The richest woman in South Africa who returned home after spending years in London

Magda Wierzycka went from being a staunch critic of artificial intelligence to launching a fund to support AI-powered businesses in South Africa.

Wierzycka is the CEO of the financial services group Sygnia and has been dubbed the “richest self-made woman in South Africa,” with her net worth in 2025 estimated at $250 million (R4.1 billion).

Born in Poland to medical doctor parents, Wierzycka’s family moved to South Africa in 1983, when she was just 13, bringing only $500 with them.

The family settled in Sunnyside, Pretoria, where Wierzycka picked up both English and Afrikaans while attending Pretoria Girls High School.

While in high school, she got her first work experience by working part-time at a local OK Bazaars supermarket, where she sold cheeses and cold cuts.

After high school, Wierzycka studied at the University of Cape Town and graduated in 1993 with both a Bachelor of Business Science and a postgraduate diploma in actuarial science.

She began her career in financial services soon after graduating. By 1996, she had landed herself the position of Director and Head of Institutional Business at Coronation Fund Managers.

After six years at Coronation, Wierzycka was appointed to the role of CEO of African Harvest Group, which she held for another three years.

In 2006, she negotiated the sale of African Harvest Fund Managers and then led a management buyout of the remaining group, which led to the founding of Sygnia.

Over the next two decades, Wierzycka grew the company’s assets under management from R2 billion to over R460 billion.

The company was listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange in 2015 and currently has a market capitalisation of R5.14 billion.

Wierzycka is also known for her anti-corruption activism. This prompted her to move to London in 2017 out of concern for her safety after playing a role in exposing the Gupta family’s attempted state capture.

She returned to South Africa earlier this year, settling in Cape Town with her husband, Sygnia co-founder Simon Peile.

From AI critic to investor

Earlier this year, Wierzycka announced she would launch an investment fund to assist AI-powered startups in South Africa.

This came after she had openly expressed concerns that artificial intelligence could have disastrous consequences for human society.

She explained that her fears about human dependence on AI only grew after she attended the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, in January 2026.

“I was in Davos, and the next big thing apart from Donald Trump was AI,” Wierzycka said in an interview with Business Times. “And it was an eye-opener.”

“I only had one thought in my mind, and that was a big, giant delete button. Delete the whole lot. This is not heading in a good direction for humanity.”

Wierzycka argued that excessive reliance on AI would impede critical thinking and problem-solving skills, as well as human empathy, especially amongst younger generations.

However, when she realised that the rise of AI was unlikely to slow down any time soon, she decided instead to turn towards helping local businesses learn to use it to their advantage.

The venture capital fund is intended to show these entrepreneurs that they can build intellectual property without relocating to tech hubs like London and Singapore.

This was spurred by Wierzycka’s concern that Africa would become merely a consumer of AI technology rather than a creator and innovator in that space.

“We have the same intellectual capital in South Africa that is available in the UK or US, but what we are missing is the structured capital behind it,” Wierzycka said.

“Unless someone takes deliberate action to support that intellectual capital with money, then all we are doing is exporting our best software engineers.”

Wierzycka explained that the fund will specifically target small teams which have an idea and the technical skills to pull it off, but may not have access to the funding.

Sygnia will reportedly provide capital for the investment fund, after which interested entrepreneurs will compete under NDA to be selected for financial support.

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Photos of Magda Wierzycka

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Photos of Sygnia’s office building

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