Our History

Since 2013 established as thought leaders on applied AI & ML

EXPLORE-AI has been working on applied-AI models for the telecommmunications and utilities industries since 2013. EXPLORE-AI Data Science Academy was created in 2017 to become a very successful Data Science academy based out of South Africa. After more than 4 years working on the curricula, more than 1,000 students have graduated from the Academy with a 90% placement in high paying tech jobs.

What started as an educational project quickly allowed to start-up a full-fledged solutions and products organisation that can leverage on all the knowledge to solve real-life problems for utilities in general, and water and wastewater utilities on an initial stage.

  • 2019: Opened an office in the UK to focus on water and wastewater utilities to support them in the Digital Utility of the Future concept.
  • 2020: We started developing a CORE platform as a foundation for all our products and solutions.
  • 2021: Global expansion in the US and Europe

  • Growth

    We have grown the business on double digits, year-over-year, and currently employing 100+ EXPLORERs between the UK and South Africa.

  • Becoming Thought Leaders in Applied Data Science

    EXPLORE-AI is uniquely positioned as a throught leader on AI and ML models for the digital utilities of the future.

  • Global Reach

    We are expanding our capabilities and offerings not only to the UK but Europe and the US as well.

We are on a mission to help utility providers of all sizes to solve their core strategic problems using data and AI to better serve their customers.

Our Executive Board

Meet the members of the Executive Committee. Here, you can read their biographies and find out more about their individual skills and responsibilities.

Shaun Dipnall

Shaun is the CEO of the EXPLORE Group of Companies, a collection of global technology businesses that help business and individuals transform their futures by empowering them to unleash the power of data, science and cloud. Included in the portfolio is a Data Science Academy, UtilityTech player and an Insights-as-a-Service platform.

CEO, EXPLORE Group of Companies

James Orford

James has been the CEO of the Lombard insurance group since 2015. The group holds insurance licenses in South Africa, Australia and Sweden, where it writes credit insurance and builds long term partnerships with specialty underwriters and risk managers. James has over 20 years of institutional investment experience and worked in New York, London and Sao Paulo before returning to South Africa in 2010.

Managing Director, Lombard

Anthony Miller

Anthony is CEO and co-founder of Simply, an insurtech startup aiming to disrupt the life insurance space in SA and beyond. Simply uses technology, data and behavioural science to radically reduce the cost and complexity of life insurance.

Co-Founder & CEO at Simply

Management Team

Meet our management team. They guide our company, helping us live our purpose and achieve our mission to lead the Digital Utilities of the Future.

Shaun Dipnall, CEO

Shaun is the CEO of the EXPLORE Group of Companies, a collection of global technology businesses that help business and individuals transform their futures by empowering them to unleash the power of data, science and cloud. Included in the portfolio is a Data Science Academy, UtilityTech player and an Insights-as-a-Service platform.

Aidan Helmbold, Chief Explorer Lead Data Scientist

He is a co-founder of the EXPLORE Digital Skills Academy and was core to the initial setup of the flagship Data Science course. Aidan is a qualified Actuary and has spent most of his career consulting, firstly to the Boards of the largest pension funds, insurance, and investment companies. He has since spent the last three years focussing on solving problems across water utilities and fixed-line telecommunication network.

Tariq Desai, Chief Explorer Lead Data Scientist

Tariq has a Master's in Mathematics and a PhD in evolutionary genomics from the University of Cambridge. He coordinates the data science and data engineering efforts across EXPLORE-AI Utilities, where he has spent the last two years helping water providers make effective decisions at scale.

Kevin Trethewey, Chief Explorer Engineering Technology

Kevin brings more than two decades of experience in creating software and software engineering capabilities, having created and lead large scale software systems for multiple industries from South Africa to Silicon Valley. Kevin is accountable for ensuring EXPLORE-AI continues to create world class solutions and products for their clients as it scales to meet the demand for its award winning technologies.

Alex Burato, Chief Explorer Commercial & Product

Alex is an Engineer in Computer Science and MBA from UCLA Anderson, with 20+ years of experience in management consulting, digital transformation, and alternative asset management in firms such as Accenture, McKinsey&Company, Copernico Capital Partners, Enzyme VC, and lately Gödel Partners as an independent C-level advisor.

Media & PR

Below you will find some selected press clipppings of our work, collaborations, and partnerships globally:

  • TechReport

    SA data analytics consultancy EXPLORE-AI's has partnership with Thames Water UK extended.

    Learn More

  • diginomica

    Thames Water gets smart.

    Learn More

  • BusinessTech

    Amazon Web Services now offers an ‘intensive’ one-year training course in South Africa – here’s how to apply.

    Learn More