What the firm is, in plain terms.
Pivot Partners is an AI implementation firm. We help businesses redesign how work gets done, then build and integrate the AI applications that make the new way real, with our own engineers rather than a recommendation. Founded in 2024 by Chris Lombard and Nicolò Pudel. Clients hire us on a fee, and through Pivot Ventures we take a stake in a small number of businesses and help run them.
- Founded
- 2024
- Founders
- Chris Lombard and Nicolò Pudel
- Where we work
- South Africa and internationally
- Sectors
- Retail, wine and trade, wellness
- Legal entities
- Pivot Partners GmbH · Germany · HRB 290832South Africa · CRN 2024/725503/10
- Contact
- [email protected]
Pivot Advisory
How clients hire us. Fee-based, no equity. We work out with the leadership team where the business is stuck and how the work should run, then our own product and engineering people build the application, connect it and hand it over. How advisory engagements run →
Pivot Ventures
Where we invest and operate. We take a stake, sit on the operating side and put our engineers inside the company. Two active ventures: Port2Port, South Africa’s leading online wine and spirits marketplace, and CellarMe. The ventures →
Pivot AI Lab
The engineering that ships the work, in both. Agentic workflows, internal assistants, intake and document processing, automation, and customer-facing product. Live systems are written up as case studies. Read the case studies →
Who we work with
Advisory clients include Pick n Pay and Boxer in South African grocery retail, Meridian Wine Merchants and Craft Liquor Merchants in drinks distribution, and Formula Fig in North American wellness. Port2Port and CellarMe are Pivot Ventures companies, where we hold a stake and sit on the operating side. The full list →
Who does the work
Chris Lombard ran M&A at Standard Bank from 2005 to 2014, then was head of M&A at Distell from 2014 to 2023. Nicolò Pudel co-founded Port2Port in 2015 and built it into South Africa’s leading online wine and spirits marketplace. Gerhard Olivier is Partner, Technology, and was Chief Technology Officer at Port2Port. Amber-Rose Mostert is Operating Partner and has been Chief Executive of Port2Port since March 2026. The people →
Why Pivot exists
Most businesses that call us have already decided they want AI. What they do not have is the thing itself: software that is built, wired into how the business runs, and doing the work every day. The gap between a demo and a system a business depends on is where projects stall, and it is the gap we were set up to close. We start with where the work is stuck, not with a tool, and we stay until the new way of working is the normal way.
How the work gets paid for
We start with a conversation rather than a proposal, then scope the actual problem and what it would take to fix. How it gets paid for depends on the business. Often it is a fee. Sometimes we take part of it in equity, because we would rather own a piece of the outcome than invoice for the effort. Either way, what we build belongs to the client. We do not licence our own platform back to the businesses we work with.