In thirty years, Rob has gone from turning a single door-to-door alarm sale into a Johannesburg Stock Exchange listing with more than US$100 million in annual revenue, to raising over US$350 million in growth capital, to taking African companies head-to-head with the best in the United States, Europe, the Middle East and Australasia. And won.
His record runs through security, digital video, private equity, property, conservation, telecoms, rail, manufacturing and now artificial intelligence. The industries change; the result doesn’t. Rob builds companies that win. And then, he builds bigger ones.
Rob learned leadership as a commissioned lieutenant in army intelligence. Six months into agricultural college, he had already started his first company.
He studied by day. In the afternoons he knocked on doors selling alarm systems, then pulled the cables and installed them himself, often the next morning. He added a control room and monitoring, sold the business when he graduated and launched another the same week. That one secured major commercial and industrial estates, expanded into guarding and cash-in-transit, and grew to 1,000 guards.
There were no shortcuts. He simply outworked everyone around him.
From one door-to-door alarm sale to a security business guarding major commercial and industrial estates, with guarding and cash-in-transit.
Listed Intervid on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange in 1999, then raised €50 million to take Intervid international.
Growth capital raised, including €50 million to take Intervid international and US$50 million through Piper Jaffray. Serious investors back Rob, and they come back.
Took African companies head-to-head with the best in the United States, Europe, the Middle East and Australasia. And won.
Every team built on one rule: everyone is an equity partner. Executives have followed him out of listed companies, and a land claim became a partnership.
On a trip to Taiwan to buy a cable machine, Rob walked past an early demonstration of digital video compression. Where others saw a gadget, he saw the end of analogue. He brought a unit home and founded Video Management Systems, among the first ten companies on earth recording video digitally.
From 1993, growth was explosive. In 1999, he listed the company on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange as Intervid. He then raised €50 million to take Intervid international, buying analogue operators across the US, Europe, the Middle East and Australasia, converting them to digital, and moving customers onto recurring rental revenue.
By 2003, Intervid had passed US$100 million in annual turnover, with AOL, Netscape, the US Department of Defense, Carrefour, Nestlé, Cartier and Montblanc on its client list. When The Pentagon and the world’s great luxury houses trust your technology, you’ve made it.
Rob had built a global business before most competitors realised the race had started.
In 2003, Rob founded Venture Partners, and three of Intervid’s executive directors walked out to join him. People don’t leave a listed company for a start-up unless they know exactly who they’re backing. The firm bought, grew, and sold a portfolio of companies, and then moved into major residential and commercial property development.
AI-powered sales and service conversations across every channel, handled better than a human team. No hiring cycles or shift rosters, and its quality at 3 a.m. matches its quality at noon. Enterprises in insurance, telco, banking and adjacent sectors already rely on it to sell more and serve better.
Flat-pack stainless steel vehicle canopies, built in a factory producing 2,000 units a month. Rob took it to America personally, drove the country with the CEO for six weeks and walked buyers straight out to the product at the NTEA Work Truck Show. That morning led to Keystone Automotive, part of the LKQ group, committing US$40 million to a smart manufacturing plant in Fort Worth, Texas.
A commercial distribution park outside Durban with more than 1.5 million square metres under roof.
A rail business leasing 120 locomotives to mines and governments across Africa. He grew it fast and exited well.
Rob helped build Ignition from a Durban call centre into something far larger. He structured the Mr Price Mobile MVNO deal with the Mr Price Group, added insurance through acquisition, and secured US$50 million through Piper Jaffray, structured with New York-based Falcon LLC. That deal opened the door to Sprint, now T-Mobile. Today, Ignition runs 4,500 agents serving businesses worldwide.
Bought, grew, and sold a portfolio of companies, then moved into major residential and commercial property development.
Rob’s most enduring creation. He bought 18 farms, pulled down the fences and stocked 9,859 hectares with the Big Five. When a land claim arose, he settled it by bringing the community in as partners. Twenty-five years on: more than 200 beds, over 50,000 visitors a year and more than 500 employees.
Read the Sunday Times SPICE feature, June 2015 →Among the first ten companies on earth recording video digitally. Listed in 1999, raised €50 million to take Intervid international and passed US$100 million in annual turnover by 2003, with AOL, Netscape, the US Department of Defense, Carrefour, Nestlé, Cartier and Montblanc as clients.
Rob backed digital video in the early 1990s, helped build a Durban call centre into a mobile and offshore-funded business, and moved on AI-driven sales and service in 2023. His record is a list of markets he entered before they were obvious.
Over US$350 million in growth capital, including €50 million to take Intervid international and US$50 million through Piper Jaffray. Serious investors back Rob, and they come back.
Rob opened the door to Sprint, closed with Keystone Automotive and LKQ, and landed a US$40 million plant in Texas. AOL, Netscape and the US Department of Defense were clients. He isn’t hoping to break into the US market. He’s already there.
Rob builds every team on one rule: everyone is an equity partner. Executives have followed him out of listed companies, and a land claim became a partnership. When everyone owns the outcome, everyone fights for it.
One and one
equals 100.
Rob does not quit. He is relentless. He believes people make businesses, and that the right people on the right deal produce results that multiply rather than add up.
Rob called digital video before the world knew it needed it. In 2023, he made the same call on artificial intelligence, and moved before the crowd arrived. He co-founded Nineteen58 with Oliver, Jan and Dom, first as a venture studio modernising legacy technology for large enterprises. In February 2025, the team sharpened the bet around a single idea.
Rob knows this market from the inside. He helped build Ignition into a 4,500-agent operation and opened doors to US carriers. Now he is building the technology that redefines that entire industry. Few founders have run the human version at scale and then built the machine that beats it.
Nineteen58 is headquartered in San Francisco as a Delaware C-Corp, and Rob is relocating to lead its US growth personally. He has done it in America before. And he will do it again. Bigger.
