Township Internet Service Provider TooMuchWifi Appoints New CEO, Venture Capitalist, Tauriq Brown
Township Internet Service Provider TooMuchWifi Appoints New CEO, Venture Capitalist, Tauriq Brown. South African township internet service provider TooMuchWifi has announced that it has appointed venture capitalist Tauriq Brown as it’s new CEO. Brown aims to take affordable internet to low-income communities across Africa.
“There is no question that technology has the ability to resolve some of the challenges faced by township residents and those living in low-income settlements, including transforming them into more inclusive micro-economies. This is especially true of South Africa’s digital divide, which is exacerbated by uneven broadband distribution. While the middle-class pay on average 0.15% of their incomes on Wifi and data, this compares with low-income South Africans who spend up to 21% of their incomes on data making “always-on” out of reach for most. Importantly, this prevents them from accessing education, employment, entertainment, engagement and general services information, to name but a few. This stark reality puts millions on the backfoot from being able to enter into and contribute to the economy, holding them tightly in a web of unemployment and inaccessibility from the fourth industrial revolution in which many new tech-oriented jobs are fast being created. This is a travesty which must be addressed if we are going to close the digital divide, and prevent it from getting even larger, especially among the youth, of which nearly 50% have no work.” says Tauriq Brown.
Brown is a venture builder who has previously scaled startups in record times, having started and successfully sold ventures for Rocket Internet, the global internet and tech incubator with a market cap of $3.7 billion, including an exit to Alibaba.com, the Chinese online retail giant. So critical is this need that access to the internet is among the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (Goal 9). Its vision is to significantly increase access to Information and Communication Technology and strive to provide universal and affordable access to the Internet in least developed countries. To achieve this however requires major Information and Communication Technology investments in local populations, especially those in poor communities or rural areas.
With the new CEO in place as of 7th March 2023, the MIC (Mineworkers Investment Company)-backed tech company (MIC owns +-24% of TooMuchWifi) is now on a significant drive to rapidly increase its customer base by growing its presence country-wide, asserting its dominance in Cape Town, then broader Western Cape and Gauteng with the aim to expand into Africa within 2-4 years. To achieve this, the company has secured a significant amount of debt and equity funding for an undisclosed amount.
