Siphiwe Mabusela’s Triotics Africa Brings Real-Time Visibility to LPG Distribution

The South African founder is applying IoT, software and data to a practical question: what if an LPG supplier could see a customer running low before the urgent call comes in?

SOUTH AFRICA,  In liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) distribution, the call that says a customer has run out of gas is usually the first sign that a refill is needed. By the time it arrives, the supplier is already behind. South African founder Siphiwe Mabusela built Triotics Africa around a different starting point: what if a supplier could see that a connected customers gas was getting low before that urgent call ever came?

That question sits at the centre of Triotics Africa, the technology company Mabusela founded to make LPG management more connected and data-driven. Rather than treating a gas cylinder as something that disappears from view after delivery, the companys system treats it as a source of live information that both the customer and the supplier can act on.

A problem hiding in plain sight

LPG is a routine part of daily life for many households and businesses across Africa. It powers home kitchens, restaurant ranges and hotel operations. Yet for all its importance, the way it is replenished often remains strikingly manual. Customers typically notice a problem when the flame goes out. Suppliers typically learn about demand when the phone rings, a WhatsApp message arrives or someone walks into a depot.

Mabusela saw this as an information problem rather than a supply problem. A supplier may have LPG in stock, drivers available and vehicles ready, but without knowing which customers are close to empty, it is difficult to plan ahead. Every refill tends to be handled as it comes, and urgent orders can disrupt otherwise planned routes and schedules.

The gap, in other words, was not in delivering gas. It was in seeing what happens between deliveries.

What struck me was how much of LPG supply depends on the customer running out first. The gas was there and the suppliers were there, but nobody could see what was happening at the cylinder until it was already a problem, said Siphiwe Mabusela, founder of Triotics Africa.

From question to connected system

Mabuselas response was to apply the tools of the Internet of Things (IoT), software and automation to that blind spot. The result is a connected system with three parts: a monitoring device at the customers cylinder, a mobile app, and a dashboard for suppliers.

The device, the Triotics LPG Level Monitor (also known as the Triotics Gas Checker), sits beneath a gas cylinder. According to the company, it uses ultrasonic technology to measure how much gas remains and sends readings to the Triotics app over Bluetooth Low Energy. The app applies calibration for the cylinder type and size, then shows the level in real time as a percentage and in kilograms remaining.

Users can set their own low-gas threshold and receive an alert when the level falls below it. From the same app, they can order a refill, pay and track the delivery.

For suppliers, the more important piece is what sits on the other side of that data. Triotics says its supplier dashboard gives distributors visibility of monitored customers gas levels, receives refill orders directly, supports driver assignment and delivery scheduling, and tracks deliveries in real time. The company also describes analytics features such as customer ordering patterns and demand forecasting by area and season, as well as a customer-facing portal that suppliers can present under their own branding.

Changing the operating model

The significance of the system lies less in the hardware than in the shift it enables in how a supplier works.

In a purely reactive model, the supplier waits. Demand arrives as a stream of individual requests, many of them urgent, and the business responds as best it can. Planning is based largely on history and instinct, and customer contact tends to happen only when something has already gone wrong.

In the model Triotics is designed to support, monitored data changes the sequence. A supplier who can see that a customer is approaching a low level has the option to contact that customer first, suggest a refill and schedule it alongside other deliveries in the same area. Consumption trends across many monitored customers can inform stock and driver planning. The supplier becomes an active participant in the customer relationship rather than a service that is only called upon in an emergency.

These are potential benefits of improved visibility, not guaranteed outcomes. The value any individual supplier gains will depend on how many customers are monitored, how the business adapts its processes and the conditions of its local market. But the underlying idea is straightforward: better information gives suppliers more room to plan, and more opportunities to serve customers before a shortage becomes a crisis.

Why LPG distribution matters in Africa

The problem Mabusela chose to tackle sits within one of the continents most important energy challenges. According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), around one billion people in Africa still rely on open fires or basic stoves, typically burning wood, charcoal or other traditional fuels that are associated with harmful household air pollution.

LPG, though a fossil fuel, is widely regarded as a significantly cleaner cooking option than those traditional fuels, and it has become central to efforts to expand clean cooking access. The IEAs Clean Cooking in Africa 2026 report finds that LPG accounts for more than 70% of people with clean cooking access on the continent and represented the vast majority of new connections in 2024.

The IEAs earlier analysis of universal access to clean cooking in Africa projects that LPG would provide access for more than 60% of people gaining clean cooking through to 2040. Reaching that scale, the agency notes, depends on infrastructure: additional primary storage, better port facilities, more bottling plants and specialised vehicles for safe transport. The IEAs latest tracking puts African LPG storage capacity at about 800 kilotonnes, with at least 250 kilotonnes more under construction.

Much of that buildout is physical. Triotics works on a different layer, the information link between distributors and the households and businesses they supply. As distribution networks grow, the question of how suppliers see and respond to demand at the customer end is likely to become more relevant, not less.

Technology built around real operating conditions

Mabuselas approach reflects a broader philosophy about technology in Africa: that the most useful innovation often starts with an everyday operating problem rather than with the technology itself. In his own writing on IoT in Africa, he has pointed to connected LPG monitoring as an example of the technology applied to a distinctly African challenge, noting that running out of gas unexpectedly can be both a safety risk and a financial burden for lower-income households.

That thinking shapes how Triotics positions itself. The company presents its platform as built for African LPG suppliers specifically, with onboarding and support provided locally, and it serves home users, commercial kitchens and hospitality businesses alongside distributors. Its emphasis is on practical tools that fit how LPG is actually bought, delivered and used in African markets.

We didnt set out to import a solution designed for another market. We started with how LPG actually moves in African communities, from the depot to the kitchen, and built the technology around that, said Mabusela.

Looking ahead

For Mabusela, Triotics is a proof point for a larger idea: that energy infrastructure in Africa can become more connected, more predictable and more responsive through practical use of data. In LPG distribution, that means a future in which suppliers, customers and delivery teams share a clearer, real-time picture of gas levels and orders, and in which refills can be planned rather than rushed.

As LPG continues to play a major role in Africas shift away from more polluting traditional cooking fuels, the systems that help it reach households reliably will matter. Triotics Africas contribution is to make one long-standing blind spot in that system visible.

About Triotics Africa

Triotics Africa is a South African technology company founded by Siphiwe Mabusela to make LPG management more connected and data-driven. Its system combines the Triotics LPG Level Monitor, the Triotics mobile app and a supplier dashboard, giving users real-time visibility of gas levels, low-gas alerts and online refill ordering, while giving LPG suppliers visibility of monitored customers, orders and deliveries. More information is available at triotics.africa.

Media contact

| triotics.africa

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