Dr William Mapham narrates the problems he experienced in the Eastern Cape province that led to the birth of the Vula Medical App crowned FNB App of the Year award winner for 2025. Photo: Supplied

news.reporter1959@gmail.com

Vula Medical was crowned the overall winner of the 2025 FNB App of the Year at a glittering awards ceremony in Johannesburg’s Houghton Hotel on December 4.

The awards event brought together the brightest minds in South African and African tech and showcased innovation across the continent, with leading developers, industry experts, partners, media, and sponsors celebrating the creativity and homegrown talent shaping Africa’s digital future.

The 2025 FNB App of the Year Award went to Vula Medical, a medical referral app developed by Dr William Mapham and his team, was an idea that was conceived while he was working at the Vula Amehlo Eye Clinic in rural Eastern Cape province of South Africa before he moved to Eswatini, where he experienced similar first-hand the difficulties faced by rural health workers when they needed specialist eyecare advice.

Refilwe Mtshali and Sihle Madungandaba at the FNB App of the Year Awards 2025. Photo: Zanele Siso of Zanephoto

Dr Mapham had recommended one of his patients in the Eastern Cape in South Africa to take a letter he had written to a specialist in the local hospital but when he returned from Eswatini, he discovered the patient had gone totally blind after failing to get assistance and she still had the letter he wrote many years ago. It was at this juncture that he decided on a secure App that connects primary healthcare workers with specialists, making it easier to manage patient referrals and to get specialist advice. 

The app is designed to improve healthcare in rural and underserved areas by allowing health workers to share patient information, including text and images, through custom referral forms. It facilitates communication and remote guidance and greatly reduces unnecessary travel for patients to ensure that they receive the right care at the right time.

SA Digital app founder Kgothatso Theko at the FNB App of the Year Awards 2025. Photo: Zanele Siso of Zanephoto

The impact of the Vula App is clear and well-documented. Numerous health workers who use the platform have published studies demonstrating its value, with key findings showing that in nearly 30% of cases, patients seen at rural clinics do not need to travel to a specialist. Instead, they receive specialist input directly through Vula, a game-changing outcome that saves countless patients from long, costly, and often stressful journeys.

To date, the platform has facilitated more than 2.5 million patient referrals, connecting healthcare professionals across over 2 300 public and private facilities. It also supports 105 different categories of health workers, reflecting its wide reach and ability to streamline communication and care coordination across South Africa’s health system.

Over the past 14 years, the App of the Year Awards have become the continent’s premier celebration of app development. The platform continues to spotlight groundbreaking solutions that transform industries, improve lives, and enable economic inclusion, across multiple categories including consumer, enterprise, health, education, agriculture, financial and more.

One of the team members winners of the FNB App of the Year 2025 Tshepiso Makubo poses for an individual picture. Photo: Zanele Siso of Zanephoto

These awards sit within a broader ecosystem of FNB-led initiatives aimed at growing the talent pipeline, supporting digital transformation, and empowering young developers across the continent.

This year alone, more than 33 000 young people graduated as full-stack developers through the FNB App Academy – a fully funded, intensive nine-week coding programme that equips aspiring tech entrepreneurs with real, employable skills to develop full-scale applications and platforms.

At the end of October, FNB also hosted Africa’s largest hackathon which saw over 10 000 participants aiming to solve some of Africa’s most pressing social challenges within 72 hours of high-impact, purpose-driven innovation.

To date, the App of the Year platform has unearthed some of South Africa’s biggest digital success stories, including Eskom Se Push, Naked Insurance, Pineapple Insurance, Checkers Sixty60 and more recently, last year’s FNB App of the Year Winner, Matric Live, which are brands that have scaled rapidly, and attracted major investment, and reshaped everyday digital living. 

“The FNB App of the Year Awards continue to nurture and unearth African innovation and technology, uncovering some of our best-known apps and bringing together different sectors of society to solve a variety of social, economic, and business needs. Winners rapidly gain recognition and the opportunity to attract funding,” said FNB’s head of Business Development Janis Robson. “By supporting developers and start-ups, we are driving innovation, creating jobs, and contributing to the country’s economic growth”.

Ellen Fischat, founder of Story Room, a social enterprise specialising in inclusive digital solutions and socio-economic impact programmes, has been an App of the Year judge since 2017. She said there has been a noticeable increase in AI use in apps, particularly in health tech, with developers creatively adapting advanced technology to African contexts, not just to scale or generate profit, but to benefit communities and ensure users understand its value.

“Social impact is what I love most about the App of the Year competition. I judge many startup competitions and hackathons across Africa and Europe, and what I love about South African app solutions is that social impact is very important – it’s in our DNA. It’s also beautiful to see how the FNB App Academy stimulates and supports the critical thinking and solution-finding that we need,” Fischat said.

Another judge, Gareth Tresling, head of Experience Engineering at Immersion, agrees that another noticeable trend this year was the rise of AI companions and assistants across multiple categories. “Although many of these features are in an early stage, they signal an emerging ambition to integrate.”

“Many apps attempted to tackle systemic issues such as community safety, school-parent communication, localised nutrition, and public transport accessibility. While execution quality varied, the focus on solving meaningful problems that matter to South Africans was a clear standout theme,” said another judge, Gareth Tresling, also head of Experience Engineering at Immersion.

Fellow FNB App of the Year judge, Jeff Manda, digital lead at Brave, reiterates the strong focus on solving real problems, especially in education, compliance and financial access. “Some entries really surprised me. A few teams went deep on offline support, accessibility and building for real-world constraints. You can see when people design with intention, and it stands out.”

These are the winners of the various categories Apps in the FNB App of the Years Awards for 2025. Photo: Supplied

The 2025 FNB App of the Year category winners are:

• Best Consumer Solution: Mr D

• Best Enterprise Solution: Droppa

• Best Hackathon Solution: Usagey

• Best Gaming Solution: Recess

• Best Health Solution: Vula Medical

• Best Agricultural Solution: FarmWise

• Best Educational Solution: d6 School Communicator

• Breakthrough Developer of the Year: CPF Method

• Best Financial Solution: Stokvel Marketplace Powered by StokFella

• Most Innovative Solution: iER (Integrated Emergency Response)

• Best South African Solution: iER (Integrated Emergency Response)

• The Accenture Reinvention Award: Scenda.