Telkom ESD Future-Makers Awards Celebrates 10 Years of Impact, Honours South Africa’s Top Black SMME Innovators.
Centurion, South Africa — 11 February 2026 — Telkom hosted the Telkom ESD FutureMakers Awards at the BCX Head Offices in Centurion, marking 10 years of impact and growth for Black SMMEs supported through the Telkom FutureMakers programme. The milestone event brought together entrepreneurs, ecosystem partners, and corporate leaders to celebrate South African innovation, recognizing SMMEs building practical technology solutions that strengthen communities and advance the country’s digital economy.
As part of the Telkom FutureMakers programme, the awards continue to serve as a platform to showcase and honor innovative tech solutions and entrepreneurial success stories from local startups and SMEs. With South Africa’s digital transformation accelerating across industries, the awards highlight the role of small businesses in turning bold ideas into scalable, job creating ventures.
Recognizing innovation across high-impact sectors
This year’s awards recognized excellence across critical categories including AI, e-Commerce, Ed-Tech, Fin-Tech, and Health-Tech, as well as supplier development and broader ecosystem achievements. Winners across categories received an award, trophy, and R100,000.00 in support funding intended to help SMMEs invest in growth, product development, hiring and market expansion.
The awards also reflected the breadth of innovation emerging from South African founders—solutions spanning business efficiency tools, financial inclusion, education access, digital commerce, and health system support, all aimed at helping the country build a more inclusive digital future.
Khoi Tech named Health-Tech Innovation of the Year
One of the evening’s standout moments was the recognition of Khoi Tech, a Soweto based technology company, which was awarded HealthTech Innovation of the Year. Khoi Tech began as a consumer electronics disruptor, developing devices such as the Khoi Afriwatch1 health & fitness smartwatch and Khoi Afripods1 true wireless earphones. Over time, the company pivoted from device focused to a broader, data driven Health-Tech vision using wearables as health data points that enable smarter, faster and more proactive health decisions.
At the centre of this pivot is Khoi.health, Khoi Tech’s SaaS platform designed for remote patient monitoring and real time wellness insights. Using smartwatch derived data and software analytics, the platform helps individuals, clinics, hospitals, and employers monitor wellness and detect early warning signs that may require intervention.
Khoi Tech’s integrated approach combines:
- Khoi smartwatch devices as the primary data source,
- An open-source sports & wellness app for end users,
- A dashboard back end data mining health-tech platform that monitors health metrics in real time, produces reports, and triggers real time alerts in cases of potential illness.
The company’s solutions are offered through both SaaS and PaaS modules, enabling employers to deploy employee wellness programs and allowing clinics and hospitals to support remote patient monitoring, communication and continuity of care with the goal of improving outcomes while easing pressure on healthcare resources.
A decade of FutureMakers, from support to scale
Beyond the trophies and funding, the Telkom ESD FutureMakers Awards underscored the program’s decade long role in enabling entrepreneurs to move from concept to commercial success. With Black owned SMMEs forming a crucial part of South Africa’s economic fabric, the event reinforced the importance of sustained ecosystem support including market access, mentorship, digital enablement and partnerships that help small businesses scale responsibly and competitively.
The awards programme also emphasized Telkom’s long term commitment to building capability, accelerating innovation, and supporting small businesses as active contributors to national economic growth and job creation.
Leadership addresses highlight the urgency of digital transformation
The day featured keynote and motivational addresses from Telkom leadership, focusing on the importance of innovation led growth and inclusive digital transformation.
Mr. Tshepo Phethla, Telkom FutureMakers ESD Executive, reflected on the programs decade of outcomes and the expanding role SMMEs are playing in national development.
Mr. Sello Mmaku, Telkom Group Digital Officer, encouraged entrepreneurs to remain forward-looking and resilient, emphasizing that digital transformation is not optional—it is a competitive necessity for South Africa to thrive in a rapidly changing global economy.
Seati Moloi, CEO of Khoi Tech:
“Winning Health Tech Innovation of the Year is a powerful affirmation of the journey we’ve taken, from building devices like the Khoi Afriwatch1 and Khoi Afripods1 to creating a complete, data driven health ecosystem through Khoi.health. Our mission is to make real-time health insights accessible and actionable for individuals, families, clinics, hospitals and employers. With our smartwatch devices, open source wellness app and analytics dashboard working together, we can support remote monitoring, early alerts and better care, helping improve outcomes and strengthen the health system.”
Looking ahead
As Telkom’s FutureMakers programme enters its next chapter, the Telkom ESD FutureMakers Awards reaffirmed a central message, innovation thrives when entrepreneurs are supported to scale. With growing momentum across South Africa’s startup ecosystem, the programme continues to spotlight and enable businesses that are building solutions for today’s challenges and tomorrow’s opportunities.
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