#WomensMonth | Nadia Jaftha on pushing SA’s creator economy from influence to ownership
For years, Jaftha has been one of South Africa’s most recognisable digital personalities. But behind the polished social media feeds, brand collaborations and millions of impressions is a businesswoman who has deliberately shifted her focus from being the face of brands to building businesses, owning intellectual property and creating infrastructure for the next generation of African creators.
It is a distinction that has become increasingly important as the creator economy matures. With the African creator economy estimated at $18bn, the industry is moving beyond influencer marketing towards a more sophisticated ecosystem in which creators are becoming entrepreneurs, founders, investors and business owners in their own right.
For Jaftha, that transition was deliberate: “The pivotal moment was realising that influence without infrastructure isn't sustainable,” she says.
Moving from reactive brand deals to proactive business building, Jaftha co-founded Ace Labs and took ownership stakes in businesses including The Smile Bar. The move fundamentally changed how she viewed her influence.
“It was about creating an ecosystem where creativity translates into measurable commercial outcomes and long-term equity,” she explains.
Building the business behind the brand
The creator economy can make entrepreneurship look deceptively simple. Audiences see the campaigns, content and carefully constructed personal brands, but rarely see the teams, data, commercial negotiations, strategy and operational structures required to sustain them.
For Jaftha, building a long-term business has meant learning to treat her personal brand as an asset rather than simply a platform.
“Running the brand involves strategy, data analysis, team management, and understanding audience nuances,” she says.
One of her biggest lessons she has learned is that "passion doesn't sustain a business; structures do.”
That means setting boundaries, understanding the commercial value of intellectual property and building a team capable of managing the operational side of the business, allowing creativity to flourish without becoming the sole engine of growth.
It is a mindset that reflects the wider evolution of the creator economy, where the most successful creators are increasingly looking beyond campaigns and followers towards diversified revenue streams, products, equity and scalable businesses.
Women moving from influence to ownership
Jaftha believes female entrepreneurs are helping reshape the creator economy by moving beyond being the talent used in campaigns and taking ownership of the infrastructure surrounding the industry.
“Women are moving from being the face of campaigns to owning the platforms and agencies that run them,” she says.
According to Jaftha, women account for more than 52% of creators in South Africa, giving them a significant role in shaping the direction of the sector.
For her, Women's Month provides an opportunity to look beyond celebrating individual success stories and consider what needs to change structurally.
“We are institutionalising the industry, ensuring that the next generation of female creators has access to the strategic infrastructure needed to convert their influence into sustainable revenue and legacy, bridging the historical funding and knowledge gaps.”
That distinction between visibility and ownership is central to Jaftha's own journey. Her ambition is not simply to build a bigger personal platform but to help create an industry where more women can turn their creative capital into sustainable businesses.
Authenticity as a commercial asset
As influencer marketing becomes increasingly sophisticated, authenticity has become one of the industry's most valuable currencies.
For Jaftha, authenticity is not something that can be added to a campaign at the final stage. It needs to underpin the commercial relationship from the beginning.
“Authenticity isn't just a buzzword; it's the foundation of audience trust,” she notes.
Her approach is to work with brands that genuinely align with her values and lifestyle, while Ace Labs has developed its own approach to integrating brands into creator-led storytelling.
The company's “connectioneering” framework is designed to ensure brand messaging works within a creator's natural voice rather than forcing creators to deliver corporate messaging that feels disconnected from their communities.
That distinction matters because, according to Jaftha, brands are not simply purchasing access to a creator's audience: “They're buying into a creator's unique voice and community trust, not just a billboard space.”
She points to partnerships such as Capitec as examples of brands that have approached creator marketing as an innovation partnership, enabling creators and businesses to co-create campaigns that connect with South African audiences.
From followers to business infrastructure
For creators navigating an industry where algorithms and platforms can change overnight, Jaftha believes long-term resilience comes from building something that exists beyond a single social media channel.
“Future-proofing means not relying on a single platform,” she says. Instead, creators should build communities that can move across platforms while diversifying their income through products, equity partnerships and agency work.
Content Creator Awards jury announced
That strategy is reflected in Jaftha's own expanding business ecosystem, which includes Ace Labs and Creator Club.
The objective is to create businesses that can withstand the volatility of social platforms by focusing on the things that are harder to replicate: human connection, cultural relevance and community trust.
“Core human truths and cultural relevance” can outlast algorithmic changes, she argues.
It is also where she sees the opportunity for African creators to compete globally.
Navigating the barriers facing women entrepreneurs
Jaftha's journey has not been without the gendered challenges that many women entrepreneurs continue to encounter.
“There’s often an initial underestimation of the business acumen behind a female content creator,” she says, pointing to persistent barriers around access to capital and being taken seriously in boardrooms.
Those experiences have influenced the way she leads.
Her approach is collaborative, but firm when it comes to boundaries and values. More importantly, she wants to empower her team and other women in the industry to recognise their commercial worth.
“I strive to empower my team and other female creators to know their worth and demand their seat at the table.”
For Jaftha, empowerment is therefore not simply about representation. It is about ownership, negotiation power and the ability to participate meaningfully in the financial value created by one's own influence.
Building businesses, not just audiences
As content creation becomes an increasingly attractive career path for young South Africans, Jaftha cautions aspiring creators against becoming too focused on follower numbers.
Her advice is to start with purpose. “Before you go all in, make sure you define your ‘why / purpose’.”
She encourages creators to understand their analytics, learn how to brand themselves, network and treat their platforms as vehicles that can provide value and connect with a broader business.
Most importantly, she says, creators need to build brands that are more than aesthetics: “Focus on creating value and impact, not just virality.”
It is a philosophy that reflects her own transition from content creator to entrepreneur: influence is the starting point, not the end goal.
When culture and data work together
Jaftha's partnership with her fiancé and Ace Labs co-founder, Reece Meyer, has further shaped that approach.
Where Jaftha brings creative instinct and cultural fluency, Meyer applies a data-driven and commercially focused lens. Their differing strengths have become part of the company's competitive advantage.
“I lead with creative instinct and cultural fluency, and can feel where an audience is going before the data confirms it,” she explains. “Reece takes that instinct and pressure-tests it: to build the strategy, systems, and commercial model that turn a great idea into a repeatable, scalable business.”
The combination recently took the pair to New York, where Ace Labs represented South Africa at the TikTok Global Partner Summit.
For Jaftha, the invitation was significant not simply because of the global platform, but because it demonstrated that South African thinking can compete internationally when creativity and commercial discipline are brought together.
“Culture and data are not opposites; when you make them move together, you create a genuine competitive advantage,” she explains.
That philosophy is also informing the way Ace Labs works with other creators.
Through initiatives such as Creator Club, the company aims to help emerging creators build strategic and commercial foundations from the beginning, rather than waiting until their influence has already grown to start thinking about the business behind it.
The next frontier: creator-led commerce
Jaftha believes the creator economy is entering a period where audiences are increasingly placing their trust in people rather than polished corporate brand pages.
“Audiences have stopped trusting polished brand pages and started trusting people, which is why creator-led commerce is accelerating so quickly.”
But influence alone is not enough. Many creators have built highly engaged communities without necessarily having the commercial infrastructure to translate that influence into sustainable revenue and long-term equity.
That gap is where Jaftha sees an opportunity.
At Ace Labs, the goal is to combine cultural relevance with business discipline, helping creators preserve the authenticity that made them successful while building commercial models capable of supporting long-term growth.
The ambition extends beyond individual creators. Jaftha wants to help make the African creator economy “legible, respected and exportable on the global stage.”
Keeping the human at the centre of AI
AI is likely to accelerate the evolution of the creator economy, but Jaftha does not believe it will replace the most valuable part of what creators offer.
She sees AI as a tool for efficiency – supporting research, data analysis and operations – rather than as a substitute for human creativity.
“The creator economy is built on human connection, lived experiences, and cultural nuance,” she says.
AI may generate content, but it cannot replicate the relationship and trust that a creator has built with their community.
For Jaftha, that makes critical thinking and creativity even more important as technology develops: “Human creativity will always be the heartbeat of the industry.”
A legacy beyond social media
Ultimately, Jaftha's ambitions extend well beyond becoming a bigger name on social media.
Her long-term measure of success is whether she can help create an ecosystem in which African creators can build businesses capable of competing globally without having to dilute their identity.
“I want my legacy to be that I helped formalise the creator economy in South Africa, creating sustainable business models and equity for women, proving that our local creative IP is a powerful global export.”
It is a fitting ambition for Women's Month: not simply to celebrate women who have succeeded, but to examine how their success can create pathways for those who follow.
For Jaftha, that means turning influence into infrastructure, creativity into equity and visibility into ownership.
The future of the creator economy may be built on content, but its lasting value will be determined by who owns the businesses, intellectual property and opportunities created around it.
