When PHATHISANI MOYO watched Bryan Habana ship a presentation in Cape Town, he was intrigued by the private journey to fintech behind one in all South Africa’s most celebrated rugby careers.
Eight years after retiring from professional rugby, Bryan Habana discovered himself going through an unfamiliar opponent: himself.
The former Springbok winger and 2007 World Cup winner had spent a lot of his grownup life mastering a sport that made him one in all South Africa’s most recognisable athletes. He had represented his nation on the largest stage, carried out beneath immense strain and constructed a profession across the self-discipline required to compete on the highest stage.
But when he stepped into the fintech boardroom, the talents that made him a rugby star didn’t routinely translate into enterprise success.
“I didn’t know how to do a PowerPoint presentation. I didn’t know how to put a table into a spreadsheet or read a budget,” Habana recalled throughout a presentation at BPC’s innovation event in Cape Town on October 22.
For somebody accustomed to working on the highest stage {of professional} sport, it was humbling. The man as soon as anticipated to know precisely what to do on a rugby discipline was abruptly a newbie in an unfamiliar world.
Yet that discomfort marked the start of a unique profession. Habana moved from the rugby discipline to fintech, co-founding Paymenow, an organization that helps staff entry wages they’ve already earned earlier than payday.
His second act is about greater than discovering one thing to do after rugby. It is about making use of the qualities that made him profitable on the sphere to a unique problem, and discovering a brand new means to make an influence.
Watching Habana ship his presentation in Cape Town, I used to be struck by how candidly he spoke about this transition. His story resonated as a result of it was not nearly an athlete shifting into enterprise. It was about what occurs when the identification that has outlined a lot of your life not prepares you for what comes subsequent.
That is a problem many individuals face: professionals pressured to change careers, entrepreneurs rebuilding after enterprise failure, and anybody who has had to begin once more after a serious life change. Sometimes the toughest half is accepting that you have to turn out to be a newbie once more.
Habana’s second act
For elite athletes, retirement can be a particularly difficult transition. The routine, competitors, group surroundings, and public recognition that after structured on a regular basis life can disappear nearly in a single day.
Habana’s rugby profession had given him a transparent framework. He had coaching periods, match days, coaches, teammates, and measurable targets. Success was typically seen by means of a strive scored, a match received, a trophy lifted.
Business was completely different—new techniques to perceive, unfamiliar language, and choices whose penalties weren’t at all times instantly obvious. Habana studied pc science early in his life, earlier than rugby took over. His curiosity in expertise by no means completely disappeared, however understanding expertise was not the identical as understanding how to construct a enterprise.
The transition demanded humility. His status on the rugby discipline wouldn’t routinely make him competent within the boardroom.
Habana mirrored on the problem of adapting to a world that might not merely accommodate the particular person he had been. “The future doesn’t go with you,” he mentioned.
It is a putting means to describe the top of a profession. The future doesn’t arrive carrying your outdated identification, routines, or achievements. You have to meet it by itself phrases.
An issue value fixing
In 2019, Habana co-founded Paymenow with chief govt officer (CEO) Deon Nobrega, chief expertise officer (CTO) Willem van Zyl and chief improvement officer Gerbrand Potgieter. He defined that the corporate was constructed round earned wage entry, which lets staff entry a portion of the wages they’ve already earned earlier than their scheduled payday.
Bryan Habana scored one in all his two tries in opposition to Argentina within the 2007 Rugby World Cup semi-final on October 14, serving to the Springboks safe a 37–13 victory and guide their place within the last. Image supply: SARugbymagazine
The thought addresses a well-recognized drawback for a lot of employees. Salaries might arrive month-to-month, however on a regular basis bills don’t await the top of the month. Transport, meals, faculty prices, and surprising payments can create strain lengthy earlier than payday.
For employees with restricted financial savings or entry to reasonably priced credit score, that hole can push them in the direction of costly short-term loans. The strain is mirrored in Nedbank’s 2024 Financial Health Monitor, which discovered that 10% of employees had turned to payday loans to handle monetary stress, whereas 12% had borrowed from casual lenders. FinMark Trust’s research provides a broader image: 75% of South Africans who borrowed in 2024 used credit score to cowl necessities akin to meals.
Paymenow goals to give staff extra flexibility over cash they’ve already earned. Its providers additionally embody monetary schooling and different instruments meant to assist individuals make higher choices about their cash.
The thought is rooted in how individuals reside and earn. Financial inclusion is just not merely about giving somebody a digital account or entry to an app. It requires understanding when individuals obtain their earnings, how they spend it, and what occurs when cash runs brief.
A employee who can entry earned wages when an surprising expense arises might have an alternate to borrowing at excessive curiosity. In a rustic the place many households reside shut to the sting of their month-to-month budgets, that flexibility can matter.
For Habana, the corporate’s goal goes past making wages obtainable earlier. It is about serving to individuals handle monetary strain and enhance their monetary wellbeing. As he put it, “We’ve got an audacious goal of wanting to release ten million employees from financial stress through financial technology.”
From an thought to a regional enterprise
Paymenow’s progress means that the issue it set out to handle extends past South Africa. The firm expanded into Namibia and Zambia earlier than coming into Pakistan.
By 2026, it reported serving more than 750,000 employees throughout the 4 markets, with shoppers together with main employers in retail, telecommunications, healthcare and hospitality. In May 2026, Paymenow announced a merger with PayCurve, a South African worker monetary wellness firm based in 2020.
The merger combines Paymenow’s wage-access service with PayCurve’s instruments for figuring out staff experiencing monetary difficulties and serving to them handle debt, construct financial savings and enhance their monetary habits. The mixed enterprise will function beneath the Paymenow model.
The transfer displays a wider understanding of the issue. Giving employees entry to wages they’ve already earned can ease strain earlier than payday, however lasting monetary stability additionally requires assist with debt and financial savings.
For Paymenow, the merger broadens its providers past short-term cash-flow issues. Habana has argued that progress should not come on the expense of the corporate’s goal. “You’ve also got to stick with your purpose-driven approach,” he mentioned.
Lessons that journey from the sphere
Habana’s sporting profession didn’t turn out to be irrelevant when he left rugby. It gave him classes he may apply in a unique surroundings.
Teamwork is among the most blatant. Rugby is a collective recreation, even when a person participant turns into the face of a defining second. One particular person might rating a strive, however a number of teammates’ work typically makes it doable.
Business operates in a lot the identical means. A founder could also be seen to buyers, clients and the general public, however an organization’s success relies on individuals with completely different expertise working in the direction of a typical purpose.
“You can get quite far on your own, but it takes a lot longer,” Habana mentioned.
Bryan Habana reflecting on his transition from Springbok rugby star to fintech entrepreneur and Paymenow co-founder. Image supply: BPC
Preparation is one other lesson. In sport, expertise alone is never sufficient. Training and repetition enable athletes to carry out when the strain is biggest. In enterprise, preparation helps individuals recognise and harness alternatives.
Habana additionally highlighted the significance of responding to failure reasonably than permitting it to outline the journey.
“Fail fast, but live faster,” he mentioned.
That requires a willingness to change. The approaches that labored in a single surroundings might not work in one other, significantly in expertise, the place merchandise and buyer expectations evolve.
“We have to unlearn in order to learn,” he mentioned.
Habana mentioned this meant accepting that he couldn’t depend on previous achievements to navigate a brand new career. He had to ask questions, acknowledge what he didn’t know, and be taught from individuals with completely different experience.
A unique type of influence
Habana has mentioned sport allowed him to encourage hope. For many South Africans, the Springboks symbolize greater than a group. Their victories can create moments of shared delight in a rustic the place sport holds a strong place within the nationwide creativeness.
Fintech provides a unique type of alternative. A product that works could make a distinction repeatedly within the on a regular basis lives of its customers.
That doesn’t imply earned wage entry can remedy the structural issues behind monetary insecurity. It can not substitute honest wages, steady employment, or broader financial alternative. But it might probably provide a sensible different for employees who want higher management over after they entry cash they’ve already earned.
For Habana, fintech provides a unique type of influence from the one he skilled on the rugby discipline. “As a rugby player, I could inspire hope,” he mentioned. “But at no point in my rugby journey did anyone tell me that, because of what I did, I had saved their life.”
That sense of goal, he mentioned, is what makes the work significantly significant. “With financial technology, we are able to make an impactful difference in people’s lives on a daily basis,” he added.
Some of Africa’s most related fintech concepts have emerged from understanding on a regular basis issues and constructing providers round them. Paymenow’s proposition begins with a easy commentary: the timing of earnings and the timing of bills don’t at all times match.
Turning that perception right into a sustainable enterprise requires belief, affordability, and sound execution. But the necessity it addresses is actual.
Becoming a greater model
Perhaps essentially the most compelling a part of Habana’s transition was not his transfer from rugby to fintech, however the private philosophy that has helped him navigate the transition.
He recalled recommendation from former Springbok captain John Smit, who inspired him to ask himself a query when wanting within the mirror on the finish of every day: “Every night when you go to bed… is that person an improvement on the person you saw the day before?”
It is a straightforward query that strips away trophies, titles, and public recognition. It asks whether or not you’re studying, enhancing, and turning into higher at what you do.
For an athlete, that may imply refining a talent or turning into a greater teammate. For a founder, it may imply listening extra carefully to clients, understanding the enterprise, or making a troublesome determination for its long-term well being.
Former Springbok captain John Smit (proper) challenged Bryan Habana (left) to measure success not by previous achievements, however by whether or not he was turning into a greater model of himself every day. A lesson that has stayed with Habana lengthy after rugby. Image supply: Lentdesportiva
Starting once more can really feel like shedding floor, significantly when the world nonetheless remembers who you used to be. Habana is aware of what it’s like to transfer from being the particular person everybody expects to succeed to the one sitting in a boardroom attempting to perceive a spreadsheet.
At Paymenow, he has discovered a unique discipline during which to take a look at himself. The scoreboard has disappeared, however the work of studying, enhancing and making a distinction continues.
Perhaps that’s the reason John Smit’s query concerning the particular person within the mirror carries such weight. At the top of the day, Habana not has to measure himself by the tries he scores or the matches he wins. He can ask a unique query: is the particular person wanting again at him a little bit higher than the one from yesterday?
For somebody who has had to begin once more, that could be the actual victory: not returning to who you have been, however turning into somebody you had not but imagined.
