The business started out in South Africa in 1996 as Matrix Vehicle Tracking – a business focused on providing personal safety to consumers using cutting edge GSM –based tracking technology to offer superior vehicle recovery services. Matrix soon became one of the leading vehicle tracking and stolen vehicle recovery service providers in South Arfica, and the first to focus on the safety of the individual as opposed to the vehicle – a position it still holds today.

While Matrix Vehicle Tracking was growing their consumer base in South Africa, another South Afrcan business (then known as CI OmniBridge) was making significant strides into the international commercial fleet management market, as the designer and developed the Siemens VDO “Fleet Manager” (FM) product range. The product range was branded VDO and sold by Siemens worldwide. In May 2007, the business acquired the distribution rights for its Fleet Manager range of products from Siemens VDO and also acquired Siemens VDO’s UK-based fleet management and commercial vehicle outfitting businesses, including the Datatrak product range and network.

In October 2007, these two businesses merged under the TeliMatrix holding company and listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange in November. Given the group’s vision of being the leading global provider of information and related services for mobile assets, the company decided to adopt a new name, to be applied to all businesses within the group. The philosophy being one vision, one company, one brand. As such it was decided by shareholders at an Annual General Meeting on 16 September 2008 to rename the group MiX Telematics – Mobile Information Exchange, signifying the birth of a new global leader.