inq. expands footprint into SA with acquisition of Syrex

Subject to regulatory approval, pan-African digital services provider inq. announced its acquisition of a well-known South African IT solution provider, Syrex, for an undisclosed amount. With global footprint of more than 1 200 customers, inq. now expands its points of contact to 12 African cities.

In 2020, inq. also acquired Vodacom Business Africa’s operations in Nigeria, Cote d’Ivoire and Zambia. The Syrex takeover is subject to customary conditions including approvals by South Africa’s Competition Commission and the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa.

“The acquisition will bring two strategically aligned businesses together to deliver their technology and services across the African continent,” says David David Herselman, the managing director of Syrex.

“This will bring a combined offering into the African market to deliver the best technologies available.  We are very excited that our cross-border clients will benefit from Syrex’s strong hyper-converged solutions and inq.’s edge solutions and services.”

Driving Edge services

inq., a Convergence Partner’s company, says it’s excited about acquiring Syrex, a provider of hyper-converged cloud technology solutions in South Africa. The strategic acquisition bolsters an already robust business offering from Syrex to provide innovative, reliable, and industry-leading solutions to the South African market.

Syrex is a well-established solutions provider with partnerships such as Microsoft (Gold), Mimecast (MSP) and Checkpoint (4 star).

With a current presence in nine countries, this strategic acquisition is set to see inq. expand its coverage to the South African market to ultimately facilitate and operate its African divisions. It also integrates Edge Computing’s solutions across the continent.

Edge services are increasingly critical to digital transformation and fundamental to enterprises across the public sector and private sectors, including banking, financial services and insurance, oil and gas, mining and fast-moving consumer goods.

Andile Ngcaba, executive chairman of inq., says, “The combination of Syrex and inq. is geared towards deepening our footprints in South Africa to drive hyper-converged and Edge services and solutions within one of the most developed ICT markets on the continent both in the public and the private sectors. Syrex brings to the fold the right qualities that our clients require.”

Ngcaba is the chairperson, founder and majority shareholder of investment group Convergence Partners. Through Convergence Partners, he is also involved in significant new communications infrastructure projects across Africa. This includes Seacom, the first undersea fibre optic cable system serving Africa’s East Coast, as well as Intelsat New Daw, the first private sector satellite in Africa.

He was previously the director-general of communications in the first democratically elected government of South Africa in 1994. Ngcaba left government in 2003 to pursue a career in the private sector.

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