Partnership underpinned by launch of Africa’s first vendor-agnostic enterprise AI marketplace
South Africa, November 5, 2025 – Beyond Now, a fast-growing AI ecosystem orchestration and digital platform provider, today announced that its Digital Marketplace will serve as the core infrastructure for Business AI, a South African startup on a mission to make AI trusted, accurate, and accessible for all businesses.
Business AI, a subsidiary of Mustek, one of South Africa’s leading technology suppliers, developed a clear, repeatable framework for enterprise AI implementation, underpinned by a closed marketplace, designed for large enterprises to develop, trial and share successful AI solutions. Since its establishment in August, Business AI – under the leadership of AI veteran Rudi Dreyer – has attracted the support of 16 of the largest enterprises in South Africa, including Woolworths, Bidvest and Stefanutti Stocks.
Against the backdrop of increasing concern around return on investment from enterprise AI, with only 5% of AI implementation proving successful, Business AI’s approach is built on three main principles:
This model means Business AI customers are not tied to any single platform or technology vendor. The company’s framework defines how AI should be deployed responsibly, allowing organizations to make informed choices while ensuring data security, compliance, and long-term relevance.
Through Beyond Now’s Digital Marketplace, Business AI will orchestrate, monetize, and manage co-development and co-selling of AI solutions within a governed, automated ecosystem. The partnership allows Business AI to bring together tier one technology providers and trusted partners to build, bundle, and scale AI products that meet the company’s responsible AI standards.
“We’ve all read reports of poor return on enterprise AI investments in so-called developed markets. Too many projects are failing due to poor implementation, lack of governance or overreliance on a single model or vendor. Through Business AI, we have the opportunity to avoid these failures through the unique framework - to leapfrog what hasn’t worked elsewhere and take a more collaborative, independent approach to AI adoption,” said Rudi Dreyer, CEO of Business AI. “With Beyond Now’s Digital Marketplace, we’re able to create a truly agnostic and independent AI ecosystem to build trusted, enterprise-grade AI tools and avoid vendor lock in.”
“Enterprise AI should deliver real business outcomes – not just experiments. Through Business AI, Mustek is helping our customers move from proof-of-concept to scalable, results-driven implementations,” said Hein Engelbrecht, CEO of Mustek. “Partnering with Beyond Now accelerates this mission by providing a flexible, vendor-agnostic platform to deploy proven AI solutions at scale.”
“Business AI is pioneering a model for responsible AI adoption that empowers customers and partners alike,” said Angus Ward, CEO of Beyond Now. “By choosing our digital marketplace, Business AI is creating a vibrant ecosystem where innovation thrives, trust is preserved, and businesses can invest and grow confidently in the age of AI, and we can offer Beyond Now Customer access to proven AI framework for implantation and proven AI use cases.”
About Business AI
Business AI is pioneering a new standard for enterprise AI deployment—one that ensures long-term sustainability, scalability, and puts organizations firmly in control of their AI journey and costs. At the heart of our strategy is the belief that, especially for generative and agentic AI, solutions should be designed so that each use case is independent of both the underlying infrastructure and the foundational models employed. This approach empowers organizations globally to unlock the transformative potential of artificial intelligence and build their own AI sovereign core – creating and owning their unique intelligence. By simplifying access to best-in-class technology and expertise, Business AI accelerates successful AI deployments and drives responsible innovation at scale.
Trusted Intelligence. Smarter Work. Elevation.
Website: https://businessaiafrica.co.za
About Beyond Now
Beyond Now is a fast-growing provider of AI-first ecosystem orchestration and digital platforms, helping you harness advanced technologies and partner ecosystems to drive growth and innovation. With our industry-leading BSS, Marketplace, and Digital Business Platform, you and your partners can easily collaborate, innovate, sell, fulfil, monetize, and manage tech solutions ‒ efficiently and at scale.
We enable technology and communications service providers, like you, to launch faster and monetize technology solutions built on AI, data, 5G, fiber, cloud, and more. Our AI-powered platforms help you maximize the value of your network and product investments while expanding your portfolio with hundreds of third-party offerings ‒ accelerating growth, automation and customer engagement.
Our global customers include notable companies such as Verizon, NTT, Deutsche Telekom, TELUS, BT, Telia, Lyse and A1. We actively foster industry collaboration through strategic partnerships with AWS, Google, Microsoft, Accenture, NTT DATA, and others ‒ ensuring the flexibility and agility you need to stay ahead.
For more information, please visit: https://www.beyondnow.com
