For 20-year-old University of the Western Cape (UWC) BCom Financial Accounting student, Lesedi Majoe, the idea for a technology business started with a problem close to home: the money collected from his family’s taxis did not always add up.

Growing up in a family involved in the taxi industry, Majoe had a first-hand view of the challenges of managing a business where large volumes of cash move through the system every day.

Straightforward

The problem was straightforward but difficult to solve; knowing how much cash a taxi generated in a day and knowing how much the driver actually handed over to the owner were not always the same thing. Because owners have no independent way to verify passenger numbers, they often experience revenue leakage when drivers fail to report the full amount of cash collected. For many owners, that gap can amount to between R8 000 and R14 000 in monthly losses per vehicle.

Rather than accepting this as part of doing business, Majoe began asking whether technology could provide a better way to track the movement of money without changing how the industry works.

That question became the foundation for DriveCred, a technology-driven solution designed to bring financial accountability to the South African minibus taxi industry.

DriveCred addresses this challenge by installing an AI-powered passenger-counting camera inside the taxi. Using computer vision and AI, the device automatically counts passengers entering and exiting taxis.

Because taxi fares are generally fixed per route, the number of passengers transported can be used to estimate the expected revenue that the taxi should generate. This creates an independent and verifiable operational record that owners can use to compare against the cash received from drivers.

Cash-based

The system does not require changes to the current cash-based system used in the industry; rather, it adds a layer of accountability. Owners can view their operational data through a full-featured app dashboard and access it via WhatsApp through a multilingual AI assistant named Sello, which explains the data in simple, everyday language.

But for Majoe, the system’s potential goes beyond simply reducing revenue leakage and driver skimming.

Over time, accumulated operational data can serve as a financial record for taxi operators, helping them demonstrate their business activity. This verified data could potentially make it easier for operators to access formal financial services such as credit, loans and structured fleet financing. For an industry that has historically relied heavily on cash transactions, the ability to create a digital financial history could unlock broader economic opportunities.

It is also where his studies in financial accounting intersect with the problem that inspired his entrepreneurial journey. He is learning about financial systems and accountability in the classroom while attempting to apply those principles to an industry he has known throughout his life.

Developing DriveCred has also forced Majoe to rethink what he believed his own career would look like. Although entrepreneurship was part of his family environment, the expectation was still that he should follow a conventional career path. “Even though we are business people, my parents or the family have always been pushing, ‘Go get a degree and get a job,’” he said.

Stable salary

Like many young people, Majoe had once imagined his future in terms of a stable monthly salary. However, entrepreneurship has challenged that expectation. “As an entrepreneur, I’m beginning to realise that, actually, business won’t be the same as work where you get money every month.”

One of the challenges has been learning to measure progress when there is no guaranteed monthly income and no physical product that people can immediately see.

Majoe said much of the work involved in developing DriveCred happens behind the scenes. “I don’t have an actual product, tangible,” he said. “So it’s also like, ‘Is it actually happening?’” Yet(there have already been signs that the idea is gaining momentum.”

On campus, DriveCred placed first at the Enactus UWC Intra-Varsity competition and won the Hult Prize UWC campus round, advancing to the national finals. Last year, Majoe was selected for MTN’s Top 30 Hustle Hub 2025, where he took part in an intensive mentorship programme in Sandton and received funding.

Cash prize

More recently, the venture also received a cash prize through Startup Africa 2026. Majoe has also advanced from the internal rounds to the regional finals of the EDHE ABSA Entrepreneurship InnoVarsity 2026, taking place from 18 to19 August 2026.

These opportunities have exposed him to mentorship, funding and the wider startup ecosystem, while helping him move the idea from a problem experienced within his family business towards a solution with potential applications across the taxi industry. “I guess you’ve got to have that faith and keep on, keep on showing up,” he said.

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