Christopher Savides
Christopher Savides is the founder of Ukuva Consulting, based in Amsterdam. For about twenty years he has built, launched and fixed businesses in payments, fintech, streaming and cross-border markets, always embedded with real delivery accountability. Through Ukuva he now plans and orchestrates the launch of new ventures for busy founders and experts, on a fixed fee, with no equity.
The short version
I get things built. For twenty years I have gone into businesses and made hard things happen, in payments, fintech, streaming and across borders, in South Africa, the Netherlands, Dubai, Singapore, Nairobi and beyond. Not as an adviser. As the person accountable for it working.
The record
I solved the exchange-control problem that kept South Africans off PayPal, secured Reserve Bank approval, and ran the build with PayPal. I was a founding team member at Showmax, part of Naspers, and set up its payments and African operations. I took DT One through the integration of an acquired business as COO and then Interim CEO. I have represented a regulated entity to the Dutch National Bank, and negotiated with studios, telcos, banks and regulators across several continents.
What I do now
I run Ukuva as a one-person practice. Busy founders and experts bring me an idea for a new venture they cannot get to. I work out exactly what it takes, cost it, and then assemble and run the people who build it. I do not take equity and I do not take a permanent seat. When it is done, it is done.
The name
Ukuva is the isiXhosa word for to listen, or to hear. The elephant in the logo is deliberate: the animal with the largest ears, and the longest memory. That is the standard I hold myself to. Listen properly, remember what matters, then go and do it.
How I work
Plainly, and in person where it counts. I listen first, properly, because the plan is only as good as how well I understood the idea. Then I do. That is the whole thing.
Listen. Then do.
Last updated 9 July 2026