Funti3r Uses Blockchain to Unlock Access to the World’s Top Talent for Your Business
- Jabulile Sonya Ngwenya
- 3 hours ago
- 5 min read
Blockchain technology is a key driver in driving Africa’s financial inclusion revolution. Both Nigeria and South Africa are leading this movement across the continent and in 2025, South Africa became the first African country to officially licence cryptocurrency exchanges. With South Africa among Africa’s biggest blockchain markets, AfricArena’s Jabulile Sonya Ngwenya caught up with Wisani Hlangwane, co-founder and CEO at Funti3r, a South African blockchain startup to find out more about this trailblazing startup.
The business landscape is an ever-evolving, dynamic terrain, especially in the realm of African innovation where brilliant minds are constantly assessing the landscape they operate in, assessing the opportunities to drive change and create impact. Wisani Hlangwane is one such innovator working behind the scenes at Funti3r, a blockchain startup focused on revolutionizing the way SMEs and corporates manage their day-to-day tasks and operations through a unique micro-tasking web application.
Funti3r, Wisani explains, “is a tech-driven platform that connects businesses with skilled talent to execute essential business tasks. We leverage blockchain for verified credentials, stablecoins for seamless global payments, and AI to empower workers to be more productive.”
Funti3r recently bagged the AfricArena Best Enterprise Startup Award at the recent AfricArena Johannesburg Fintech, Deep Tech & Enterprise Summit in March 2025. Wisani says winning this award was one of the defining highlights in his career to date. “This award, for us, was a powerful affirmation of the work, resilience, and belief we had poured into the company since its inception in 2022.” In addition to this, he says, “the award has significantly increased our visibility, opened doors to new partnerships, and provided us with resources like AWS Activate credits to enhance our platform.”
Wisani shares with AfricArena that what inspired him to co-found Funti3r with his co-founder and CTO, Katlego Hlangwane, was a simple observation that gave him food for thought until a solution was found. “I saw a continent full of brilliant minds doing small gigs with zero leverage, while global businesses struggled to find reliable talent they could scale with,” Wisani says.
“That disconnect wasn’t just frustrating—it was an opportunity and Funti3r was born from that tension. I wanted to build something that could unlock opportunity at scale—a platform where talent in Africa and beyond could plug into the global economy and actually get paid for what they’re worth. And where companies could finally access a vetted, dynamic, remote workforce without the usual friction.” He mentions that this concept “wasn’t just about freelancing or side hustles. I wanted to redefine what work looks like and make it more transparent, decentralized, and empowering.”
Funti3r launched during the early post-pandemic years in 2022, and Wisani and his team bootstrapped with R50,000. Wisani recalls the post-pandemic landscape at the time “presented unique challenges, however, it also highlighted the need for digital solutions in workforce management. We embraced remote collaboration tools and focused on building a resilient, adaptable platform.”
He shares that the funding winter galvanised his team into action to focus on lean strategies. “We focused on sustainable growth, optimizing our operations, and leveraging partnerships to extend our reach without overextending our resources.”
Wisani shares that his team’s defining moment came when they realised there was a great need for their solution “when we saw the disconnect between businesses seeking reliable talent and skilled individuals lacking access to opportunities, especially in the Web3 space. This gap underscored the need for a platform like Funti3r.”
No two days for Wisani are the same and he shares that for him, a typical day “involves strategic planning, team meetings, engaging with partners and investors, and staying abreast of industry trends to steer Funti3r's growth. Then I take my afternoon walk along Sea Point Promenade to collect ideas and plan for tomorrow.”
He shares that the main reason he remains passionate about what he does is because he has lived through the gap his company focuses on solving. “I know what it feels like to be a young, capable African with no clear path to global opportunity. I’ve seen too many talented people get stuck in survival mode, not because they lack skills, but because the systems weren’t built for them to win. That fuels me daily.”
He continues, “At Funti3r, we’re not just building a startup - we’re engineering access. We’re creating a world where talent isn’t limited by borders, and where businesses finally have the tools to grow with high-performing teams from anywhere. Every project completed, every salary paid out, every professional hired - it’s a punch thrown at poverty, unemployment, and gatekeeping. That’s purpose. That’s fire.”
Given the growth of Funti3r over the last few years, Wisani says he and his team are “aiming to raise US$250,00 in 2025 to expand Funti3r’s platform's capabilities, grow our user base, and enter new markets, particularly in the USA, Europe and other parts of Africa.” He adds that he envisions Funti3r transforming into a multi-million business through strategic scaling strategies within the next five years that will see his startup “capture significant market share in key regions, and position the company for a strategic acquisition to further amplify our impact.”
One of the biggest challenges he and his team faced was “building trust in a new platform and we addressed this by ensuring transparency, implementing robust verification processes, and delivering consistent value to our users.”
Wisani shares with AfricArena that one of the best pieces of advice he received from a mentor was, “‘If you ever need the world to validate you, you're screwed. Therefore, always validate yourself.’ This advice has been instrumental in maintaining our focus and resilience.”
He says his advice to founders who want to build startups in the blockchain sector is to “Play stupid games, win stupid prizes.” The reason for this, he clarifies, is “before you even start thinking about MVPs, traction, or pitch decks, the most important decision you'll ever make is choosing the right game. This sector - whether you're in remote work, talent platforms, AI or Web3 - is full of noise. It's easy to get caught up in hype cycles or try to clone whatever is trending. But if you build a product for a problem that doesn’t truly hurt, or one you don’t deeply understand, you’ll waste time, money, and momentum.”
With this advice in mind, he continues: “So, before building anything, ask yourself: Is the problem real, painful, and urgent? Am I the right person to solve it? Is there a clear path to scale and sustainability? Choose a problem worth obsessing over. Then design a system that wins consistently, not occasionally. In this game, traction beats theory, trust beats tech, and clarity beats complexity. Once you pick the right game, play to dominate.”
For more information about Funti3r, visit their website at www.funti3r.xyz. To find out more about AfricArena and our upcoming events, visit our website at www.africarena.com.