Building Venture-Scale Fintech in Africa | Charles Savage, Founder of Easy Equities

What does it really take to scale a fintech from startup to profitability in Africa — and do it publicly listed? In this Founders Series interview, Colin Iles sits down with Charles Savage, CEO of Purple Group and founder of Easy Equities, for a wide-ranging conversation on the journey from near-collapse to R90 billion in assets on platform, 1.2 million customers, and a business that's now generating R100 million in free cash flow. Topics covered: 🔹 The state of Easy Equities — How the business hit its inflection point, what "Goldilocks" macro conditions look like for a South African fintech, and why profitability signals a step change in velocity. 🔹 ZARU Stablecoin launch — Breaking news from the day: Easy Equities' founding partnership with Luno, Sanlam and Lasaka to launch South Africa's first institutionally backed rand-pegged stablecoin. Charles explains how it works, why it matters, and what it means for remittances, payments and the future of capital markets. 🔹 Competition & Revolut's arrival — Why Charles welcomes global competitors into the South African market and what their entry signals about the opportunity. 🔹 Spectacular failure & resilience — The story of Purple Group's near-death in 2008, taking the business into administration, and how that experience shaped the culture of innovation, speed and discipline that defines Easy Equities today. 🔹 Funding a startup on the JSE — The unconventional path of building a high-growth fintech inside a listed vehicle, blending private and public capital, and the discipline (and pain) that comes with six-monthly public scrutiny. 🔹 Partnerships as strategy — How humility about your weaknesses drives world-class partnerships with Discovery, Sanlam, Capitec, Satrix and more. 🔹 AI as the next decade's accelerant — Charles's bold thesis: AI will define the next decade the way smartphones defined the last. His target? Turning 250 staff into the output of 750 using AI — within 12 to 24 months. Plus his predictions on agentic customer engagement, AI-first product development, and the displacement of traditional asset management. 🔹 Democratising investment for every South African — The R1,000-per-child initiative, why tax-free savings accounts are government's greatest gift, and what it would take to fund every newborn's financial future. 🔹 Expansion into Kenya, Philippines & beyond — Where Easy Equities is heading next, why they avoid markets where Robinhood already operates, and the strategy of being found by larger competitors rather than competing head-on. 📌 Presented by Trusted Business Voices | Sponsored by Silicon Overdrive & Amazon Web Services 🌐 awsevents.coliniles.com | trustedbusinessvoices.com #Fintech #Africa #EasyEquities #Stablecoin #ZARU #StartupScaleUp #AI #VentureCapital #SouthAfrica #AWS #FoundersSeries