Growing up in a small village in Eastern Cape, Khaya Cokoto never imagined she would one day be the co-founder and CEO of an award winning tech company. As a child she thought she might become a writer, a lawyer, or a doctor. But everything changed when a passionate science teacher opened her eyes to the possibilities of STEM careers. She then studied computer science at Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University. At the time, it was a bold choice. No one in her immediate family or larger community had gone into that field.
Cokoto believes that sometimes all it takes is one person “to spark curiosity of what’s possible, and the courage to claim a seat at the table— whether or not anyone thinks it’s yours”
After graduating in 2007, Cokoto spent nine months working at the local municipality. Then, in 2008, inspired by her grandmother who ran small businesses in the village, she co-founded X Spark, a software development company.
Cokoto says she did not want to get comfortable in the corporate world, nor did she want to test the waters with side hustles before launching her own business.
One chair, one computer, and a dream
In its early days, X Spark was a scrappy web and branding outfit helping other small businesses get online. “We had one computer and one chair, which we shared,” she says, laughing. “The next month, we bought another chair, and slowly grew from there.”
At the time, digital adoption in South Africa was still finding its footing, Cokoto explains. Many businesses were just beginning to explore what it meant to be online and in this landscape, she saw an opportunity not just to offer services, but to become a trusted guide in a shifting digital landscape.
Cokoto began expanding X Spark’s work to fellow startups—listening closely, learning fast, and solving problems that felt personal because they were. This hands-on involvement gave her a deep understanding of the hurdles young businesses face. It also shaped her approach to building lean, responsive, real-world solutions.
Momentum came quickly for a startup business. Within its first year, X Spark won the SAB KickStart regional competition. The prize money allowed X Spark to buy its first vehicle and essential office equipment, but more importantly, it gave Cokoto confidence to take the business to another level.
But just as things were picking up, the 2008 global recession hit, slowing progress in the company’s first year. Cokoto says she turned to creative problem solving. The result was UmoyAir, a mobile app with ad placements that allowed users to make free calls without airtime or data. The app solved a real problem in a post-recession environment. Businesses were looking for ways to market themselves cheaply to survive tough economic times and everyday people could not always afford to make phone calls. The app took on.
“UmoyAir opened doors,” Cokoto says. “We got support from the Eastern Cape Development Corporation and the IDC, traveled to Silicon Valley, the UK, and the US. That project unlocked the world for us.”
UmoyAir did not pan out as hoped, as the investment needed to take it to market was far greater than Cokoto understood then. “At the time, we were young entrepreneurs, new to business and the complex investment landscape.
Though UmoyAir eventually shuttered, it sustained X Spark by building reputation and teaching Cokoto powerful lessons about timing, funding, and scaling big ideas.
“Failure is just as important as success—you often learn more from what does not work,” Cokoto says.
As her experience grew, so did X Spark’s reach. The company began partnering with larger, more established businesses across a spectrum of industries, from retail to finance to logistics. Each new collaboration stretched Cokoto’s thinking and sharpened her ability to adapt, making agility one of her strongest assets.
“In the first decade, X Spark helped over 1,000 businesses establish their online presence, delivering hundreds of branding and digital campaigns” she says.
Now, 18 years later, X Spark is a full-fledged software development studio working with banks, corporates, and international clients from the Middle East, US, and UK, and partners across Botswana, Kenya, and Tanzania. Half their work still comes from South Africa.
“We are shifting from being purely service-based to building our own products,” Cokoto shares. One of these innovations is XS Card, a digital business card and networking tool designed for today’s mobile world.
“Clients can still request custom software, but having ready-made products means more recurring revenue and less starting from scratch every time,” she adds.
Cokoto is also leading development of another innovation, Tik’iBox, a digital payment service for small transactions ranging from R5 to R5,000—its use cases will include tipping or paying for everyday favors.
Cokoto sees vast opportunities for growth across Africa and beyond. “We sometimes limit ourselves by thinking South Africa is the market,” she says. “But there is a whole continent hungry for solutions, and Africans want to work with other Africans.”
Beyond gender constraints to a lasting legacy
In South Africa, women hold only about 23% of tech jobs—around 56,000 out of 236,000 roles—and 22% of the country’s software developers are female. A Disrupt Africa report shows that despite some progress, in 2024, just a little over 18% of South African startups included a female founder. A 2024 ICT Skills Survey by the Institute of Information Technology Professionals South Africa (IITPSA) traces this scarcity of women tech leaders and founders back to a pipeline problem: women make up just 13% of STEM graduates in South Africa—far below the global average of 35%.
Cokoto has felt the effects of this scarcity in her career in various ways.
“I have had my fair share of being mistaken for the secretary or a tea lady in some of the spaces I go to,” Cokoto says with a knowing smile. “Sometimes I do not realise it at the moment; it hits me later.”
In spite of the gender-based stereotypes, Cokoto believes innate traits like intuition and relationship-building make women powerful leaders. “I might not always have the words to explain what’s wrong, but if something feels off, I trust that feeling,” she says. “That intuition helps me navigate difficult situations.”
Women are also often behind the scenes in corporate settings ensuring that “things [are] running smoothly” and have served as ears and eyes for her business before official communication arrives from clients.
Her toughest leadership moment, however, has not been gender-related but shifting from a technical founder into managing broader business functions like HR, finance, and compliance. These lessons have forced her to rebuild, implement processes, and grow into a leader who could step back and let others lead.
“Dealing with people is one of the biggest lessons in business,” she says. “You learn it sometimes painfully, but it is invaluable.”
As a leader, Cokoto says she’s one to embrace change and collaboration, especially as younger generations bring fresh energy to X Spark, challenge her approach, and keep the company evolving.
“I’m looking forward to when the business no longer needs me every day,” she says.
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