DELVE INTO AFRICAN WEALTH
DON'T MISS A BEAT
Subscribe now
Skip to content

South African mogul Zak Calisto’s Karooooo posts $26 million in earnings in 9M 2023

Calisto founded Karooooo in 2001.

Zak Calisto

Table of Contents

Karooooo Limited, a mobility platform led by South African businessman Zak Calisto, released its financial statement for the third quarter of its 2023 fiscal year, revealing improved earnings growth, robust revenue, and a significant increase in its commercial customers, which surpassed 100,000 during the period under review.

Figures contained in the group’s recently published financial results for the nine-month period ending November 30, 2022, revealed that its profit after tax surged to R458.9 million ($26.6 million), compared to the R379.4 million ($22 million) that it posted in the first nine months of the prior year.

The strong earnings growth during the period under review was supported by a double-digit percent increase in revenue from R2 billion ($116 million) to R2.59 billion ($150 million) thanks to robust subscriber growth that led to strong demand for the firm’s services from small to large enterprises.

The impressive financial performance, which extends beyond the group’s decade-plus track record of strong growth at scale, profitability, and cash generation in varying macroeconomic environments, has seen the assets and retained earnings of the mobility platform surge above R3.52 billion ($204.2 million) and R1.42 billion ($82.4 million), respectively.

In his assessment of the Q3 2023 results, CEO and Founder Zak Calisto highlighted the unique strengths of the company’s operations. He noted that the company’s vertically integrated business model and continuing efforts in product innovation and improvement set it apart from its peers and are key to its consistent and robust growth in subscription revenue.

This, he believes, positions the company for long-term success and competitiveness.

Calisto also pointed to the significant number of commercial customers, more than 100,000, who are using the company’s operations cloud to streamline and optimize their operations and the minimal risk of customer or industry concentration.

Calisto founded Karooooo, a global mobility software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform, in 2001 with the primary aim of providing stolen car recovery services in South Africa.

The company now offers a mobility SaaS platform for connected vehicles in South Africa, the rest of Africa, Europe, Asia-Pacific, the Middle East, and the United States.

With a market value of more than $550 million from his 74.73-percent shareholding in Karooooo, Calisto ranks as one of Africa’s wealthiest technology entrepreneurs. Under his leadership, Karooooo has developed into an international provider of smart transportation management solutions.

With the addition of more than 87,000 new customers during the third quarter of the group’s current fiscal year, Karooooo now empowers over 100,000 diverse commercial customers in solving their day-to-day challenges.

Latest