Vinny Lingham

Vinny Lingham
Born (1979-02-07) 7 February 1979 (age 45)
East London, Eastern Cape, South Africa
NationalityAmerican
EducationUniversity of South Africa
Gordon Institute of Business Science
Damelin
OccupationInternet entrepreneur
TitleFounder and CEO of Civic (2015–present)
Term2007 – Present
Board member ofBitcoin Foundation (the foundation dissolved in 2015)
AwardsWorld Economic Forum Young Global Leaders (2009), Top Young ICT Entrepreneur in Africa Award (2006), Endeavor High Impact Entrepreneur (2006)
WebsiteCompany website
Personal weblog

Vinny Lingham (born Vinodan Lingham) is a South African-born American Internet entrepreneur who is the co-founder & CEO of an identity protection and management startup based in California called Civic. He was also previously the founder and CEO of Gyft & Yola, Inc. He is also the co-founder of SiliconCape, an NGO based in South Africa that aims to turn Cape Town into a technology hub.[1]

Entrepreneurship

In 2003, Lingham founded incuBeta, an investment holding company that engages in the ownership, management, and support of online marketing companies in various stages of development, with offices in the US, UK and Cape Town. Also in 2003, Lingham founded Clicks2Customers, a subsidiary of incuBeta that provides search engine marketing software and services. Lingham served as the CEO of both companies.

In 2007, Lingham founded Yola, a proprietary web development platform for individuals, small businesses and organizations. To date, Yola has received over $25 million in funding from Johann Rupert's Reinet Fund.[2]

Vinny Lingham is the co-founder of the Silicon Cape Initiative, a South African-based organization which aims to turn the Western Cape into a high-tech startup hub. He is also the co-founder of the investment fund Newtown Partners, through which Lingham has led early stage investments into successful and notable startups including Sweep South and Augmentors.[3][4][5]

Lingham was selected as an Endeavor Entrepreneur in 2006, and a Young Global Leader in 2009 with the World Economic Forum. Endeavor is a global non-profit that selects and supports high-impact entrepreneurs in emerging markets.[6]

In 2012, Lingham started Gyft, a mobile gift card company, with the backing of Google Ventures.[7] In two years, Gyft became the leading service in the mobile gift card space and was acquired by First Data Corporation in 2014 for more than US$54m.[8]

In 2015, Lingham founded Civic, a startup that encrypts identity information on the blockchain. Civic raised in excess of US$33m in funding during its Initial Coin Offering (ICO) in June 2017.[9]

From 2014 to 2016, Lingham was one of the investors, or "dragons", on South Africa's Dragons' Den reality TV series.[10] Starting in 2016, he is one of the "sharks" on the follow-up to Dragons' Den, Shark Tank South Africa. In 2017, Lingham was also an "Angel" on National Geographic's not-for-profit program Undercover Angel.[11] Lingham is also the co-author of "I'm In: Essential Advice for Entrepreneurs".[12]

In the summer of 2020, Lingham co-founded Waitroom, a host-led livestreaming and video meeting platform that will allow one-on-one engagement between hosts and their audiences.[13][14][15]

Awards

Lingham's industry accolades include:

References

  1. ^ "The Silicon Cape Initiative". siliconcape.com. Archived from the original on 10 September 2009.SiliconCape.com
  2. ^ "SynthaSite Gets a $20 Million Boost for Simple Website Creation Software". 17 February 2009.
  3. ^ "Newtown Partners Pty Ltd: Company Profile". Bloomberg. Retrieved 8 January 2018.
  4. ^ "SweepSouth becomes first SA startup to join Silicon Valley's 500 Startups programme – Ventureburn". Ventureburn. 3 August 2015. Retrieved 8 January 2018.
  5. ^ "Crowdfunding record for SA-made AR game". IT-Online. 3 February 2017. Retrieved 8 January 2018.
  6. ^ "South African Vinny Lingham is a Global Entrepreneur & Young Global Leader". KA Digest - Motivation | Quotes | Africans (Formerly KonnectAfrica.Net). 27 March 2014. Retrieved 1 March 2024.
  7. ^ Perez, Sarah. "Gyft Is Moving The Plastic Gift Card Industry To Your iPhone". TechCrunch. Retrieved 8 January 2018.
  8. ^ "SA's Vinny Lingham hits US pay dirt". 30 July 2014.
  9. ^ "Civic sells $33 million in digital currency tokens in public sale". Reuters. 22 June 2017.
  10. ^ "Meet SA's own Dragons".
  11. ^ "Undercover Angel". Retrieved 8 January 2018.
  12. ^ Lingha), Gil; Thembekwayo Oved (Vusi; Leteka, Polo (2015). And for All These Reasons I'm in: Essential Advice for Entrepreneurs. Tracey Mcdonald Publisher. ISBN 9780994658623.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  13. ^ McLeod, Duncan (23 March 2022). "Vinny Lingham's new start-up, Waitroom, is the anti-Zoom". TechCentral. Retrieved 24 March 2022.
  14. ^ Takahashi, Dean (23 March 2022). "Waitroom launches livestreaming platform for real-time communication". VentureBeat. Retrieved 24 March 2022.
  15. ^ Flynn, Kerry (23 March 2022). "Streaming platform Waitroom raises $3M to take on Zoom". Axios. Retrieved 24 March 2022.