Pioneering Trust In Africa’s Tech Landscape

Facial recognition technology enhances identity verification. But how do you do it in Africa, where many individuals lack valid identification? pawaPass exists to answer that question.

Sylvia Brune, the CEO of pawaPass, has emerged as a key figure in Africa’s tech industry, focusing on bridging the trust gap in digital transactions. Here she shares her unexpected journey into technology, the challenges she faced, and her vision for the future of RegTech in Africa. In a candid discussion, Brune reflects on her accidental entry into the tech world and her evolution from an event organiser to a tech leader at pawaPass. She emphasises the importance of understanding customer needs and fostering creativity within her team. As the digital landscape continues to grow, her insights on the singular challenges and opportunities in RegTech are invaluable, particularly regarding trust and identity verification in an expansive digital economy.

Who is Sylvia Brune, and what inspired you to venture into the tech industry? Can you share your journey with us?I stumbled into it completely by accident. In 2008, I volunteered to organise an event, a startup idea award show. I had no idea what a startup was or what an entrepreneur did. Through it, I met some people which led me to work at StartupBootcamp as employee #1, which is where I met Kresten Buch, who got me to join 88mph – the African seed fund and accelerator where, together with Nikolai Barnwell, we would invest into 45 startups across South Africa, Kenya, and Nigeria. From there, I left to start my own business.

What were some of the biggest challenges you faced as you started your journey in tech? How did these challenges shape your leadership style?

I don’t think the tech part was the challenge. I hate when things don’t work, and I love solving problems. So I dived into everything in the beginning, tried lots of software products and was eager to learn a ton of new things, including some really basic HTML and CSS. The real challenge was identifying the real customer problems, how industries work, sales, distribution, and the 100s of trade-offs you need to make in order to create good solutions and get a product in the hands of enough customers to create a business. Over time, you get better at focusing on the right things to do at the right time.

As a leader in the IT sector, how do you foster innovation and creativity within your team at pawaPass?

I think good people are creative. There are a million decisions made in my company every day that I know nothing about. If you have good people, those decisions will be creative, and they will want to solve the customer’s problem in the best way. I think my main contribution is ensuring we are all testing ideas with real people first and not allowing assumption creep. Software is great in that it can solve any problem, but it can also be a huge time waster if the right things are not being solved first.

What unique perspectives do you believe women bring to the tech industry? Can you share an example of how a woman’s perspective has led to a breakthrough innovation at pawaPass?

We are lucky to have a number of incredible and unique women. But I wouldn’t be able to say whether their contributions are particularly due to a “woman’s perspective.” Most great solutions are not bolts of lightning but rather the everyday tinkering, testing, and discussing that, over time, brings more and more pieces of the puzzle together.

What advice would you give to young women aspiring to enter the tech field and assume leadership roles?

I didn’t start as a leader or think about being a leader. I started by being drawn into something I found interesting, lots of trying things, reading, talking to people, learning and not being afraid to say what I thought. I also assumed personal financial risk, taking shares instead of salary sometimes, investing savings into things I thought were exciting, ultimately losing quite a bit on some of them, and happy to also have seen some of the bets pay off. You get a different kind of conviction from walking the walk, and I think others respond to that.

How do you see the role of RegTech evolving in the next few years, particularly in Africa?

I think there will be more local/homegrown solutions to the wide range of unique challenges faced in Africa. Not only for price stability – as in the case of Nigeria – but in general, to reach 100s of millions of people will require products and services that can really scale, at a very low price point, work on the types of devices that users have, and address challenges like digital literacy among other things.

What are the biggest challenges and opportunities for RegTech adoption in Africa?

It’s still early days in Africa for online products and services. Trust is a big challenge to getting people to offer and use online products where fraud and abuse are the biggest deterrents. Solving this will be key to unlocking a new level of online commerce in Africa.

With the rise of Al in RegTech, what are some of the potential risks and benefits you foresee? How do you plan to leverage Al at Pawapass while addressing these challenges?

Like with any technology, it’s important to really understand what problem you need to solve first and test solutions in a way that allows you to learn quickly and improve.

What has been the most significant project or achievement for you at pawaPass so far, and what made it particularly impactful?

When we first started pawaPass, we wanted to ensure that any solution would be good for both the end user and the business. Enabling access for anyone through facial recognition first rather than an ID first solution, which is what we had seen in the market. When we got to work on the Locker Room Bonus, where sports players are verified to be able to partake in the bonus payouts, it was great to see the impact of the solution. Many players don’t have IDs, but it’s still important to the integrity of the project that the right person gets the bonus.

What is your vision for the future of pawaPass in the next 5-10 years?

Being able to solve critical compliance challenges for businesses, with solutions that are suited to the African markets, and if we are lucky, being able to make a dent in the online trust problem as well.

What do you enjoy doing when you are not busy being a CEO? How do you unwind and recharge outside of work?

I hike a lot. Mountains and being in nature are the best places for thinking and getting perspective.