Cape Town-based security startup Jonga wins Santam Safety Ideas campaign

Cape Town startup Jonga, which has designed an affordable app for home security, has come out tops in the Santam Safety Ideas campaign.

Jonga will get a R150 000 to cover the costs of incubation. The announcement was made on Thursday last week.

The startup was founded by Ntandoyenkosi Shezi and Ntsako Mgiba (pictured) in 2016 with the aim of making home security more accessible to all. Mgiba told Ventureburn that he came up with the idea for the startup after getting burgled.

The Jonga security system retails for R800 a unit, costs R70-a-month

Jonga’s low-cost security system consists of a motion detector that is installed at a user’s premises and software component either in the form of a smartphone app or an SMS notification.

On detecting an intrusion, the device sends a notification to the user’s phone prompts whether they are expecting anyone. If the user is not expecting anyone, the system sends alerts to neighbours notifying them of the disturbance

Mgiba said the system retails at R800 a unit. Thereafter Jonga charges a R70-a-month subscription fee which covers maintenance and data costs. He added that the startup had so far secured a pre-order of 200 units and would be trialing the app in Franschoek in the next coming months.

“This initiative is very close to our hearts because we also have families in townships. We are thrilled and grateful to Santam and LaunchLab for believing in our product and making it possible for us to start developing our product so that we can launch our pilot programme in various townships,” he said in an earlier press release.

Jonga last year raised R380 000 in grants from TIA and Cape Town-based accelerator mLabs. Additionally the startup has taken part in the Standard Bank Seedstars World competition where it won R30 000 in prize money and has received financial backing from South African Breweries.

The Santam Safety Ideas Campaign — which is run by the insurance company together with incubator Launchlab and innovation company Innovus — aims to encourage South African innovators to develop innovative safety and security solutions.

The initiative was launched in July last year and generated over 150 entries.

The other finalists include:

• • TrafficEye — Mbulelo Mpofana’s insurer independent app-based insurance telematics solution aims to provide users with greater control over their telematics data
  • Bomvu Stake Initiative — Jonathan Shutte and Dieter Zermatten’s concept captures statistical data to highlight regions with high accident fatalities
  • Guardian Angel Safe Zone — Tharina de Lange came up with this concept to track the GPS location of loved ones through wearable proximity-based tags

Featured image: Jonga co-founders from left to right (Ntandoyenkosi Shezi, Ntsako Mgiba and Matthew Tait) (Supplied)