{"id":74463,"date":"2025-06-13T15:20:20","date_gmt":"2025-06-13T14:20:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/?p=74463"},"modified":"2025-07-03T11:04:15","modified_gmt":"2025-07-03T10:04:15","slug":"leading-with-purpose-driving-innovation-and-revolutionising-business-lending","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/2025\/06\/13\/leading-with-purpose-driving-innovation-and-revolutionising-business-lending\/","title":{"rendered":"Leading with purpose, driving innovation and revolutionising business lending"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

From high-voltage engineering to fintech innovation, David Reynders\u2019 career has been defined by a passion for solving complex problems and driving meaningful change. The Merchant Capital CTO tells us how his journey through startups, healthcare tech and mobile payments led him to transform SME lending through strategic technology leadership.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n

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Can you walk us through your career journey and what led you to your current role as CTO?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I graduated as an electrical engineer with a specialisation in high voltage, I never thought I\u2019d find myself as the CTO of a lending business serving banks and SMEs. The first step in this direction was being frustrated in my job at Eskom, the south African power utility, and getting the opportunity to work for Internet Solutions in their new eCommerce division. My horizons exploded! I went from corporate bureaucracy and encountering very few new ideas to an overload of possibility and innovation. I couldn\u2019t keep up. It was as much as I could do to wrestle the opportunities in front of me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since then, I have benefitted from working with and for incredible people who helped develop me into who I am today. They were a great mix of ambition, emotional intelligence, a desire to serve and the ability to get things done. As a result, I got to do and be part of some amazing things over the last 25 years. I have always been drawn to solving difficult problems and as a result, providing services to SMEs has consumed a large part of my career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As CTO of Merchant Capital since November 2015, I have spearheaded the evolution of the organisation from manual processes to scalable, cost-effective, system-driven operations. In an organisation that is scaling up, I have had to blend the strategic with the hands-on business of getting things done. There are still some parts of our system that contain changes I made myself when I was the only technology person in the business.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over the years, we have transformed the experience our customers have from needing to submit hundreds of pages of bank statements and other information and then waiting a few days for an approval to a simple digital form and approval in a few hours (and sometimes a few minutes). We have also built technology that helps one of our leading banks lend better and faster to their customers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a result, we have been able to lend to tens of thousands of SMEs, supporting their growth with the capital they need for the next step.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Prior to Merchant Capital, I had a wild ride from those early days at Internet Solutions. I was put on an internal project in healthcare that led to the launch of healthbridge, a business that has transformed the interactions of doctors with medical aids, changing the time it took for them to get paid from months to a week or so. I got to do lots of innovative stuff there including negotiate and launch South Africa’s first non-bank card acquiring solution SureSwipe, and then launch POCiT, a mobile payments platform and start-up division of the group.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

POCiT witnessed exponential growth, launching one of South Africa’s first mobile payment services and garnering widespread recognition for innovation. This helped me win the NSTF Award for Innovation in 2010.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What are the biggest technology priorities for your organisation right now, and how are you aligning them with business strategy?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

2025 is focussed on enhancing the customer experience to drive growth. We\u2019ll make things smoother and quicker whilst avoiding the temptation to \u2018over-tech\u2019 the experience. At the heart of our business are the relationships we build with our customers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How do you see the role of the CTO evolving in today\u2019s fast-paced, digitally driven business environment?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The role of the CTO has evolved from the systems builder to the product thinker. No longer just the technical lead, CTOs are stepping into the role of a strategic contributor that helps the business grow, differentiate and compete. They\u2019re often at the heart of transformation where speed, data and client experience meet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As CTOs we must also build and inspire high-performing teams in a landscape where skills are scarce, expectations are high and culture matters. Attracting, retaining and developing top tech talent has become a core part of the job.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What types of IT challenges have you seen emerge across the industry recently, and how are you preparing your organisation to navigate similar issues?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As CIOs, we\u2019re constantly juggling a few big challenges. Finding the right skills, keeping up with the pace the business and client demands, and making sure tech and business teams aren\u2019t just aligned, but moving in synergy. It\u2019s a high-stakes balancing act, and getting it right makes all the difference.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the SME funding landscape, complexities and challenges can include:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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  1. Finding the right skills to support the business and projects. We’re not just looking for developers anymore, we\u2019re looking for data scientists who understand credit risk, DevOps engineers who can navigate compliance-heavy environments, cybersecurity experts who can keep pace with ever-evolving threats, and product-minded technologists who can move at the speed of a start-up while thinking like a banker. That\u2019s a rare combination.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  2. Many fintech platforms started out lean, built for agility. But as they scale to support new partners, products and regulatory compliance, we\u2019re often stretching infrastructure that wasn\u2019t designed for this level of complexity.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  3. We’re collecting more data than ever, from application forms, transactional histories, credit bureaus, behavioural analytics and even social signals. But turning all of that into actionable insights is complex and often a disconnected process.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  4. With increased digitisation comes increased risk. Every integration, customer touchpoint or third-party tool is a potential entry point for cyberthreats – and in the financial services space, the stakes are even higher.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  5. Today\u2019s SME clients expect decisions in minutes, tailored offers and real-time support. But behind the scenes, delivering that kind of seamless experience demands fast, integrated systems, Machine Learning that actually works and rock-solid infrastructure.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  6. Everyone\u2019s racing to \u2018add AI\u2019 but not all tools are fit for purpose, and integrating AI meaningfully into analytics, customer experience, or internal workflows takes more than a plug-and-play approach. It takes governance, training and a clear vision for how AI can work for the business.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    How are you approaching innovation within your IT department, and what new technologies are you most excited about?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    We\u2019re building a powerful pipeline by growing young technologists from within, while creating an environment where our senior experts are energised and inspired to stay. Not just to lead, but to mentor the next generation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    We are making the most of automation to enhance the client\u2019s experience. Not just by improving speed, efficiency, and creating a seamless journey but also by empowering our teams. Internally, automation helps free up employees to focus on more meaningful, high-touch interactions and reduce friction across channels, both for customers and within our operations. We\u2019re using AI as a development assistant, and this is laying the foundation to extend its use more widely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    What advice would you give to aspiring IT leaders looking to make an impact in their organisations?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

     The best IT leaders don\u2019t just implement tools or manage infrastructure. They connect the dots between technology and strategy with a sensitivity for getting bang for buck.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    From high-voltage engineering to fintech innovation, David Reynders\u2019 career has been defined by a passion for solving complex problems and driving meaningful change. The Merchant Capital CTO tells us how his journey through startups, healthcare tech and mobile payments led him to transform SME lending through strategic technology leadership. Can you walk us through your […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":74465,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16131,565,298,9059,13,262],"tags":[18267,18277,18270,18274,18261,18268,18272,18273,18258,18275,18262,18264,18259,18263,18276,18271,18266,18269,18260,18265],"class_list":["post-74463","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-africa","category-banking-finance","category-main-story-newsletter","category-south-africa","category-top-stories","category-used","tag-ai-in-financial-services","tag-ai-powered-lending","tag-automation-in-lending","tag-building-tech-teams","tag-cto-career-journey","tag-cto-leadership","tag-cto-role-evolution","tag-customer-experience-in-fintech","tag-david-reynders","tag-digital-lending-platforms","tag-digital-transformation-in-finance","tag-fintech-infrastructure-challenges","tag-fintech-innovation","tag-fintech-strategy","tag-innovation-in-financial-services","tag-it-leadership-advice","tag-merchant-capital-cto","tag-sme-funding-solutions","tag-sme-lending-technology","tag-south-african-fintech"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74463","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=74463"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74463\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":75104,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74463\/revisions\/75104"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/74465"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=74463"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=74463"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=74463"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}