Bio
Vinny Lingham is a South African tech start-up entrepreneur and television personality.
In 2003, Lingham funded his first technology business at the age of 24, by selling his house for a R125,000 profit and racking up R75,000 on his credit cards.
That company was incuBeta and its subsidiary Clicks2Customers, which is still today the leading South African Search Marketing company – and it was the start of Lingham's journey as a tech entrepreneur based in Cape Town. The company generated over $10m/year in revenues within 4 years.
Next up was Yola.com, a company he founded to help small businesses build websites without technical skills, and which saw Lingham relocate to Silicon Valley, California in 2007 and grow the business into a massive success.
In 2012, he launched Gyft (a mobile wallet for online gift cards), with investments from Google Ventures & Ashton Kutcher, which was purchased by First Data Corporation - the world's largest payments processor.
He also co-founded the Silicon Cape Initiative, an NGO which aims to turn the Western Cape into a technology start-up hub.
In 2014 Vinny was one of the "Dragons" - a group of investors who offer ordinary South Africans investment in their businesses - in the Mzansi Magic reality show Dragons' Den.
In October 2016 he joined the M-Net reality series Shark Tank South Africa as one of the five "Sharks", in which entrepreneurs go up in front of a panel of investors who are willing to invest their own money and time in potentially lucrative business ideas.