Co-Founder and CEO: Yeigo Communications

Rapelang Rabana wasted no time in founding Yeigo Communications right after graduating. Her bachelor’s degree in Business Science and honours in Computer Science from the University of Cape Town and her relentless perseverance provided her with the perfect tools to build a high-tech startup. The first recognition came when she won the Enabilis Business Plan competition in 2006 and she has since been selected as an Endeavour high-impact entrepreneur. When Yeigo became a partner of the Swiss Telfree Group of Companies she was made global head of research and development. Ever responsive as she is to the rapidly shifting technological horizon, her most recent innovation is ReKindle Learning, a mobile learning application that is set to change the way we transfer knowledge and think about education. Her positive influence can be felt whether she is speaking at events such as the Pioneering Young Women Conference or the ICT Indaba, contributing to Entrepreneur magazine and News24, curating for the Cape Town Global Shaper’s Hub or serving as ambassador for the United Nations World Youth Summit Awards or as a board member of Ubuntu Child Healthcare, a non-governmental organisation that provides care for HIV- infected children. In January 2013 the 28-year-old entrepreneur was selected by the World Economic Forum as a Global Shaper and was invited to the annual meeting of the forum at Davos, a prestigious event that found her in the company of the president of Ethiopia, the founder of the forum, Prof Klaus Schwab, and the founder of Grameen Bank, Mohammed Yunus. She was listed by Forbes as one of 30 under 30 Best Young African Entrepreneurs, she’s made Oprah’s 2012 O Power List and this Botswana-born, old-Roedeanian has even been called the “South African Marissa Mayer” (chief executive of Yahoo!), a businesswoman she admires for “the ability to close the gap between imagination and reality”.

— Rudi Benadé

Twitter: @rapelangrabana Website: telfree.