Industry disruptor wins SAICA's top-35 under-35 award

Source: Theana Breugem

Riemer, who is the co-founder and CEO of the ground-breaking and proudly South African education tool, The Invigilator App, was surprised and humbled to be announced as 2021’s overall winner in such a hotly contested competition.

“The CA(SA) qualification has provided me with the foundation to truly excel in the business world and the competition brought likeminded CA(SA)s together to celebrate our success and build networks for future successes. I am exceptionally proud to hold the CA(SA) designation and winning this year’s competition will allow me to showcase what the qualification has unlocked for me, from a business foundation to my networks in co-founding The Invigilator,” says Riemer.

Ruling out dishonesty

Riemer and his three co-founders identified a huge gap affecting the education industry when institutions were forced to move to online assessments due to the pandemic. They developed The Invigilator App to ensure that academic integrity would be maintained even if students wrote their assessments remotely. Having only been founded in July 2020, The Invigilator has already successfully conducted over 1 million assessments.

The Invigilator App, recently the top downloaded education app in South Africa, is being utilised by some of South Africa’s largest universities. In the past month alone, 350,000 students wrote their examinations using the application, which automatically flags and detects unethical behaviour, and ensures exam conditions are abided by, by replicating the in-venue exam experience from home.

Simple and affordable

Proctoring is intended to curb cheating and collusion in assessments, yet there has never been a proctoring system created specifically for the South African audience in mind. This is why the founders developed technology that would work on even the most basic of smartphones, requiring minimal data and battery to operate, minus the need for constant internet connection while geared at cash-strapped institutions.

SAICA’s Top-35-under-35 competition was established in 2014 to recognise South Africa’s young chartered accountants who are not only excelling in their professional capacity, but who are also making a meaningful contribution to society.