The South African billionaire who ‘quietly’ quadrupled his wealth in 5 years
South African tech chief executive Zak Calisto is one of the country’s ‘unsung’ billionaires who, thanks to the amazing success of his company, Karooooo, and its position on the global stage, has seen his fortune quadruple between 2018 and 2024 to almost R14 billion.
Karooooo, formerly known as Cartrack, is a global provider of fleet management, stolen vehicle recovery and insurance telematics services. The company was founded in 2001 and listed on the JSE in 2014.
The group has experienced exponential growth over the years, growing from vehicle tracking to fleet management and various mobility software-as-a-service (SaaS) platforms for connected vehicles.
Its global expansion has also been extensive. Starting in South Africa, it quickly moved into Mozambique within a year. By 2011, it had expanded into Kenya, Namibia, Poland, Portugal, Spain, and Tanzania.
In the year of its public listing in 2014, the group started operations in South East Asia, and two years later, it entered two more major markets — New Zealand and the US — putting its total country count at 24.
Cartrack’s holding company rebranded and relisted on the JSE as Karooooo in 2021.
The company is now headquartered in Singapore and has over 2.2 million subscribers, servicing over 121,000 businesses.
The group is listed on the JSE and Nasdaq, and has a total market value of just under $1 billion (R18.2 billion) – easily making it one South Africa’s biggest global success stories.
The man in charge
The man behind Karooooo, still serving at the helm of the group, is co-founder and CEO Zak Calisto (57).
Described as a “quiet” or “humble” billionaire, Calisto has been the CEO of Cartrack Holdings Limited since its founding in 2001, and is the main driver behind the group’s rapid expansion – and the strange name change to Karooooo.
According to Caliso, the rebranding of Cartrack to ‘Karooooo’ (with five ‘o’s) was because of his love for the Karoo in South Africa – but the domain owner of Karoo.com wanted $1 million for it, which he deemed unreasonable.
He decided that the number of ‘o’s didn’t really matter, and proceeded to rebrand to Karooooo, subsequently purchasing all Karoo.com domains containing three to six ‘o’s, ensuring that anyone would land on the company, even if they got the count slightly wrong.
Before founding the company, he was a member of Vehicle Tracking Services, a company specialising in the distribution of telematics services, from 1994 through 2001.
Prior to that, he was a Member of Cell Communications, a company specialising in the distribution of telecommunication services, from 1994 to 1996.
Calisto studied at the University of South Africa and University of the Witwatersrand.
Billionaire status
Calisto is rapidly approaching dollar billionaire status.
He has been a rand billionaire (in terms of net worth) for some time, but the expansion and success of the group’s operations over the last five years has seen his wealth shoot up over 300%.
According to Karooooo’s latest annual report, Calisto controls 20,028,811 of the company’s shares, giving him a direct 64.81% stake in the company.
This is valued at around R11.8 billion.
However, Calisto also controls an additional 3,140,000 shares through a group called One Spire (Pty) Ltd.
Karooooo noted that there is a standing agreement that if Calisto’s beneficial ownership falls to below 51% of the issued and outstanding shares of the company, then One Spire will cast all votes it controls as directed by Calisto.
“As a result, (the) 3,140,000 shares may be deemed to be beneficially owned by Calisto,” it said.
This means that Calisto has an effective 74.97% beneficial ownership of the company, valued at R13.6 billion.
Back in 2018, Calisto’s shareholding was worth about R3.47 billion – meaning his net worth has skyrocketed by 294% over the last five financial years.
Looking ahead
According to the group, its ambitions are not slowing down.
In its unaudited full-year results for 2023/2024, the group showed an impressive performance. Revenue increased by 19.92% since 2023, growing from R3.51 billion to R4.21 billion.
Profitability also showed strong growth, with a 24% increase in its net profit from R597 million to R738 million.
For the 2024/25 financial year, it aims to grow further. It set the goal to:
- Grow Cartrack’s subscriber base to between 2.2 million and 2.4 million
- Grow Cartrack subscription revenue to between R3.9 billion and R4.15 billion
- Grow Cartrack’s operating profit margin by 27% to 31%
- Increase Karooooo’s earnings per share to between R27.50 and R31.00
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