The Old Diocesan Issue 13 - Magazine - Page 52
48 | THE OLD DIOCESAN
Kwanda’s formal launch took
place in February 2026 over pizza
and wine at 156Kloof, an event
space in Gardens. The venue
called the next day and asked
them to rebuild its booking system.
Client One had arrived.
Pizza and wine have since
become part of the Kwanda
method. Its regular small, relaxed
workshops are a deliberate
antidote to the online AI circus,
where every second LinkedIn
prophet declares that your job,
law firm or marketing agency
has a month to live. Around
a table, people are more willing
to admit what they don’t know,
compare experiences and ask
basic questions. The technology
discussion becomes unexpectedly
human – which is precisely
the point.
A couple of days after talking
to Chris, I attend one of the
workshops myself and see the
method in action. Twenty mostly
young professionals from
law, finance, fintech, tech
and agriculture sit around
a long table, with a fridge
full of Devil’s Peak Lager
and a stack of Butlers pizza.
The newness of what Kwanda
is doing is apparent, which the
team is happy to acknowledge.
Chris and Kieran encourage
feedback and ideas from the
attendees as they go. The two
co-founders are impressive:
well-read, witty, always ready
with a useful reference. In the
dedicated networking section,
Chris recommends the book
1986 by fellow OD William Dicey
(1988F); during his presentation
session, Kieran throws in a Daniel
Kahneman reference. They strike
me as young business leaders
worth listening to.
Kieran emphasises the point
that underpins the event, and the
business in general: “Just starting
is key.”
Chris Immelman and Kieran Donnelly, co-founders
of Cape Town AI consultancy Kwanda.
MAIN ILLUSTRATION GENERATED BY CHATGPT – SEE PAGE 52
The opportunity seemed
clear. Small and medium-sized
businesses would need help
choosing tools, connecting them
to existing systems and using
them properly.
Chris’s legal background
provided him with both the
key insight into the potential for
well-deployed AI and important
entrepreneurial knowledge, but
he needed a technical co-founder
with engineering know-how. On
LinkedIn he tracked down an OD,
Kieran Donnelly (2010O), whose
career path was ideal: engineering
and then a data science master’s
at UCT, with dissertation work
on computer vision at Sony in
Sweden, followed by five years
working at Explore AI.
Being two years apart, Chris and
Kieran hadn’t known each other
at school. Bishops nevertheless
provided the filter and the opening.
“The reason I was connected to
him on LinkedIn was because of
Bishops,” Chris explains. “And that
connection definitely made the
cold outreach easier.” Soon after
they launched Kwanda, he sent
Kieran a message: “We need to
activate the OD Union for this.”
As it turns out, Kwanda’s short
existence has been a microcosm
of the OD network in action, with
able assistance from LinkedIn.
Besides helping to bring the
founders together, it has opened
various doors, including ongoing
collaboration with Greg Cooke
(2011G) and Nick Boswell (2010S),
founders of the Londonheadquartered Rafiki Works,
and fruitful conversations with
Winchester-based Brett Chambers
(1990S). Closer to home, an ODU
breakfast presentation at The
Mitre in April brought further
approaches, while highly skilled
data engineer Simon Innes
(2013G) joined Kwanda the
month before we spoke.
