# Pieter van Rooyen

> Pieter van Rooyen is an engineer and entrepreneur originally from Pretoria, South Africa. The founder and former CEO of Pleno co-founded Zyray Wireless, ecoATM and Edico Genome, businesses acquired by Broadcom, Outerwall and Illumina respectively. His work connects telecommunications, specialised computing and retail automation. He is also a Baobab Genome Project co-founder, xTenure co-founder and Extraordinary Professor at Stellenbosch University.

- **Role:** Co-founder at xTenure; Extraordinary Professor at Stellenbosch University
- **Organizations:** Pleno Inc., xTenure, Zyray Wireless, Broadcom, ecoATM, Edico Genome, Truvian Sciences, Baobab Genome Project, Stellenbosch University, University of Pretoria
- **Education:** Doctorate in engineering, Rand Afrikaans University (now University of Johannesburg)
- **Known for:** Co-founder of Zyray Wireless, acquired by Broadcom in 2004., Co-founder of ecoATM, acquired by Outerwall in a $350 million aggregate transaction in 2013., Co-founder and former CEO of Edico Genome, acquired by Illumina in 2018.

## Career timeline

- **1990s** — Earned an engineering doctorate at Rand Afrikaans University; subsequently lectured at the University of Pretoria.
- **2000** — Co-founded Zyray Wireless; co-authored Space-Time Processing for CDMA Mobile Communications.
- **2004** — Broadcom announced its acquisition of Zyray Wireless.
- **2008** — Participated in the founding of ecoATM.
- **2013** — Co-founded Edico Genome; Outerwall completed its acquisition of ecoATM in July.
- **2015** — Co-founded Truvian Sciences with Mark Bowles.
- **2018** — Illumina acquired Edico Genome in May; received a regional EY Entrepreneur Of The Year award in June.
- **2022** — Led Pleno as founder and CEO during its $15 million pre-Series A and $40 million Series A announcements.
- **2024** — Pleno appointed Vik Vaz CEO and president in December, succeeding van Rooyen.
- **2026** — Identified by Stellenbosch University as an Extraordinary Professor and xTenure co-founder.

## Achievements

- Co-founder of Zyray Wireless, acquired by Broadcom in 2004.
- Co-founder of ecoATM, acquired by Outerwall in a $350 million aggregate transaction in 2013.
- Co-founder and former CEO of Edico Genome, acquired by Illumina in 2018.
- Founder and former CEO of Pleno.
- EY Entrepreneur Of The Year 2018 regional winner, as listed on his LinkedIn profile and an IEEE event biography.
- Co-author of Space-Time Processing for CDMA Mobile Communications.
- His LinkedIn profile lists more than 170 issued US patents.
- Co-founder of the Baobab Genome Project.

## Latest updates

- **2026-08** — Stellenbosch University identified him as an Extraordinary Professor in Electrical and Electronic Engineering and co-founder of xTenure.
- **2024-12** — Pleno appointed Vik Vaz CEO and president and announced $25 million in Series B funding.

## Links

- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pietervanrooyen

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/pieter-van-rooyen
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-10-16