QUICK READ

LUNO, THE crypto company founded by two South Africans, now has 9 million customers in more than 40 countries with the addition this week of 1 million new customers – all of them in just more than four months.

Luno was acquired last year by USbased DCG, the world’s largest blockchain investor and is targeting a billion customers by 2030.

South Africa is one of Luno’s strongest markets – more than 30 percent of the 1 million new customers added since June are based in South Africa.

Marius Reitz, the general manager for Africa at Luno, said: “The average value of first deposits made by our million new customers is around R550.

“Most new customers (67 percent) bought Bitcoin, while 43 percent bought Ripple and 20 percent bought Ethereum. Of the new customers, 37 percent are aged between 18 and 24, and gender splits align with trends in financial services – almost three quarters (71 percent) are male.”

Marcus Swanepoel, a former investment banker, and Timothy Stranex, who previously worked for Google as a software engineer, founded Luno in

2013 with a focus on providing a simple, safe and easy tool for buying cryptocurrency online and on mobile. | Staff Reporter

Markets

THE JSE this week invited companies with a R20 million annual turnover to join its

JSE Enterprise Acceleration Programme, which aims to support medium enterprises to scale up through growing market share, accessing funding, and improving their competitiveness.

Potential candidates must be founderled, entrepreneurial South African businesses in operation for at least two years, it said.

The JSE’s director of marketing and corporate affairs, Vuyo Lee, said: “The JSE’s objective is to enable mediumsized companies to leapfrog and propel themselves to being large enterprises.”

The programme makes resources available to shorten the timespan for transition while driving growth and supports the country’s post-Covid-19 recovery plan.

The JSE said its Enterprise Acceleration Programme launch followed the successful completion of its pilot project that exposed entrepreneurs to several training modules that equipped them with skills and expertise. It said it was collaborating with Endeavor South Africa, an organisation that identifies and supports entrepreneurs.

NEWS 24/7

IOL.CO.ZA