• South African entrepreneur André de Wet founded Flood to digitize local commerce through mobile-first platforms.

• Flood aims to become a “Shopify for physical stores” by turning existing audiences into local marketplaces.

• The platform targets telecoms, digital banks, and SMEs seeking monetization and proximity-based engagement.

André de Wet is a South Africa–based entrepreneur operating from Cape Town. He founded Flood, a platform designed to help neighborhood retailers remain visible and competitive in a mobile-driven economy without imposing complex technologies.

Founded in 2020, Flood positions itself as a commerce solution built for a smartphone-centric world. The company aims to create the equivalent of Shopify for physical stores that serve customers in person while extending relationships into digital channels.

The platform converts existing audiences, including telecom subscribers, digital bank customers, and radio listeners, into localized marketplaces. The audience owner becomes the central access point where consumers discover offers, select products, and complete payments.

Flood primarily targets organizations that control large user bases, including telecom operators and digital banks, but underutilize their commercial potential. The platform allows these organizations to become their customers’ main digital destination by combining offer discovery and payment within a single environment.

For small and medium-sized businesses, Flood simplifies engagement with geographically nearby customers and places merchants at the center of a local digital ecosystem. For consumers, the platform enables mobile wallet usage, contactless payments, instant rewards at purchase, and real-time interaction tracking.

Alongside Flood, André de Wet founded consulting firm 2ndBase in 2018 and serves as its chief executive officer. The firm supports corporate clients in understanding and adopting digital technologies. He launched his first entrepreneurial venture in 2005 with the creation of IT services company WebTec.

From an academic perspective, de Wet holds a bachelor’s degree in medicine earned in 1989 from the University of the Free State in South Africa. He later earned a master’s degree in international management from the University of Salford in 2020. He began his professional career in 1997 at Global Visual Media, where he served as senior marketing manager.

In 2010, de Wet joined fintech company PayU as head of business development. In 2011, he became chief executive officer of price-comparison platform PriceCheck. Between 2016 and 2017, he served as Africa head at on-demand entertainment platform iFix.

This article was initially published in French by Melchior Koba

Adapted in English by Ange Jason de BERRY QUENUM