1-Million Women in RPA by 2025

For Tholang Mathopa, the founder of RPA Nuggets — a Johannesburg-based Intelligent Automation, AI and analytical consultancy — AI systems are only as good as the data that is fed into them.

“THEREFORE THE inclusion of women, and disenfranchised / under-represented groups, particularly in AI and Data Science fields can help mitigate this risk,” she says.

To that end, Mathopa has embarked on an ambitious mission to include more women in AI, and particularly in the field of Robotic Process Automation (RPA). Her goal is to up-skill and train at least one million women in Africa in Intelligent Automation and RPA in the next five years.

Synapse caught up with the visionary entrepreneur for a Q&A that covered her career, the challenges of running an RPA startup as a woman in South Africa, and the details of how she intends to go about reaching the goal of the 1 million women in RPA initiative. Here’s what she had to say.

Tell us about your company in a nutshell

RPA Nuggets is an Intelligent Automation, AI and analytics consultancy. We help businesses automate operations processes through custom intelligent automation solutions powered by AI and analytics to drive business value.

RPA Nuggets was launched in March 2019 and is run by two full-time employees, myself and another female director. The rest of our development team consists of 15 freelance consultants.

Our main clients are corporate organisations like banks, auditing firms, insurance companies and any structured organisation with set traditional business processes.

Can you walk us through your professional background and what inspired you to start this business?

I started my career in 2013 as a data analyst for a telecommunications company, just after completing my BSC Computer Systems at Heriot Watt University. This was my first job, I was excited and amped up to learn and grow professionally. Off work, I consumed myself in Microsoft Business Intelligence (BI) YouTube videos and soon certified with an MS BI accreditation.

Opportunities flooded in, and I was up for the challenge, which motivated my move to a small insurance firm as a BI developer and later junior enterprise architect.

My career advanced to an associate role at a Big Four consultancy where I was called into their analytics team, and was soon asked to become a part of the pioneering RPA team. While I was an RPA developer during the day, I became an online freelance RPA trainer at night, training tech aspirants across the globe for two hours on this new and emerging technology.

My role as an RPA trainer was where I exercised my creativity, as at the time, there weren’t a lot of RPA learning or reading material. I did everything from training and curriculum development, to corporate advisory and strategic RPA consulting. I loved it, and loved RPA more!

This catapulted my career to joining a New York RPA startup I was freelancing with as an RPA consultant. This saw me travel across the US, UK and Asia, corporate training and consulting. I owe my broad understanding of Enterprise RPA to this experience.

RPA Nuggets came into fruition when I realised that South Africa had a staggering 10,4 million unemployed people, mainly youth. I wanted to use my skills to help alleviate unemployment and contribute towards South Africa’s’ preparedness for the Future of Work. I therefore developed a skills development programme that used RPA to help increase trainee’s competitiveness in a market demanding cuttingedge tech skills. It was here that RPA Nuggets, the consultancy, emerged.

How did you initially fund the firm?

Through personal finance and other voluntary services.

How has the company been performing since it launched ?

Since inception, we’ve recorded progressive milestones from primarily corporate training with our major market in India. We’ve had an average of 70-100 trainees per month online.

Yes, there were some stalls caused by the ongoing pandemic, however, we’ve ceased it as an opportunity to reach out to more women on the vision 2025. RPA Nuggets has launched in Nigeria this year, our biggest B2B2C market thus far.

What’s been your experience of running an RPA startup in South Africa, as a woman?

Gosh, it’s exciting and extremely challenging. I find myself having to constantly “prove myself” beyond my competence and aptitude. Barriers to funding, market access and strategic networks to advance businesses play at a different scale for women.

South Africa can do a better job in prioritising women led organisations for economic development and inclusion by ensuring that women have easier access to resources required to scale and grow sustainable businesses. There’s absolutely no sense in requiring a minimum R1-million annual turnover from a business in the remote Eastern Cape region in order for that business to access funding.

What would you say have been the biggest challenges you’ve faced running the startup since launch?

Market entry. To a large extent, most stakeholders are holding on to legacy systems and outdated ways of doing business, creating a barrier for new business.

Funding – many new South African businesses hail from rural areas and townships. We have fantastic ideas and implement them with what we have, where we are. Easier access to funding opportunities, accelerator programs, bank credit can change the game for South African entrepreneurs.

What can we expect from RPA Nuggets in the next year or two ?

Tech with a purpose!! This is our DNA at RPA Nuggets.

We are definitely looking into growing within our continent, using business and technology to tackle African social challenges, especially women inclusion in emerging technology. We are looking into up skilling at least 500 000 African women in 2021/2022, and help advance their careers in Intelligent Automation and other emerging technologies

We know our challenges as Africans and we want to resolve them. Technology is a great resource and enabler to effect this change.

Tell us more about the 1 million women in RPA initiative

The 1Million Women in RPA Initiative is a virtual skills development program aimed at up-skilling African women in Robotics Process Automation to increase the representation and leadership of African women in RPA and Intelligent Automation.

Our target is 1M women by 2025.

To achieve this, we are currently liaising with trainers across the continent through a train-the-trainer programme, to bring RPA in remote areas across Africa, and ensure women from diverse backgrounds have a chance of participation in the programme.

Ultimately, our goal is to have a rich skills development programme that will engage a diverse audience in their own language. Africa is rich in culture and different languages, and we want to use this to our advantage to make the content as relatable and understandable as possible.

We are currently working with our trainers to translate our curriculum to fit the language needs from each region, to ensure maximum impact and understanding, as for many English is not a primary medium of communication.

Our current partners are Pan African Chamber of Commerce and Girls in STEM Trust.

Those who wish to get involved can send their inquiries to info@rpanuggets.com with subject “2025 1Million Women in RPA Initiative”.

What advice would you give to other women looking to enter this field or start their own companies?

Be pliable, it’s the only way to survive an agile digital world. This means be comfortable with being a learner, a constant learner.

To women looking to start their own businesses – Do not allow resistance to discourage you to follow your dreams. ai