Jacqueline Aylett, founder of a travel technology start-up in Cape Town, has been nominated for the Stevie Awards, the world's biggest corporate awards. Aylett was nominated in the categories of “Europe, Middle East and Africa Entrepreneurial Woman of the Year” and “Most Innovative Woman of the Year – Technology”.
flexiroam
In 2017, Aylett discovered a unique and disruptive data roaming solution launched in Asia. Through a mobile app, convenient and affordable data can be purchased on demand. By using a chip tag on your own SIM or eSIM, your data roaming solution rests in the palm of your hand. She recognized the enormous potential of bringing this disruptive technology to Africa, where data is expensive and people struggle to stay connected when traveling in Africa and abroad. She has invested to become a global partner for Flexiroam Asia and has negotiated distribution rights in Africa. Flexiroam Africa (Pty) Ltd was founded by her in 2018 and the company has since established a B2B and B2C customer base, becoming profitable less than two years later.
Flexiroam and AIDS2020
As a result of the global pandemic, the world's largest AIDS nonprofit, the International AIDS Society (IAS), was forced to transform its July 23, 2020 International AIDS Conference to 20,000 attendees. from a physical event. in a virtual event. Accessibility is one of the main tenants of IAS and the challenge they faced was how to bridge the global digital divide and bring online access to the virtual conference to their group of nearly 1,000 fellows. and fellows. Aylett was asked to create a solution to deliver unlimited global data, Flexiroam SIM cards and smartphones to send around the world to more than 900 delegates to connect them to AIDS2020: Virtual. “When our team first contacted Jackie about a solution to connect low-income delegates from around the world for our upcoming conference, they were immediately enthusiastic about the project. Since this was well beyond our technical expertise, it was Jackie who envisioned how this accessibility project would come to fruition,” said Emily Blitz, IAS Conference Director. Despite the global crisis, Aylett was able to evolve its business from providing roaming data for international travelers to providing virtual global data to connect people to a virtual conference. Once international travel restarts, the original business model will come back to life, but now there is an equally compelling new solution for providing online access to virtual events. Her message to women tech entrepreneurs is to seek disruptive solutions that have the power to improve lives by solving big problems.