Phiwa Nkambule born January 24, 1992 is a technology entrepreneur and businessperson best known for co-founding Riovic and leading it as its CEO. He previously founded Cybatar and sits on the board of the Royal Science and Technology Park.
Early life
Phiwa Nkambule was born in Manzini where he also spent his childhood.
In 2006, as a 14-year-old, he began fixing and building computers with his uncle in a small township in Swaziland. Nkambule moved to South Africa in 2007 for academic purposes. Phiwa was a law student at the University of Pretoria before quitting to start his first technology company Cybatar from his garage in 2014. It was at the university where he taught himself web and app development.
Entrepreneurship
Before leaving the University of Pretoria Phiwa attempted to work with the Swaziland National Library and the Manzini Regional Education Office in 2013 but was rejected. After dropping out of university in 2014 Nkambule founded Cybatar, a technology company focused on fuel delivery from his garage in Pretoria, South Africa.
In 2015 Nkambule co-founded Riovic, an insurance technology company. The company owns and operates online platforms that connect consumers with insurance, credit and investments.
Philanthropy
On 24 October 2015 he released the first tuition crowdfunding platform in South Africa in the wake of the FeesMustFall protests that saw the country’s tertiary institutions shutdown to help save students from tuition debt. He also launched a free online learning platform for digital skills aimed at reducing youth unemployment rate in South Africa.
Awards and recognition
Phiwa Nkambule was invited to deliver a keynote address on Digital Technologies in Insurance at the 13th International Microinsurance Conference in Peru, South America in November 2017.
In June 2018, he was named in the Forbes Africa 30 Under 30 list of most promising entrepreneurs in the technology category. In October 2018 he was named in Destiny Man’s Power of 40 list, a list of 40 trailblazers under the age of 40.
In September 2020 Nkambule was one of the entrepreneurs named in a book titled “Entrepreneurs Who Changed History” published by Dorling Kindersley, profiling more than 90 leaders of industry across the world and throughout the ages – from the enterprising bankers of the medieval world and the merchants of empire, to the titans of industry and the geniuses of Silicon Valley.