Octoco Group takes stake in SA rail-monitoring startup HisWay Labs
What's the deal? Technology investment and product development firm Octoco Group has acquired an undisclosed strategic equity stake in HisWay LabsDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, the Cape Town startup behind the TrackView rail-integrity monitoring system. The deal, which backs the company's international expansion, was announced in October 2026.
What does TrackView do? It is a vandal-resistant, cloud-based device that detects breaks in railway track, which can cause costly derailments. A sensor installed on a sleeper monitors roughly 2km of track by sending micro electric pulses through the rail and reading the response, and can also report train positioning, flat wheels, and sleeper displacement.
Why it's different: The sensor contains no copper or batteries — the components that make trackside equipment a target for theft. "The scrap value of our sensor is R6. No copper, no batteries — you can make a paperweight out of it and not much more," said chief executive officer Franz Struwig. It is also built to withstand heat, dust, flooding, and tampering.
Why now? South Africa's rail network has been eroded by cable theft, vandalism, and undetected track failures, pushing freight onto roads and raising costs across mining, agriculture, and manufacturing. Octoco framed the deal as a chance to restore confidence in the network.
What's the endgame? HisWay Labs plans to sell data-as-a-service — installing and maintaining sensors, then charging only for the information, leaving customers with zero hardware costs. The company is in a rollout phase and needs to sign anchor customers.
The traction: TrackView has type approval from the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa and a commercial deployment with Siemens Mobility. It is in active field trials in the US and was exhibited at InnoTrans in Germany, the world's largest transport technology trade fair, to pursue European partnerships.
What could go wrong? Global expansion depends on converting trials into contracts. Axle-counting systems already handle some monitoring but can leave broken-rail detection as a separate problem, and HisWay Labs must still fit into established operators' safety and procurement systems.
The signal: Rail operators are investing in digital monitoring and modernisation, and the deal's significance rests less on its undisclosed size than on whether the funding helps secure paying customers. "HisWay Labs has turned one of our most damaging infrastructure challenges into a globally competitive product," said Octoco managing director Heinrich de Lange — a test of whether world-class industrial hardware can scale from South Africa.
Read more: miningweekly.com
Image credit: Tips For Travellers
