power of perseverance, collaboration, and the remarkable impact of women in business. Don't miss this deep and enriching conversation that promises to inspire and inform.
Ndia, a Qualified Chartered Accountant, holds a B.Compt (Hons) degree in Accounting Sciences and a post graduate diploma in Auditing both from the University of Pretoria. She started her career at Deloitte in Pretoria after which she went into Development finance. She is an ex Senior Deal Maker at the Industrial Development Corporation where she spent 7 years and later became a Principal in Mergers and Acquisitions at the JSE listed Momentum Metropolitan Holdings.
In 2016 she was nominated for the Top employee in manufacturing divisions at the Industrial Development Corporation of South Africa. She was named 2023 Leading Entrepreneur by the African Women Chartered Accountants (AWCA) and one of the Top women in Mobility in Africa for 2023. Ndia is a non-executive director on a number of Boards. She is a guest lecturer on Mergers and Acquisitions and has worked as a member of the Technical Advisory Panel to Infrastructure South Africa under the Department of Public works.
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Hi there and welcome to another episode of African Business Stories. Africa is the only region in the world where more women than men choose to be entrepreneurs. What this says to me is that the story of business in Africa is the story of the African business women. So we are on a journey of discovery to find these women and tell their stories. So we're on a journey of discovery to find these women and tell their stories. On the show, we will hear from female innovators and entrepreneurs building and running businesses in Africa. They will share the highs and lows of their entrepreneurial journey and lessons learned along the way. Some of these women you may know, and many you may not, but I assure you that all their stories are inspiring in their own right. My hope is that these stories will inspire you to reach for your dreams and leave a legacy for generations to come. It makes such a big difference to us if you can rate, review and share our episodes. You can do this mainly on Apple Podcasts, and you can find us on all podcast platforms If you're in Africa. Spotify is now available, so check us out there and don't forget to rate, review and share On the show.
Speaker 1:Today I chat with India Magadagela, co-founder of EvElectric, an electric vehicles as a service business focused on driving the logistics industry in South Africa. We talk about the impact of being raised by entrepreneurial parents, the calculated steps she took into entrepreneurship, the value of having co-founders intentionally looking for opportunities and landing on the idea of electric vehicles as a service. She explained to me what it was like being first to market in the EV space and trying to raise money and educate the market all at the same time. Thank you to the team at Presidential Precinct for the introduction and for all you do to empower African entrepreneurs. Let's get into it. Welcome to African Business Stories.
Speaker 2:Thank you so much. Thanks, Akiyogo, for having me Awesome.
Speaker 1:I just wanted to start real quick to get to know you a little bit before we jump into your business. And I read that you're from the Limpopo province, which is like the northern part of South Africa, and I read that it's such a beautiful place and some people have called it the Africa's Eden, and so I wonder what it was like for you growing up in such a beautiful, picturesque place.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I really do come from a beautiful part of South Africa. It is the far north of the country, a province called Limpopo, also known as Africa's Eden. It really is the home of the Kruger National Park, which is one of the biggest parks in the world. We've got the big five there, so we've got a lot of tourists that come to the province. But I particularly grew up in a village, in a village called Hamashamba, and I remember just growing up on the dusty streets, playing in the streets and being a very happy child, being the youngest of five children. I had an amazing upbringing. I actually went to school in that village until I was in grade seven, which is like the last year of primary school. So high school is what I did in a boarding school in Pretoria, but an awesome, awesome upbringing in the village.
Speaker 1:I read that both your parents were professionals and they both then became entrepreneurs, and I wonder what memories you have from growing up and seeing them become entrepreneurs and if that's had any impact at all on your life choices.
Speaker 2:Yes, most definitely so. My dad was actually a health inspector, my mom was a nurse and actually when we were younger, my mom was stationed at a clinic in the village, so we actually did live at the clinic and then at some point, my dad apparently, as the story goes, my dad presented the idea of starting a business to my mom. We were five kids and my dad always felt that at some point in his life he would be an entrepreneur and he felt that at that time it was the right time, and it was actually my mom who stopped working first and went to start the business and my dad later joined. I think it must have been a year or so later. It had a very powerful impact on me the fact that my parents were entrepreneurs, because it actually happened very, very early on in my life, and so that was the only life that I knew it had the impact of.
Speaker 2:You know, we were brought up sort of helping out in the business. We would come back from school, you would do your homework and literally you would go help out in the store, whether it was manning the cash register or you know, one of my sisters was always responsible for the accounting and everybody had something to do in that business. So that was kind of the socialization that I had, but also with my parents starting businesses in the village and you can imagine this is low income areas just for them to. They were philanthropists. They really were the kind of people who were very concerned with the community, were very concerned with the community, and so it was so great growing up, growing up with so many other people Like my house was just full of people, and my parents took care of a lot of people as we were growing up.
Speaker 1:Do you know why your parents chose to send you to boarding school and what was that like for you going all the way to Pretoria?
Speaker 2:So, look, I was born in the early 80s, so when I was about to go to high school, it was just after 1994, which is when South Africa got our independence, and so the local schools. My parents felt that they wanted to give us what I will term a better education, right, just because they really just wanted us to have a different life from what they had. And so when they looked around, there were not a lot of schools in our area that could sort of cater for what they were looking for. And so actually, all my siblings went to boarding school. I was off to Pretoria, which is about 400 kilometers away from home, and that was at the age of 13.
Speaker 2:I mean, the first few months were really tough. My older sister, the one that comes just before me, the fourth, one of the five, she was in school with me. She's four years older, so we were at school at the same time, but it was really tough growing, um, those first few months. But I think it taught me so much about being independent, about living with people, about just being, you know, a neighborly, neighbor, um, to anybody I say now that I can live with absolutely anybody because of that experience, and I'm fiercely independent because of it.
Speaker 1:I too went to boarding school so I see a lot of value. I mean, people talk about the downsides of boarding school but for me and a lot of my friends, I think you know the benefits seem to outweigh those challenges. But yes, I agree with you, it does teach you a strong sense of independence.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and the relationships you make when you're in boarding school. I mean, I've got friends that I've known since I was 13. And because we almost like family, because we grew up together literally, yeah, yeah, I totally agree.
Speaker 1:So then you're now in Pretoria and I guess you decide to stay there and go to university. So talk to us about, about that, choosing your course and what those years were like at University of Pretoria.
Speaker 2:So I mean, at some point I thought I was going to be a doctor. I was going to study medicine. Um, just because I don't know, I think everybody probably most people still kind of think they're going to be doctors and firemen, and then it changes. But because my dad was a business person, I think he exposed us a lot to like entrepreneurship and also people who were in entrepreneurship. And so I remember my dad introducing me to a chairman of a bank, of a local bank who served on a board of a bank, and saying talk to this person, he is an accountant, ask him what it means. And I had a conversation with the old man, professor Phil Yoon, and I thought oh, you can be a chartered accountant, whatever that meant. Let me, you know, that's what I want to study and that's what I went and I studied at the University of Pretoria. I did my undergrad there, my postgraduate there, and you know, I don't I don't regret it. And I stayed in Pretoria even for my first job at Deloitte.
Speaker 1:You'd caught that entrepreneurial bug early, right, because I hear that you had a side business while you were at university.
Speaker 2:Yes, I did I did. I used to buy and sell like bags and shoes that I would buy downtown, and some knockoff big name bags as well. So I did that when I was in varsity and it was really initially it was like to make extra cash, but then I actually realized that I enjoy it. So you know, I did have my hand at sort of the entrepreneurship thing even earlier and since then I've actually also run other businesses before I started the ones that I run now.
Speaker 1:Talk to us about some of the other things you did in your career before becoming an entrepreneur full-time.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So after Deloitte, after I qualified as a fully-fledged qualified accountant, I then went to a local development corporation so it's called the Industrial Development Corporation of South Africa and my job there was what they call the dealmaker, which is basically somebody who receives applications for funding for businesses and does due diligence investigations and presents them to credit committees for a yes or a no. So I really enjoyed that setup. I was there for seven years and really what I enjoyed about it is because I was on the other side from entrepreneurs. Which is something that I loved.
Speaker 2:It was hearing those ideas. It was about seeing people kind of come with an idea and we sort of help them raise funding and we see the businesses grow at times to become quite major businesses and major employers of people and also make an impact in the communities where they perform their businesses. So that was, you know, really a meaningful, impactful job. But even when I was there, I was running an events business on the side. I was, you know, I was planning weddings and I was hiring event equipment and so I always kind of had something, something going on on the side even with that. But that learning out of the development finance institution, I think also gave me a picture of what the funding side, fundraising side of business would look like.
Speaker 1:So you've always done business on the side from university and then even while you were working in the corporate space. So what made you feel like you were ready to go all in, and how did you arrive at what the business idea would be?
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's a very important question. So you know, I think by nature I am risk averse and I know that business people probably are not supposed to be, but I'm very kind of calculated, I will not just jump into something. So I knew that someday I will have an idea that would allow me to leave my corporate job. But what actually happened is that while I was still now doing this development finance work, a friend of mine, who is now my business partner, came to me and said but why don't we start a consulting business? We can do management consulting and you can bring your expertise as somebody who has raised funds or, you know, help people raise funds. I can bring my expertise, having been in the consulting space, and we can do this together to stop over somewhere and learn another side of fundraising or like, just do something else. That would sort of give me a full basket of experience. And so that's actually so. I didn't leave immediately. I sort of had a plan of at what point I would leave. So I still said I want to go into the mergers and acquisitions space and I want to just understand how that works, because, by definition, what you're saying we must go into will require us to do some M&A advisory.
Speaker 2:So then I left the Industrial Development Corporation and I went and I did a job in mergers and acquisitions. I was a principal there, one of the listed insurance companies in South Africa. I stayed there for two years but while I was there I remember thinking to myself I'd like to save up a bit before, because I always knew that, you know, after two years, like that's for me, that was the time I put for myself me, that that was the time I put for myself. I'd like to have saved a bit of money and I would like to, for whatever consulting work we go into, to at least be able to pay a part of what I was carrying I was earning at the time, just so that you know, when I go in it's not um, with nothing.
Speaker 2:I was very nervous about doing it that way and and so indeed, two years in, I had saved up a little bit and the consulting business we had had a contract that could at least cover us for a year and I thought this is the time now we do it. So it was very calculated. I wasn't one of those who kind of thought in three months I'm leaving and that's it. We'll see. I wasn't one of those who kind of thought in three months I'm leaving and that's it. We'll see. You know, we'll see what happens. I kind of thought about it quite a bit.
Speaker 1:So where does the idea for Everlectric then come from?
Speaker 2:So my business partner, ben, is doing his travels. He's learning about Elon Musk at the time. I mean, I'm talking about probably 2017, 2016. I also traveled, and I actually traveled to the States and I saw electric vehicles at some of these places and even hybrids. And I remember actually my business partner saying what do you think about electric mobility? What do you think? Do you think this is something that will be a reality for us in South Africa? And I remember thinking, yeah, I actually saw electric vehicles run in the US and even in South Africa we had manufactured our first electric vehicle.
Speaker 2:It was called the Jewel back in the day, so it was just something that was starting to kind of you know, you were hearing it in the news, you were reading about it, and I remember my business partner saying, but what shape or form would it look like in the South African context? And we went through like a session of saying, but would we manufacture electric vehicles? Manufacture electric vehicles? And we sort of thought about that. What would that take? And we thought, maybe not. What about taking electric vehicles that aren't already manufactured and testing them in the market and seeing whether they work?
Speaker 2:And, funny enough, we then thought, ok, what is the industry? That would be like a low hanging fruit, the first one that we could approach, and we thought the taxi industry. So in South Africa, the first one that we could approach and we thought the taxi industry. So in South Africa, the taxis that we have are 15-seaters and they transport probably a majority of the population. So in our mind we were thinking, if they transport a lot of people and there's a huge volume of these taxis, and then probably that's the industry we should uh go to first. And then we thought but also they do a defined number of kilometers because they have the same, they travel the same route um and electric vehicles at the time were maybe doing 200 kilometers on a charge.
Speaker 2:You know, now it's, it's changed and battery technology has really improved and we thought we are going to transition the taxi industry. That was the first thing we did. I even remember our initial slide. Decks were about taxi industry. We went everywhere trying to get clients who would transition their taxis to electric and it was going. It was not going right. It wasn't.
Speaker 2:The taxi industry was not ready at the time. It's funny now in South Africa they've come out to say they'd like to transition, but the idea really came from what we saw looking for opportunity. I think that it was really just about looking out for opportunity and, for some reason, when you start thinking about something, you start to see a lot of it. So, because we're already talking about electric mobility, we tended to hear a lot about the whole concept and so the taxi industry didn't take us seriously. We didn't have taxis electric taxis at the time 2017, 2018, that we could take to market and we decided, even at the we're going to pivot, and that's how we decided to then go with the logistics industry, which is where we actually function now as a business.
Speaker 1:So interesting and very, very fascinating because, you know, sometimes people get stuck on their idea but the moment isn't ready for that idea. Talk to me a little bit more about benefits that you've found from having a co-founder, because sometimes it could go either way, you know, with with co-founders.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know, actually I've heard so many horror stories about people that try to form a partnership and I'm always so grateful that I actually met partners, that you know we've got the same goals, we've got the same values and we sort of we're very clear about we respect each other, we are clear about who has to do what, our responsibilities and. But now actually looking back, even at the ideation stage, I think it really helped that we had differing views at the table right. It really helped that we could lean on each other for ideas. But we could also kind of divide and conquer right even then. And I say we pivoted from taxi to the logistics industry so flippantly and easily now but it wasn't that easy. You can imagine. We've put in the time, we've told our families that we are going for the taxi industry and then the next day you kind of have to, you know, unscramble that egg and start back from. You know, go back to the drawing board. But really having partners has been so beneficial, even like from ideation to when we even were starting out looking for seed funding, the ups and the downs of business. Uh, really it helps to lean on each other.
Speaker 2:There are times when I'm like completely tired and I'm like I can't. Why are we even doing this? And and there are times when I'm feeling very strong and I'm um, you know my business partners can lean on me for, you know, for that motivation. But also we are able to divide the work, we are able to kind of run in different directions, come back and have have worked on on things, but I think the most important thing is the, is the mutual respect, is the, you know, the understanding of, of the strength. Um and I see it more even now because I think we are growing up together in business we understand each other's strengths.
Speaker 2:So we let the one who's great at selling is selling and you go forth and sell. And the one who's good with PR does it. The one who fundraisers and I'm not saying that we leave all the responsibilities to that person, but we know that they lead that function. Even if I do go out and sell, I know that my business partner is like the you know the salesperson and we support him and we support each other. And so far, so good.
Speaker 2:And it's funny, akiego, we had a fourth partner at some point right at the beginning who we started out with, but our interests were not aligned and they felt that they needed to do something else. It remains peaceful, but it was clear from the you know. They realized early on that this is not something that they wanted to do and they exited. And, looking back, I'm like you know what they wanted to do and they exited and, uh, looking back, I'm like you know what. We learned a lesson from that and I think maybe that is what made our relationship even, uh, stronger as partners. Fantastic, and I don't always like my partners. I don't always like them sometimes but.
Speaker 1:But there's mutual respect there's mutual respect.
Speaker 2:Sometimes, you know you want to box each other in the, in the body, in the boardroom, but you get out and you're friends again. Right, you know you can be happy again.
Speaker 1:So, yeah, thanks for sharing that. So now tell us about ev electric yes, our, our baby.
Speaker 2:So ev electric is a south african incorporated company. We lease electric vehicles to the logistics industry. So I say to people we are an electric vehicle as a service business. We lease electric vehicles. We couple that with charges. So we will put down charges for our clients who would be players in the logistics industry, and we also maintain the vehicles and we provide them also with a connected back end and a driver-facing app just to give them a user experience that takes the headache out of the adoption of electric mobility. And I mean there's many reasons why we have decided to do it that way, but the main one is just looking at where South Africa is in terms it's still developing policies around electric mobility or even greener mobility. They're still charging exorbitant import duties on electric vehicles. There's power issues that we can talk about. Vehicles. There's power issues that we can talk about. So it was important that if we want our client to transition their fleet to electric, we need to provide them with a fail-proof way to do so. And this is exactly it. Yeah, Interesting.
Speaker 1:So you went into this knowing the challenges that existed already on the ground, but you still chose to go in. Yes, it sounds like you built with these issues in mind. What has adoption been like in South Africa?
Speaker 2:Very good question, akego. So I mean people talk about you coming up with your minimum viable product and like finding what your client is looking for and then selling that product. This was exactly that right, because you know people will create a product that nobody needs because they just think it's such a great product. This was exactly what our customer in South Africa needs for what the landscape looks like, so we actually created this product with that in mind. So what problems were we trying to solve? So, firstly, the high import duties. If you say to a fleet manager who is my prospective client, go and buy an electric vehicle which will cost you 40 percent more than a normal vehicle that you would have used, they're going to say no, but you know what is in it for me. And so because of that, then we bought the electric vehicles, put them on our balance sheet and leased them as a service to the client. But okay, so that took care of the vehicle.
Speaker 2:So now the question would be but where am I going to charge this vehicle? What about the infrastructure? Yes, south Africa charging infrastructure is really increasing in number. Now, you know in later days, but when we were starting out there were not that many, and so we decided that we're going to put down charging infrastructure for our clients, but it will be charging infrastructure that will be used by our clients first and then other people can also use the charging infrastructure. So we put down charging infrastructure because our client, in order for them to adopt to your question about adoption they needed to ensure that they've got a reliable vehicle. They can also charge.
Speaker 2:And then there was the issue of but what about load shedding? What about if there's a power issue? And that's when we sort of created an intelligence around charging. So we are live in our vehicles, in our chargers. The blackouts in South Africa, or you know what they call load shedding, they are scheduled. So you do know. You even have an app that will tell you you won't have power between time this and this time, have power between time this and this time.
Speaker 2:We've incorporated that into our app or into our back end, where the client knows that in your area you're going to have load shedding at this time and therefore it's it's wise to charge either before or after um the we also are able to sort of early warn our users, our clients, that that you are running out of range, you're not going to be OK for the day. Therefore, go to this charger. It's open, it's in this area, it's these number of kilometers away from you. So really, it was just the fact that business people, entrepreneurs, exist to solve a problem, and if there wasn't a problem, there would be nothing to solve. And so, even with the challenges, we kind of thought how do you build your solution in such a way that there's no headache for the client? You'd rather worry about it, but give them a seamless service. Yeah.
Speaker 1:So I know that Woolworths was one of your first clients and congratulations on them, because they're a huge, huge South African brand. What has it been like onboarding other clients in South Africa?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so Woolworths was one of our first clients and DSV Woolworths and DSV, which is the Danish delivery company, and it wasn't that. You know, on day one, they, they decided to go electric. We first ran a proof of concept with them. For two years, 24 months, we ran two vehicles in their fleet 24 months two vehicles so, I mean, patience is key if you're going to be an entrepreneur.
Speaker 2:Really, we ran for 24 months and I think they really provided us an opportunity to even refine our service offering to see that it works on a small scale. You know, two years might feel like it's a long time, but that proof of concept is actually what has moved them from just being a proof of concept client to being, you know, one of the clients that we scaled quite a lot with. I mean, they're running the entire online deliveries with electric vehicles that that we have provided, so in in the Joburg and Cape Town areas, right so, and they're growing into into other major metros in South Africa. And so you know, that proof of concept helped them to sort of decide OK, we can move from the two vehicles to 40 or whatever you know, or however the number, however the number. But what that also gave us was the confidence that we can replicate the solutions into other fleets. It also gave the market confidence that you know, because now they see our names, kind of you know our name, kind of moving around in their areas.
Speaker 2:So since then, we have signed up the likes of FedEx, we've signed in South Africa, we've signed up the likes of Nightwing. We have signed up some of the solar installers and guys that run actual solar farms, because, you can imagine, they would like their carbon emissions to be kept at the lowest possible. We've signed up companies in the pharmaceutical industry as well. We've signed up telecommunications as well. Vodacom has purchased a vehicle from us, so you can see that you know the clients are coming, and I can really attribute it to the fact that we kind of had that initial testing and that initial big brand, that sort of said we believe in your, in your, in your solution, and I mean people don't do these things out of the only, out of the goodness of their heart. It's really about customer service and it's also about the fact that we are meeting the need. So I would like to believe that we are yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, you are. You are so going back to your initial work that you were doing and how that relates now. You know I always like to ask my founders about access to finance and funding. You're in a totally different place today from where you started, but what was it like in the beginning, accessing funding, with all these challenges? You're building for a first to market product and in a market that didn't really understand what electric vehicles as a service was.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it was. It was not easy. Honestly. I could go starting out and you know you can imagine I was starry eyed thinking I've been raising I mean, I've been in funding all my life, so it should go like that, it should be easy. And it was a nice wake up call.
Speaker 2:I remember trying to raise from a PowerPoint presentation and an Excel spreadsheet, like literally with no vehicle in hand, kind of saying this is what we are going to bring, give us a chance and give us the money. And we got a lot of no's. You know I tell people when they ask that I used to keep a folder of companies. Or you know funders that we would speak to. This is commercial banks and development finance institutions, venture capital, private equity, friends and family and everybody, and I think I stopped counting at 26. That's like how many no's we got initially.
Speaker 2:And you know, at that point we had put in our own money, you've put on your life savings. You're showing the skin in the game. But after, you know, talking to a couple of people, there was a funder or family office that believed in our offering and they funded us for the first time for the seed financing, together with our own contribution as the founders and they put in the money. But then something that I think really switched the funding conversation was that whole 24 months of a proof of concept, right so?
Speaker 2:as much as I say you would think 24 months is a long time, but that actually proved to. You know, there's nothing like data. People could see that actually this thing has run. We were showing them, we have done x number of kilometers. You can speak to our clients because at that point we have um, formed a relationship with our client, um, at that time it was it was woo words, but there was another client as well that ran a proof of concept.
Speaker 2:But we also had one vehicle that we ran 10 day proof of concept with, with anybody for free. If you came to us and you were like you want to, you want to test this out, we would give you the to test this out. We would give you the vehicle for 10 days and we would present back to you what we saw in terms of the data. And so that was our selling before we could get the funding.
Speaker 2:After that proof of concept with the data, with some clients that had sort of said we are signing on the dotted line, we need X number of vehicles. That's when funding conversations became a little bit easier. So I think what I would say is for as much as you can test out something and have real data, it is much easier to raise funding than when you are sort of selling it out of an Excel spreadsheet and a PowerPoint presentation and I know that I mean it depends what kind of business somebody is in but, if it is at all possible, rather have something to show for it, because it is hard when people don't know what risk they're taking, especially with new technologies like these.
Speaker 1:That's very interesting. Thank you for that. So, just more broadly, I know that South Africa is one of the few countries on the continent where cars are manufactured and at the moment you're bringing in the vehicles you're using for this service. What do you think the landscape looks like for manufacturing electric vehicles in South Africa?
Speaker 2:I think the day when we will start manufacturing vehicles in South Africa is electric vehicles especially is closer than it was like when we started. We are starting to see some policy reform. South African government took out a white paper, which is like a policy paper about what the path will be for greening mobility in South Africa, so that came out late last year. There are incentives that they would want to give to manufacturers who will manufacture vehicles electric vehicles in country. So what it looks like in South Africa right now is that about 70% of our production of vehicles, of manufacturers in the country, is for the export market. So I think there is an understanding that the export markets being Europe, they want to move to either electric or greener vehicles, and so there's now starting to be a move to manufacturing locally so that we don't lose the export market, we don't lose that part of GDP and you can imagine the jobs that come with that.
Speaker 2:So when we started out, that was not a reality at all. We went to every single manufacturer of vehicles represented in our country and they didn't see South Africa as a market for electric mobility. So it's another thing about being an entrepreneur that you know. If there's no like set out silver platter way of saying you know things will work. You go and create. You go and create your value and you create your market.
Speaker 2:And as we speak, now we are starting to see an increase in adoption of electric mobility in South Africa, and we are starting to see the delivery guys like the ones that we speak to, or retailers like Woolworths, or even the solar guys that I was talking about. They are starting to see the efficiencies that come with electric mobility.
Speaker 1:So it's sooner rather than later. So do you have any competition in the market in South Africa? You?
Speaker 2:know, I think it would be naive to actually think that there is no competition. I think you know, we see parts of it. You know there's charger installers in South Africa. There are people who are actually leasing electric vehicles, but a different class of electric vehicles were also putting down charging infrastructure. So, and because the industry is so small, we tend to work with everyone. You know Everyone. You know my vehicles can charge at another charger provider's charges if I direct my traffic there. So we, at this point, at this point, I'm seeing greater collaboration between you know, the current players. I think there's an understanding that the strength in numbers, the pie, is big enough. But it's as if now everyone is rallying behind um, this idea to sort of make it work in in the country there's a lot of lobbying also um, with, you know, with with policymakers. We sit on all those platforms and it's almost like it's one of those where, everywhere you go, you see the same faces and you know that everyone this is the industry in one room. We can still fit in one room.
Speaker 1:That's fantastic. For now, what's it like being a female entrepreneur in South Africa and what kind of support system exists for female entrepreneurs?
Speaker 2:Yeah, look, I mean it is. It's not easy. We definitely in the minority and I mean, ed, being a woman of color, also being, you know, being an entrepreneur it's really not easy, but more and more I'm seeing programs that are really being created to support the female entrepreneurs and I've been a beneficiary of some of those programs or even like, say, industry bodies that tend to want to, you know, help with entrepreneurship, one of them being the Climate Finance Accelerator that I was part of as part of the UK government. I'm speaking to you now. I'm part of the presidential precinct, which, you know. I'm in the United States at the moment attending a corporate leaders program which really strengthens, you know, it's entrepreneurs and business leaders in one room, kind of talking about what affects us, and those things allow for greater collaboration. Last year, the African Women Chartered Accountants also, you know, honored me with an award in business, and that has also been something that kind of gives you a tap on the shoulder to say, you know, well done for how far you've come. Yes, I don't feel like you know, I feel like we've just started, but honestly, those are some of the things that kind of help you to think OK, we are on the right track. The industry can see it, our peers can see it.
Speaker 2:But having said that, it is really hard, and I think it does not. The help does not get to everyone, and so one of the things that is really close to my heart is, you know how they say to whom much is given, much is expected. I'm trying to find ways, in my little way, of being able to replicate that and give it to other women entrepreneurs who might not have, you know, the opportunity to sit on some of, to receive some of this support that I might have gotten. I do feel that you know there's a lot of incubation and support at the early stages, but I still feel that there's not enough support in terms of funding. People are still quite risk adverse, especially, I don't know, I mean, in South Africa, for instance. It is hard to kind of be in the middle where you started and you were incubated and supported and then now you want to grow and nobody wants to take the risk, and I think that is still a reality, for even for me, even for my business looking ahead, what?
Speaker 1:what do you think the next five years looks like for evaletric?
Speaker 2:I think it looks like, uh like growth. It looks like, uh, this whole adoption story getting to a wider audience, it, it. It looks like delivery fleets, kind of you know, all all realizing that this is actually a solution that works, and I see us growing in leaps and bounds. But I also see us sort of backward integrating and maybe also forward integrating, whatever that will look like, but kind of thinking about the value chain of the business.
Speaker 2:I think the first step was really to stimulate the market, make sure that this is a solution that works and it makes sense. But now we're starting to think about other parts of electric mobility for South Africa and even maybe for the continent where you know where we could replicate this. But something that is very close to my heart, and it's something that I'm working on now, is just the training of skills in South Africa for when there is adoption of electric mobility. So at first it might be that we would train for our own use, but we would like to be a center of excellence to train skills for the industry as well, just because we are one of the first movers. So that is something that we are working on to put together a program like that for skills transfer and on-the-job training for electric mobility.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I wish you all the best with that. So just in wrapping up, you know I normally ask my guests to reflect a little and give advice. So, just in terms of reflecting, what would you say are some of the most impactful things that you've achieved in building this business in South Africa?
Speaker 2:You know, in reflecting, I really wish that I was kinder to myself. Through the journey. I really think that I didn't stop enough to actually look back and think of how far we had come. I think, you know, being a high achiever, I was always kind of saying, you know I should be here, why am I still here? And now I stop and reflect quite quite a lot.
Speaker 2:I'm really proud of what the team at Evelectric has been able to achieve in a market like South Africa, which, you know, we literally were starting from scratch with other industry players, because we were not the only ones starting from scratch with other industry players, because we were not the only ones.
Speaker 2:But we are really proud that we can now say that you know we've got a fleet of more than 100 vehicles, having started with zero and then with five, and then you know it keeps going up. And so I look back and I'm really grateful that that was the case. So I think in advice I would just say you know, patience, sometimes even the no's can be good for us, because they help us to actually go back and reflect and refine. The fact that the taxi industry never took off is actually something that I'm now grateful for, even though they've come full circle and we can probably service them again. But it helps us to think about the logistics industry as a result Probably would not have thought about it or would have thought about it later. But I'm also grateful for the no's because they've really shaped who we have become.
Speaker 1:So if you could give one piece of advice to other women building businesses in Africa, what would that be?
Speaker 2:I would say allow yourself to collaborate more. I would say, don't hold on to this and think this is yours and yours alone. You will be amazed at the multiplier effect of having other people at the table, kind of helping you with your idea, but also latching on to what other people are doing, because that can just grow your business. So that whole idea of you know, taking out your minimum viable product and talking about it and selling it to whoever is listening but also collaboration, I would say, is very, very important.
Speaker 1:Thank you so much, india. This has been an excellent, excellent conversation, thank you. Thank you so much, Akiga. Thank you so much india. This has been an excellent, excellent conversation, thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you so much for listening. If you're not already subscribed, please do so on apple, spotify or wherever you get your podcast, and don't forget to leave us a review so we know how we're doing. I'm akego okoye and you have been listening to african business stories.