Strive Masiyiwa — SPARQNOW

At-a-Glance

Named one of Time Magazine's 100 Most Influential People in AI (2025) and awarded the W. E. B. Du Bois Medal by Harvard University (2024).
Founder and Executive Chairman of international technology groups Econet Global (since 1993) and Cassava Technologies (since 2021).
Founded and invested in businesses including Mascom Wireless Botswana, Econet Wireless Zimbabwe, Liquid Intelligent Technologies Group, Africa Data Centres, and Sasai Fintech.
Co-Founder of Higherlife Foundation (since 1996), which has provided scholarships to over 250,000 young Africans.
Serves as a Non Executive Director at Netflix (since 2020) and a Member Board Of Trustees at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (since 2022).
Holds a Bachelor of Electrical Engineering from Cardiff University.

Biography

Strive Masiyiwa is a London-based Zimbabwean billionaire businessman, founder, and executive chairman of international technology groups Econet Global and Cassava Technologies. Born in Southern Rhodesia in 1961, he earned a degree in electrical engineering from the University of Wales in 1983. After working briefly in the computer industry, he returned to Zimbabwe in 1984 and established his first business in 1986.