Frogfoot founder Abraham van der Merwe has been a telecommunications entrepreneur since his final year of university, when he established a little Internet service provider that would one day help topple Telkom’s fixed-line monopoly.
During the past 25 years, Van der Merwe has founded and run several telecoms businesses — often leading several companies simultaneously.
Van der Merwe attended Clanwilliam High School, matriculating in 1996 and going on to study at Stellenbosch University.
In 2000, he graduated with a BSc degree in applied mathematics and computer science.
During that same year, he established Frogfoot, which was initially an Internet service provider that focused on providing services to small and medium enterprises.
Frogfoot sold its consumer services to Webafrica in 2007 and the remaining business to Vox in 2015.
Following Vox’s acquisition of the company, Van der Merwe transformed it into a major fibre network operator with a national footprint.
But there was a long road to walk before all that success.
In December 2000, Van der Merwe got a day job at 2d3D — a consultancy providing services to companies such as Intel and IBM.
“Realising the need to expand into the highly lucrative and booming Linux market, 2d3D hired me as their Linux expert,” Van der Merwe said.
“I wrote various Linux and SCO Unix device drivers, including XFree86 device drivers for the popular Intel i815, i830, and i845 video chipsets.”
He also helped design the 2d3D StrongARM platform and wrote various device drivers and real-time software for the platform, including all the software for the ArmCam product line for EDH SA.
“At the end of 2002, I and the SA-based vice-president of 2d3D — and my boss at the time — decided to explore the lucrative local electronics manufacturing market,” said Van der Merwe.
They launched 4D Technology LLC.
“With almost no capital invested, we quickly leveraged our vast experience in device driver development and embedded platform design to grow the company.”
Van der Merwe said he managed various projects, as well as staff, sales, and customer relations.
He also helped design, build, and manage various commercial projects, including a cellular phone, vehicle tracking system, industrial camera system, and telecommunications equipment.
In May 2003, he co-founded a third business — Amobia Communications.
Amobia initially focused on wireless infrastructure, providing extensive network coverage throughout South Africa.
Van der Merwe was responsible for the company’s sales and marketing efforts, including the sale of its first franchise in Potchefstroom, top corporate accounts, and FTTH deployments.
“We merged the company with Aerosat in 2010, and I resigned from its board in 2015, but I am still a major shareholder,” Van der Merwe said.
However, at the end of 2003, Van der Merwe did not yet know how everything would turn out and was splitting his time between Frogfoot, 4D, and Amobia.
So, in January 2004, he left 4D to spend more time managing Frogfoot.
He took a three-year break from launching new businesses. Then, in February 2007, he co-founded Teraco as the first vendor-neutral co-location provider in South Africa with Webafrica founder Matt Tagg and fellow serial entrepreneur Joe Botha.
According to Botha, they started an Internet peering point called hub.org.za soon after.
“I designed the company’s first data centre, financial model, and business plan and played a fundamental role in securing its first three rounds of investment and the implementation of an experienced management team for the company,” Van der Merwe said.
That experienced management team included Lex van Wyk and Tim Parsonson, who took over Teraco in 2008.
“In July 2008, I resigned from the board in order to give the company its full independence, sever any ties with my other business interests which included Frogfoot and Amobia, and free up my time to pursue other opportunities.”
Teraco launched the NAPAfrica Internet exchange point in 2012, promoting free network peering in South Africa and convincing major content owners like Google, Facebook, and Netflix to peer for free at its facilities.
This reduced the cost of bandwidth in South Africa to near zero.
As a result, the price of a 100Mbps uncapped fibre connection has plummeted from R6,599 to under R1,000 per month since 2014.
Van der Merwe would only fully exit Teraco as a shareholder in January 2015, when it was sold to Permira.
After resigning from the Teraco board, Van der Merwe promptly founded Riberry Communications, a least-cost cellular routing provider for call centres.
He expanded Riberry’s service offerings to become a fully-fledged provider of call termination services to business customers throughout South Africa.
It was also sold to Vox, along with Frogfoot, in 2015.
After selling to Vox, Van der Merwe remained on as Frogfoot’s CEO. In 2019, he became Vox group’s chief strategy officer.
In 2020, he founded Stage Zero under the Vox banner — a renewable energy provider focused on embedded generation and energy storage solutions for residential and commercial customers.
Vox Holdings rebranded to Vivica Group in 2022, and Van der Merwe stepped aside as Frogfoot CEO in 2023 to focus on strategy within the group.
At the end of 2023, Van der Merwe co-founded Rootspark and private equity fund platform Nextier, which comprises Nextier Ventures and Nextier Securities.
Nextier Ventures’ initial focus will be telecommunications, renewable energy, and sustainable water solutions. It intends to look for and capitalise on further growth sectors, in time.
Nextier Securities is a private credit platform.
“It acts as a scaler with access to significant capital pools for yielding assets as well as acting as an anti-dilution mechanism for equity investors,” the Nextier website explains.
“The platform will be seeded through the acquisition of the Frogfoot network assets.”
