Table of Contents
Cartrack now has more than two million active subscribers in South Africa, the fleet tracking and mobility company announced Tuesday, the latest sign of growth for a business that started as a stolen vehicle recovery service a little over two decades ago.
The milestone puts fresh distance between Cartrack and its rivals in what remains its largest single market. The company, a subsidiary of Singapore-headquartered Karooooo Limited, which trades on both Nasdaq and the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, employs more than 5,500 people in South Africa and has been operating in the country for 20 years.
"Reaching two million active subscribers is a remarkable achievement that reflects our leadership position, the strength of our business model and our dedication to the South African market," said Zak Calisto, Group CEO of Karooooo. "Demand for our technology platform has never been stronger, and we see a long runway for continued expansion as we deliver increasing value to our customers through our innovative products and service."
Cartrack's core product has evolved well beyond tracking. The platform now covers fleet maintenance, fuel management, driver behavior monitoring, workforce management and logistics, with data analytics feeding into tools that help businesses cut costs and manage risk in real time. Subscription services make up the overwhelming majority of Karooooo's group revenue, a recurring model that has helped the company scale steadily across more than 20 countries.
Calisto, who was born in Portugal and grew up in Mozambique before moving to South Africa, launched Cartrack in the early 2000s after a stint in the banking industry and a period distributing mobile contracts and telematics products. He built the business from scratch, and today holds a controlling stake in Karooooo worth well over a billion dollars, making him one of South Africa's handful of dollar billionaires.
The group serves more than 125,000 commercial customers globally and has surpassed 2.65 million active subscribers across all markets combined. South Africa remains its anchor, but Karooooo has been pushing hard into Southeast Asia, where subscription revenue has been growing at a faster clip, and into Europe, where recent investment is starting to show results.
The two million figure in South Africa alone marks a meaningful threshold in a market where vehicle theft, fleet efficiency and road safety remain significant business concerns. Cartrack has positioned itself as a solution across all three, and the subscriber count suggests the pitch is landing.
