When PHATHISANI MOYO watched Bryan Habana ship a presentation in Cape Town, he was intrigued by the private journey to fintech behind considered one of South Africa’s most celebrated rugby careers.
Eight years after retiring from skilled rugby, Bryan Habana discovered himself dealing with 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 considered one of South Africa’s most recognisable athletes. He had represented his nation on the largest stage, carried out below immense stress and constructed a profession across the self-discipline required to compete on the highest degree.
But when he stepped into the fintech boardroom, the talents that made him a rugby star didn’t mechanically 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 occasion in Cape Town on October 22.
For somebody accustomed to working on the highest degree {of professional} sport, it was humbling. The man as soon as anticipated to know precisely what to do on a rugby area was instantly a newbie in an unfamiliar world.
Yet that discomfort marked the start of a special profession. Habana moved from the rugby area to fintech, co-founding Paymenow, an organization that helps workers 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 sector to a special problem, and discovering a brand new approach to make an impression.
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 transferring into enterprise. It was about what occurs when the id that has outlined a lot of your life now not prepares you for what comes subsequent.
That is a problem many individuals face: professionals compelled 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 is usually a notably tough transition. The routine, competitors, group setting, and public recognition that when 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 classes, match days, coaches, teammates, and measurable targets. Success was typically seen by a attempt scored, a match received, a trophy lifted.
Business was totally different—new methods to perceive, unfamiliar language, and choices whose penalties weren’t at all times instantly obvious. Habana studied laptop science early in his life, earlier than rugby took over. His curiosity in know-how by no means fully disappeared, however understanding know-how was not the identical as realizing how to construct a enterprise.
The transition demanded humility. His popularity on the rugby area wouldn’t mechanically make him competent within the boardroom.
Habana mirrored on the problem of adapting to a world that might not merely accommodate the individual he had been. “The future doesn’t go with you,” he stated.
It is a putting approach to describe the tip of a profession. The future doesn’t arrive carrying your outdated id, 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 know-how officer (CTO) Willem van Zyl and chief growth officer Gerbrand Potgieter. He defined that the corporate was constructed round earned wage entry, which lets workers entry a portion of the wages they’ve already earned earlier than their scheduled payday.
Bryan Habana scored considered one of 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 e book their place within the closing. Image supply: SARugbymagazine
The thought addresses a well-recognized drawback for a lot of staff. Salaries might arrive month-to-month, however on a regular basis bills don’t watch for the tip of the month. Transport, meals, college prices, and sudden payments can create stress lengthy earlier than payday.
For staff with restricted financial savings or entry to inexpensive credit score, that hole can push them in direction of costly short-term loans. The stress is mirrored in Nedbank’s 2024 Financial Health Monitor, which discovered that 10% of staff had turned to payday loans to handle monetary stress, whereas 12% had borrowed from casual lenders. FinMark Trust’s analysis affords a broader image: 75% of South Africans who borrowed in 2024 used credit score to cowl necessities akin to meals.
Paymenow goals to give workers extra flexibility over cash they’ve already earned. Its companies additionally embrace monetary schooling and different instruments supposed to assist folks make higher choices about their cash.
The thought is rooted in how folks reside and earn. Financial inclusion is just not merely about giving somebody a digital account or entry to an app. It requires understanding when folks obtain their revenue, how they spend it, and what occurs when cash runs brief.
A employee who can entry earned wages when an sudden 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 function goes past making wages obtainable earlier. It is about serving to folks handle monetary stress 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 tackle extends past South Africa. The firm expanded into Namibia and Zambia earlier than getting into Pakistan.
By 2026, it reported serving greater than 750,000 workers throughout the 4 markets, with shoppers together with main employers in retail, telecommunications, healthcare and hospitality. In May 2026, Paymenow introduced 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 workers experiencing monetary difficulties and serving to them handle debt, construct financial savings and enhance their monetary habits. The mixed enterprise will function below the Paymenow model.
The transfer displays a wider understanding of the issue. Giving staff entry to wages they’ve already earned can ease stress earlier than payday, however lasting monetary stability additionally requires assist with debt and financial savings.
For Paymenow, the merger broadens its companies past short-term cash-flow issues. Habana has argued that progress should not come on the expense of the corporate’s function. “You’ve also got to stick with your purpose-driven approach,” he stated.
Lessons that journey from the sector
Habana’s sporting profession didn’t turn out to be irrelevant when he left rugby. It gave him classes he may apply in a special setting.
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 individual might rating a attempt, however a number of teammates’ work typically makes it doable.
Business operates in a lot the identical approach. A founder could also be seen to traders, prospects and the general public, however an organization’s success is determined by folks with totally different abilities working in direction of a typical aim.
“You can get quite far on your own, but it takes a lot longer,” Habana stated.
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 isn’t sufficient. Training and repetition permit athletes to carry out when the stress is best. In enterprise, preparation helps folks recognise and harness alternatives.
Habana additionally highlighted the significance of responding to failure fairly than permitting it to outline the journey.
“Fail fast, but live faster,” he stated.
That requires a willingness to change. The approaches that labored in a single setting might not work in one other, notably in know-how, the place merchandise and buyer expectations evolve.
“We have to unlearn in order to learn,” he stated.
Habana stated 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 folks with totally different experience.
A special sort of impression
Habana has stated sport allowed him to encourage hope. For many South Africans, the Springboks symbolize greater than a group. Their victories can create moments of shared pleasure in a rustic the place sport holds a strong place within the nationwide creativeness.
Fintech affords a special sort 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 resolve the structural issues behind monetary insecurity. It can not exchange honest wages, secure employment, or broader financial alternative. But it will probably provide a sensible various for staff who want better management over after they entry cash they’ve already earned.
For Habana, fintech affords a special sort of impression from the one he skilled on the rugby area. “As a rugby player, I could inspire hope,” he stated. “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 function, he stated, is what makes the work notably 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 companies round them. Paymenow’s proposition begins with a easy statement: the timing of revenue 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 might be studying, enhancing, and changing into higher at what you do.
For an athlete, which may imply refining a ability or changing into a greater teammate. For a founder, it may imply listening extra intently to prospects, understanding the enterprise, or making a tough choice 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 changing 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, notably when the world nonetheless remembers who you used to be. Habana is aware of what it’s like to transfer from being the individual everybody expects to succeed to the one sitting in a boardroom attempting to perceive a spreadsheet.
At Paymenow, he has discovered a special area wherein to check 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 individual within the mirror carries such weight. At the tip of the day, Habana now not has to measure himself by the tries he scores or the matches he wins. He can ask a special query: is the individual wanting again at him slightly higher than the one from yesterday?
For somebody who has had to begin once more, which may be the actual victory: not returning to who you had been, however changing into somebody you had not but imagined.
