South African technology distributor Mustek is investing 7 million rand in artificial intelligence, launching a dedicated business-to-business AI marketplace as the company seeks new growth drivers following the collapse of its renewable energy hardware boom.
Mustek, founded in 1987 and owner of South Africa’s Mecer PC brand, acquired a controlling stake in local startup Business AI last year and used it to launch the marketplace, which the company says will vet and list AI products and services from multiple vendors. “Anything and everything that’s got to do with AI, after vetting, will be able to present their services and support on the marketplace, and transact through the platform,” said Mustek CEO Hein Engelbrecht.
The pivot comes as the company recovers from a significant revenue decline. Mustek reported revenue of 8.5 billion rand in the 2023-2024 financial year, down 16% from a 10.1 billion rand peak driven by surging demand for inverters and solar hardware during South Africa’s load-shedding crisis. Operating profits fell 39% to 278.5 million rand as the unexpected suspension of load shedding abruptly ended that demand cycle.
Engelbrecht said the move into AI represents a meaningful opportunity. “While generative AI has moved through its initial hype cycle, enterprises are now focusing on practical AI use cases with measurable returns, particularly in analytics, automation, and cybersecurity,” he said. He added that Mustek aims to help customers move “from proof-of-concept to scalable, results-driven implementations.”
The marketplace’s core infrastructure is provided by Beyond Now, a Dublin-based AI ecosystem orchestration platform. The partnership is designed to avoid vendor lock-in, allowing South African companies to shift between AI vendors as needed.
“Too many projects are failing due to poor implementation, lack of governance or overreliance on a single model or vendor,” said Rudi Dreyer, CEO of Business AI, who previously served as chief technology officer of 4Sight.
Mustek’s AI push mirrors a global hardware industry trend. Nvidia and AMD are leading investment in AI processors, Lenovo has committed $1 billion over three years to produce AI-enabled personal computers with dedicated neural processing units, and the broader AI data center market is projected to attract $3 trillion to $4 trillion in investment over the next five years.
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