South Africa's contribution to the technology sector continues to grow, and the rest of the globe is sitting up and paying attention. A number of South African start-ups won international awards last year, overseas investment remained on an upward curve, and Mzansi's influence is even greater when you consider the nationality of some of the global technology industry's movers and shakers.WhereIsMyTransport, a start-up that builds solutions in emerging cities, recently won the Global Grand MobiPrize. Now based in the UK, the former Cape Town company won the award on the back of its Transport for Cape Town application developed for the City of Cape Town."We provide a holistic solution that takes a city from using any and all different transit, routing, tracking and scheduling tools, and creates a unified, integrated solution that can plug in to any other service or value-add they need," said one of the company's co-founders, Devon de Vries.Schalk Nolte, the CEO of Stellenbosch-based Entersekt, which offers solutions to financial institutions, was selected as an Endeavour Entrepreneur in October. Endeavour is a nonprofit organisation in New York that identifies and mentors the most innovative organisations worldwide.Nolte's company signed up 18 international blue-chip companies as clients last year. "Our solution makes it possible for financial institutions to integrate once, no matter the platform or device, and then to authenticate everywhere," said Nolte."It is gaining remarkable traction across the world."Technology expert Toby Shapshak, editor of Stuff magazine, said South Africa was renowned for its problem-solving expertise, which was "morphing into clever apps and software"."[Last] year SA produced some stand-out start-ups and tech," Shapshak said."Lumkani Fire Detection is my start-up of the year. This Cape Town-based company makes clever, low-cost smoke detectors specifically designed for the rampant fires that often break out in informal settlements."Arguably the best South African technology firms in the world this year - if you count the nationality of their founder and CEO - are Elon Musk's SpaceX and Tesla."University of Cape Town graduate Blaise Thomson sold his VocalIQ software to Apple. The artificial-intelligence software, "which helps people and computers speak to each other in a more natural dialogue", will be used to improve Apple's Siri software.In Cape Town, British banking giant Barclays teamed up with the Cape Innovation and Technology Initiative to establish the Barclays Rise accelerator programme at the initiative's Bandwith Barn.Silicon Cape spokesman Lianne du Toit said there was an influx of international start-ups wanting to call South Africa home."The total investment by South African venture capitalists in 2015 was R1.87-billion, spanning 187 deals," she said...