Come on, Elon? One of the only ways to get Starlink in SA, ICASAsePush 😝, who’s been selling those “Sparkling” devices and accounts (i.e. roaming Starlink bought in neighbouring African countries and, uhm, illegal) is in hot water after ICASA ratted them out to Elon’s actual Starlink, who sent them a letter saying please don’t do that, guys. Ja, but when is our real Starlink coming?

Not in time for this new Fast-Five Friday: 5 things in startup you must know, in 5 minutes. Let’s go!

_{Thanks to today’s partner, Xero, for its support in keeping this newsletter free and independent.}

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1. GET A GOOD DEAL

How much is that car really worth?

In South Africa, around 30’000 used cars are sold every month at an average price of around R417’688. That’s a R12.5 billion a month market (R140 billion+ per year). But are all 30k at the best deal possible?

Unlike new cars, with manufacturer-listed prices, a number of factors impact a second-hand car’s price: make, model and mileage, yes, but the seller's short-term needs also play a big role — desperation can drive sweeter deals.

Every day that a second-hand car is on the floor, it costs them money, eating into margins. What’s more, sales agents work on commission; they need to move stock. So there’s a good chance, at some point in the month, they’ll mark it down.

Finding those bargains is quite hard, unless, of course, you have the data.

And that’s what local software developer turned entrepreneur Jason Wallace built. CarPriceValue is an easy-to-use website where you simply paste the link of the second-hand car you are interested in buying, and it’ll let you know the instant the price drops.

Jason built his own dataset and machine learning model to estimate the market/retail value of used cars online, which then ultimately reveals whether a deal is likely a good one or not.

Go on, give it a spin, and if you end up saving a lot of money, buy us a coffee.

2. LEGALAIS IT

Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong

Lawyers. Gotta love ‘em. Until you get the bill, of course. But with AI around, do we still have to pay those steep fees?

Now, you might be tempted to hit up ChatGPT, but it’s risky – remember that local law firm alleged to have used AI to cite and refer to nine cases of which only two actually existed. (Hello HalucinationGPT.)

We need something better…

Murphy’s Law is a local AI-powered LegalTech startup that’s built specifically for the South African legal system. Its AI-powered assistant is trained on real, curated local case law, available 24/7. Meaning more accurate answers, fewer hallucinations (no 25-year sentences for a traffic fine), and up-to-date legal insights at your fingertips.

We see it helping startups draft shareholder agreements. Individuals check lease terms or write a will. Or legal professionals speed up research, automating compliance and reviewing documents in seconds. Mooi.

A Harvey Specter in yo’ pocket…

3. BEEFY SKILLS

Get trained the African way

Tech advances keep rocking the world, driving the need for lifelong learning. But Africa still lags in education and training participation rates — our youth has a low 45% engagement rate compared to Europe and Central Asia’s 66%-plus.

And then (sadly) many training programmes serve up generic, globally-produced content that doesn’t reflect the African context or day-to-day realities.

Zydii is a Kenyan startup offering Africa-centric digital training in bite-sized, mobile-first content via WhatsApp SMS, USSD and web. Built for teams across the continent, it has over 70 localised courses on topics like sales, leadership, communication, customer experience and personal branding. 

They’ll also digitise a company’s existing content into more engaging digital courses and virtual programs, run expert-led live sessions pulling from their pool of 40+ experts across an array of business topics, or plug in their AI-powered knowledge tool to support learning on the job via chat-based access to key company info. Noice.

4. GET CONNECTED

Exciting news about our founder community…

When The Open Letter launched our founder community 10 months ago, we wanted to create a space for our readers to connect, network and build together. But it’s more than just “The Open Letter Community”. It’s a place where we all help one another build smarter, faster, together. 

And it’s time that it gets its own space in The Open Letter Ecosystem (with a fresh new look to boot). Introducing The Founder Collab…

With over 100 founders and builders of some of SA’s most exciting startups, including ones from Jem, Namola, The Awareness Co, Fintr, Thrif, Prepaid24, Troygold and many, many more, The Founder Collab supports early-stage tech founders and side-hustlers in SA with the one thing they actually need: a community that helps them move faster, better.

If you are an:

🚀 Early-stage founder (from idea to scale phase)

🚀 Sidehustler working on your startup while still working full time

🚀 Or just passionate about early-stage startup building

Then, The Founder Collab is the community you need.

The Founder Collab →

5. SOMETHING COOL FROM ABROAD

The end of doomscrolling?

Around the world, people spend an average of 6 hours and 40 minutes staring at a screen each day. But that’s NOTHING compared to (World Champions in seemingly every destructive habit) South Africans who clock in at 9 hours and 24 minutes.

This leads to brain rot: a state of mental decline caused by overexposure to low-effort, mindless or overstimulating content, especially from social media and other short-form videos.

We need a brain hero…

brainrot is a screen-time app that lets you see a visual representation of your brain rotting based on time spent, number of pickups and what apps you were watching*. 

Then it helps you set limits, blocking rules and schedules to do away with distractions during times of focus. And, hopefully, over time, you’re able to turn your brain rot levels from “pile of gross mush” to nice, supple and healthy again.

*Ironically discovered whilst brain rotting…

IN SHORT

Serve hot takes, without the homework…

💅 Polish them Pitches. The 2025 edition of Nedbank's Pitch & Polish competition is in full swing. Now in its 15th year, the comp sees 16 entrepreneurs go head-to-head for a cool R1 million grand prize for the winner, not to mention the 2-day pitch bootcamp for all 16 participants by Raizcorp. Pssst: Wildcard entries are still open.

👍 Senior Simplicity. Uber is rolling out a special account type for senior citizens with a simpler app experience and features like ride updates for family members, saved destinations, and the ability to use a family member’s card for payments. Only US so far, but cute, man.

🍪 Keep Your Cookies Safe. Not even our cookies are safe anymore, as South Africa ranks 35th out of 253 countries on NordVPN’s leaked cookie leaderboard, thanks to the 546-million cookies linked to South African users found on the dark web. Flippen Prawns…

💰 Sygnia Soars. JSE-listed Sygnia’s assets under management and administration have jumped nearly 19% for the six months ended 31 March 2025, taking it to an eye-watering R405.6 billion. Jinne.

🕹️Funding Kohort. UK-based startup (which has a bunch of Saffas as founders and employees), Kohort, just completed a major funding round led by Raine Group. Their platform helps game developers and studios forecast revenue in intelligent ways — learn more by reading this piece we did on them back in Nov 2024.

✅ The Stack. Founders need tools and suppliers they can trust. Check out our Founder’s Stack with the best in IP offshoring and global market access with Finance Isle of Man, your own CFO for a fraction of the cost with OCFO, and loads more vital startup tools & services.

DON’T MISS THIS

Coming Up in SA’s Most Vibrant Tech Founder Network

Next up in our members-only founder network — The Open Collab.

6 June 12:000 — Dev Hiring Masterclass: The team from SA’s largest dataset and hiring platform, Offerzen, is here to share the latest in technical team hiring and trends.

13 June 12:00 — The Art of Strategy Masterclass: How high-growth founders think & win: Cut through complexity and create a scalable strategy for profitable growth with Jason Goldberg, Art of Scale author and co-founder of Edge Growth.

20 June 12:00 — Operationalising AI Masterclass: Learn how to deploy AI to power productivity across multiple layers of your business, with OfferZen’s VP of Product, Stephen van der Heijden.

PLUS: When you join The Open Collab get access to expert sessions, more than 90 SA founders to network with and weekly online and offline network engagements.

Join The Open Collab

JOBS IN TECH

Now hiring. Or as we like to call it: levelling up!

💼Senior Product Manager (Growth) @ Simple Life App

👨‍💻Solutions Engineer @ Yoco

🎨UX Designer I @ RELX

😎Marketing Manager @ Vault22

Hiring? Get in touch, and we will feature it here.

GAME TIME

Find zen with today’s ZA startup haiku

No fuel, just a hum.

Deliveries without smoke.

The hustle rides green.

WHAT YOU SAID

Going to town…

On Tuesday, we asked if you’d build a township-focused product, and most say this is the way to go…

🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 💥 Absolutely, it’s a huge untapped market (46%)

🟨🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 📊 Maybe, but I’d need better data (17%)

🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🔥 Already building something in the space (15%)

🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🤔 I’d need to learn more first (13%)

🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🏙️ Only after cracking the formal market first (9%)

Your 2 cents…

Ha ha, exactly, Clive — know your user and you’re A for Away. 🚀

Oooh, now we’re curious, Abdul. Build it, and then, when you’re ready, we showcase it to the world. 🏆

Can’t wait to see what cool things will come out of that, Kgailemosa! 💪

Defs feel like a step in the right direction, DT: opportunity’s knocking. 🔥

HOW DID WE DO?

BEFORE YOU GO

Here are 3 Ways We Can Help You

Advertise or Partners — Engage {{active_subscriber_count}} South African professionals that read The Open Letter. Partner with us or run an ad campaign — reply to this email to get started.

Grow with Content — Love The Open Letter? Want to build a newsletter just like that for your brand? Want to grow your brand with content? We can do it for you. Check out Stream.

Startup Community — Join 100+ SA founders in our SA startup founder community called The Open Collab. Weekly online masterclasses, in-person and online meetups and a network like never before.

Until next time,
Elvorne, Renier & Jason

Squad

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Real-life Transformers? They’re still pretty small, but the US’s M4 robot, which was an attempt at a bot morphing from driving to flying and back again, has just been replaced by all-new ATMO, doing the same thing, just much more reliably. Just imagine the applications…

In this Open Letter:

• Big insights: Mapping SA’s township economy, Pokémon GO-style.
• ZA’s upcycled recycler, local learning leaders & Elon’s return to Mars.
• builders/podcast
• Whose boosting SA youth employability? The results are in.
• Lonely building your startup? Join The Open Collab and get support.

We Need You…

…to take 5 mins to give us some feedback!

In our effort to build SA’s greatest tech, startup and business publication, it’s you we want to delight more than anything. That’s why your feedback matters!

Come tell us you love us, or come cook us, we are ready…

Take the Survey →

TRENDING NOW

Mapping the Invisible Economy, Pokémon GO-Style

This Tuesday deep dive, we explore SA’s R200bn data blindspot, the informal/township grocery economy, and introduce you to a startup that’s mapping it, Pokémon GO-style...

There’s no shortage of hustle in SA’s townships… From the corner spaza to the auntie selling fresh veggies from a crate, and the guy doing fade cuts in his garage. But try searching for any of them on Google Maps.

We’ll wait…

Despite South Africa’s informal grocery sector alone generating nearly R200 billion annually, almost 95% of it in cold hard cash, nearly all of it happens in a data blind spot. With over 11 million people relying on some 150’000 (known) spaza shops, it goes mostly unbanked, unmapped, and untapped by traditional investment.

This lack of visibility isn’t just a research issue. It’s a real barrier to better services, smarter investment, and more meaningful support for the people and businesses driving this sector.

SA’s R200 billion blindspot

A Woolworth’s in the suburbs can tell you exactly how many oat milks were sold before 10 AM last Tuesday. But no one even knows how many spaza shops there are in Khayelitsha or Umlazi — let alone who bought what, when.

It’s not for lack of interest: Retailers want access. FMCG brands want reach. Banks want to onboard new customers. And informal customers are apparently extremely loyal:

• 51% of customers visit the same local spaza shop every day
• Enabling the whole sector to employ 20% of SA’s workforce

The issue isn’t value. It’s visibility. And one local startup is out to change that, Pokémon Go-style.

The startup gamifying township economy data collection

Meet Timbuk2, a Cape Town-based startup that’s building the insight layer for underserved markets. They’re building a crowdsourced, gamified data collection platform called Foona (derived from the Zulu word for “search”).

Instead of hunting virtual monsters, Foona users (or “gamers” as Timbuk2 calls them) roam their local areas, capturing real-world data: spotting SMMEs, spaza shops, shebeens, tuck shops, veggie stalls, and more, then uploading location info, photos, and context.

The incentive? Points, competition, and yes, even cash.

Clients (think retailers, advertisers, distributors, even insurance companies looking for B2B leads) then subscribe to Timbuk2’s insights platform to make smarter decisions. Whether it’s identifying where to open a new store, how to price for that area, or even where to paint an ad mural, the data now exists, and it’s real-time, verified and dynamic.

Spaza shops and informal traders get looped in (often earning revenue from ad campaigns powered by that very same data), while Timbuk2 tracks 3 million mobile devices across the country, letting them overlay footfall and movement data to power deeper insights. 

When we recently chatted to Timbuk2 Co-Founder Matimba, they found that up to 80% of spazas in some townships aren’t on Google, but despite this, they’re moving real money.

With AI-powered startups making an impact for all players in the township economy, you KNOW we’re watching this space.

YOUR NEXT MOVE?

Work at One of SA’s Fastest-Growing Startups

For the longest time, few startups have focused on building tech products for blue-collar workers, which is surprising considering how big the market is.

It’s no surprise then that Jem, who is building WhatsApp's first payroll solutions, is growing at an incredible pace with more than 150’000 blue-collar workers already using their product.

Jem is currently hiring, and here are five reasons you would wanna apply.

1. High Impact, Real Users

Jem serves over 150,000 frontline employees, giving them access to payslips, wage advances, and benefits, often for the first time. What you build matters.

2. Everyone Leads

You’ll get ownership early, with the support to move fast. The pace is real, the expectations are high, and the work is yours to drive.

3. AI-First, Always

Monthly AI reviews, regular hackathons, and space to experiment. We don’t just use AI, we build with it at the core.

4. In-Person, On Purpose

We believe in real connection. From strategy sessions to padel matches, we show up, with energy and intent.

5. Not for Everyone

But if you’re ambitious, curious, and ready to grow faster than ever. Jem will stretch and support you like nowhere else.

Keen to join Jem? Check out these roles they are hiring for right now.

IN SHORT

Try a few headlines to keep the convo flowing…

🏃Hit the ground running. Applications for the sixth edition of the G20 TechSprint are open for global participants building solutions aligned with this year’s theme: trust and integrity in scalable and open finance. Stipends of $5’000 per shortlisted entry and $30’000 for each winning solution are up for grabs. Nice one — get those entries in by 20 June 2025.

♻️ Trash to cash. Local recycling startup Regenize has landed an undisclosed funding amount from E Squared Investments to help expand its network of decentralised recycling hubs, provide free recycling services to over 26,000 households, and create over 180 new jobs. One man’s trash is indeed another’s treasure.

🚀 Red planet loading. Now that Elon Musk’s DOGE contract with the US government has ended, he’s turning his attention back to Mars, with the first Starship flight set to launch late next year. If all goes well, the mission will reach Mars somewhere around mid-2027, with Musk giving the team a 50-50 chance of reaching the launch window. Very, very interesting…

🎓 Grand Graduates. The World’s top 500 universities include 3 South African institutions, including the University of Cape Town, coming in at 275th, Wits coming in at 292nd, and Stellenbosch University at 458th. The University of KwaZulu-Natal narrowly missed out, coming in at 505th.

🛵 On yer bike. Uber is piloting its Moto service in Johannesburg, offering motorcycle-based rides. They’re already seeing heavy usage amongst students, and riders needing a short trip from home to a taxi rank. At least trying to make small talk is no longer the most awkies thing with your Uber driver.

😎 The Stack. Founders need tools and suppliers they can trust. Check out our Founder’s Stack with full-funnel tech performance marketing by Stream, 90% off your first 6 months’ accounting with Xero, plus loads more vital startup tools & services.

FOUNDER’S CORNER

3 Tips for Business Builders

Brought to you by Lula — Fast, simple business funding

Want to build a startup YC-style (high-growth, venture-scale model)? Sam Altman, former president at YC and currently CEO of OpenAI, put together a startup playbook. Word of caution, it’s for the American market, so always think about how it applies locally. That said, some good food for thought in here.

Thinking about raising funding? Watch the legal Do’s and Don’ts of Early Stage fundraising with Jacques Stemmet from Dommisse Attorneys. In it, he discusses funding instruments, types of shares and term sheets. It was recorded live on LinkedIn a week ago. Go watch it here.

E-Commerce and Beyond: How to Leverage Digital Innovation for SME Growth. Join this Wednesday for “E-Commerce and Beyond”, a webinar exploring how South African SMEs can leverage digital innovation for growth. Our own Renier Kriel joins Lula Head of Product Clinton Thomas to unpack the rise of e-commerce, challenges in digital transformation, and how to scale sustainably in SA’s evolving business landscape.

BUILDING TOGETHER

Happening over at The Open Collab

6 June 12:000 — Dev Hiring Masterclass: The team from SA’s largest dataset and hiring platform, Offerzen, is here to share the latest in technical team hiring and trends.

13 June 12:00 — The Art of Strategy Masterclass: How high-growth founders think & win: Cut through complexity and create a scalable strategy for profitable growth with Jason Goldberg, Art of Scale author and co-founder of Edge Growth.

20 June 12:00 — Operationalising AI Masterclass: Learn how to deploy AI to power productivity across multiple layers of your business, with OfferZen’s VP of Product, Stephen van der Heijden.

Thinking about joining The Open Collab?

• Supercharge your network in the SA startup landscape — get that introduction, get that customer, or meet that partner.
• Get feedback on your products, services and/or offers from others who have built and are building their own products right now.
• Join all our online and in-person events for free!
• Exclusive 1-on-1 sessions with startup consultants.

SA’s only dedicated tech startup and scale-up founder network.

Join The Open Collab Today →

WHAT YOU SAID

Jobs for Africa…

Last Friday, we asked about an SA startup that helps the youth land jobs, internships and bursaries, and here’s how we fared…

🟨🟨🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🎓 Pathwise.ZA (24%)

⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🧠 ikhono-intwasahlobo (6%)

🟩🟩🟩🟩⬜️⬜️ 💼 Nasi Ispani (29%)

🟨🟨🟨🟨🟨🟨 🔗 WorkLink (41%)

Actually, the real startup was SA’s mobile-first youth work empowerment platform, Nasi Ispani.

HOW DID WE DO?

BEFORE YOU GO

Here are 3 Ways We Can Help You

Advertise or Partners — Engage {{active_subscriber_count}} South African professionals that read The Open Letter — partner with us or run an ad campaign — Reply to this email to get started.

Grow with Content — Love The Open Letter? Want to build a newsletter just like that for your brand? Want to grow your brand with content? We can do it for you. Check out Stream.

Startup Community — Join 100+ SA founders in our SA startup founder community called The Open Collab. Weekly online masterclasses, in-person and online meetups and a network like never before.

Until next time,
Elvorne, Renier & Jason

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Ready for the robot uprising? Well, the bots need a lil’ more time to prepare, if we check the footage of the world’s first robot kickboxing tournament in China last week. To be fair, the bots didn’t get any of the usual Robot Wars-style saws and flamethrowers to play with, but soon, we hope. 🦾

First, though, it’s time for another Fast-Five Friday: 5 things in startup you should know, in 5 minutes. Let’s go!

SME Owners: Ready to Ride the E-Commerce Boom?

The rise of digital convenience is reshaping how South Africans shop — and how SMEs must grow. Whether you sell online or not, the next wave of digital transformation is already here.

And, on 4 June, we’re going to unpack all the latest trends and growth opportunities in SA’s e-commerce space and more…

E-Commerce and Beyond: How to Leverage Digital Innovation for SME Growth is your roadmap to what’s next, featuring Lula’s Clinton Thomas and the Open Letter’s own Renier Kriel.

✅ What SA’s e-commerce boom means for every small business
✅ How to overcome digital hurdles — and pick the right tools to scale
✅ Cash flow, funding and banking tips to power sustainable growth

📅 4 June | 🕚 11:00 AM–12:00 PM | 📍 Live on Zoom

Free to attend — register now to secure your spot.

Reserve your seat now →

Lula. Powering SA SME growth.

1. KEPT IN THE LOOP

Cashless minibus ride-shares

Did you know more than half (63%) of formal SA business customers still choose to pay with cash? It’s like 95% in informal sectors, so you can bet when the taxi industry moves 16 million South Africans every day, at an average of around R12 a trip, that’s a lot of cash flowing. Not to mention a lot of opportunities for criminals to make a quick buck.

Cape Town’s Loop Taxi App is setting out to remove that taxi cash risk with a platform that helps commuters book a Loop (either as a public Loop Taxi along a specific route, or as a private Loop taxi – which is great as a shuttle-type service or staff transport), make instant payments (with no bank charges), and manage and cancel bookings, all via WhatsApp. 

Loop is currently available along the Vangate Mall, Bellville to Mitchell's Plain and Manenberg to Cape Town routes, with more routes being added monthly.

2. BEEN EVENTFUL

Make Event Planning a Breeze

It’s no secret that South Africa is fast becoming a top destination for corporate travel events and conferences. With world-class conference facilities, high-quality accommodation and bleisure opportunities like winelands tours, the Kruger Park, and lekker beach vibes, it’s unsurprising that SA’s MICE industry (Meetings, Incentives, Conferences, and Exhibitions) was valued at US$6.6 billion in 2023.

But coordinating different providers to make an event experience great is painful.

We recently stumbled across EventBookr, a local events marketplace connecting users with event services and providers across SA.

You can toggle across various categories to search for a provider, or use their free event planning wizard to start planning. Just a few key details: what event services you’re looking for, the city the event is being held in, and Bob’s your uncle. You’ve got suppliers you can shortlist and contact to get the ball rolling. 

3. BRAGGING RIGHTS

Earth’s Startup Training Ground?

South Africans are well within our (bragging) rights to be bullish on the local ecosystem. StartupBlink’s 2025 edition of its Startup Ecosystem Report puts us 52nd globally, and the Top African nation ahead of our friends Kenya (58th), Egypt (65th), Nigeria (66th) and Cape Verde.

And while Jozi might’ve just pipped The Mother City to the Top Cities post (122nd and 138th respectively), Cape Town is still considered one of Africa’s top startup destinations. Couple that with everything else Cape Town has to offer, and it becomes a great place to learn to startup.

Ollie Cape Town is a 5-month entrepreneur’s internship programme designed for international students to cut their entrepreneurial teeth at startups in Cape Town, matched to their specific skillsets. 

They get to live (with other Ollie students from that semester’s cohort) and work in the Mother City, get valuable real-world work experience, and university credits to top it all off. 

An African twist on the semester abroad — very nice.

Instagram post by @olliecapetown

4. BUILD IT

Waste Not, Want Not…

Africa faces a housing crisis, with more than 53 million units needed to house all its citizens. At the same time, the continent produces around 19 million tonnes of plastic waste (5% of global) annually.

And you know what’s coming next, right? Jip, a founder looked at that and said: How can we solve these problems, LEGO style…

Kubik is an Ethiopian startup repurposing hard-to-recycle plastic waste into affordable interlocking, low-carbon construction blocks that just snap together (no cement, water or steel needed).

They’re already recycling 5 tons of plastic waste per day, and their products have passed many of Intertek’s European safety tests for strength, toxicity and flammability (and more). Plus, it’s about 40% cheaper per square meter to build a house with Kubiks.

With a $5.2M seed round raised in 2024, Kubik is scaling production and eyeing new markets across Africa.

5. SUPPORT YOU NEED

Get in Early

The hardest part of building isn’t always the code… Getting something visual in front of people is pretty NB, too. Most early-stage teams, solo devs or founders have more ideas than time (or design skills).

Stitch (by Google) is an AI design tool built on Google’s Gemini models that helps create a UI for web or mobile projects – no designer needed.

You start by typing a prompt or uploading an image, Stitch then gets to work, confirming what you’re looking for, and it designs up a UI based on your prompts – a couple tweaks here and there, before you can export the designs it to Figma to make further changes, or export static HTML code to go straight to build.

While UI Designers are unlikely to be the next “victim of AI,” it’s a lekker tool for the early-stage founder’s belt.

IN SHORT

Fuel for Small Talk That Doesn’t Feel Small…

🌍 A Bot in Every Home. Africa’s largest smart metering solutions provider, Conlog, and local smart energy provider, Plentify, have joined forces to accelerate the rollout of intelligent energy management solutions to more than 50 million households across Africa. Nice one Jon & Team Plentify.

🎮 GameBuddy. Microsoft has rolled out a beta version of its Copilot for Gaming assistant to 54 countries, including South Africa and 5 other African countries. The assistant can answer questions and share info based on your games, account, and activity. We got a gaming AI assistant before GTA 6…

🇿🇦 Flying the Flag. Five South African startups are heading to London for the 9th Africa Tech Summit London, including logistics platform CtrlFleet, legal-tech service Lawyered Up, payments startup NjiaPay, recruitment service Rafiki, and waste management platform Smartfill. They’ll be up against 8 other African startups to pitch their offering to potential investors and partners on 6 June. Very nice.

🤳 A Pep in Your Step. 8 out of every 10 prepaid cellphones sold in South Africa are sold by the Pepkor Group of stores, including Pep and Ackermans, with 65% of those being affordable smartphones. The group’s newly added FoneYam smartphone rental product has also added more than 1.5 million customers. Staggering.

🛟 Breathing Room. The South African Reserve Bank announced a 25-basis-point cut to the benchmark repo rate, lowering it to 7.25%. The SARB governor, Lesetja Kganyago, also said that SA’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) considers a 3% scenario for inflation targeting going forward, more attractive than the 4.5% baseline and in line with global emerging economies. Hoping this is a step in the right direction to breathe some fire into the economy…

😎 The Stack. Founders need tools and suppliers they can trust. Check out our Founder’s Stack with all your tech recruitment streamlined and automated by Offerzen, zero-monthly-fee bank accounts and business loans in 4 minutes from Lula, plus loads more vital startup tools & services.

CHECK THIS OUT

Increase E-commerce Revenue? Leverage Your Payments Before Investing in More CAC

E-commerce Cart abandonment in SA averages 83.5%, well above the global rate of 70%.

Why?

• Payments failures
• Poor checkout UI/UX
• Wrong payment methods for the customers

This costs SA e-commerce businesses over R20 billion a year. A massive hit for SMEs who need to spend too much to attract customers, only to lose most of them at checkout.

That’s where NjiaPay comes in: They’re a payments-as-a-service partner that helps SMEs leverage payments as a way to convert more visits into sales.

How?

✅ One simple API connects you to ALL payment providers and methods (at once, you have every option available, so whichever option your visitor trusts, you have it)

✅ Creates a single, unified checkout process for every payment option imaginable

✅ NjiaPay routes each payment to the best-performing payment providers or the one with the lowest fee, so you and your customers always get the best deal.

SMEs get peace of mind knowing they’ve got all the tools in one place and a partner who’s got their back. Because payments shouldn’t just be a box you tick, they should power your growth.

Want to see where you’re losing revenue?

Take NjiaPay’s free payments benchmark analysis right now. We’ll review your current setup, conduct an in-depth analysis, and show you how to cut costs and boost conversion. Fill out the form, and we’ll be in touch to walk you through it.

Get my free analysis now →

DON’T MISS THIS

Coming Up in SA’s Most Vibrant Tech Founder Network

Next up in our members-only founder network — The Open Collab.

30 May 12:000 — Power of Storytelling Masterclass: Marketing, driving sales and attracting investment all boils down to your ability to craft and share stories — Jo Eyre from Voxeon gives SA startups the inside track.

6 June 12:000 — Dev Hiring Masterclass: The team from SA’s largest dataset and hiring platform, Offerzen, is here to share the latest in technical team hiring and trends.

13 June 12:00 — The Art of Strategy Masterclass: How high-growth founders think & win: Cut through complexity and create a scalable strategy for profitable growth with Jason Goldberg, Art of Scale author and co-founder of Edge Growth.

PLUS: When you join The Open Collab get access to expert sessions, more than 100 SA founders to network with and weekly online and offline network engagements.

Join The Open Collab

JOBS IN TECH

Wanna build with the best in the biz?

You know how some startups talk a big game… and then some just quietly go and do it? 

Jem HR is one of those. They’re tackling one of the biggest blind spots in African work culture — building HR, payroll and benefits systems for SA’s 18 million deskless workers, where the users live: on WhatsApp.

Fresh from a R60m funding round and Top 10 Startup of the Year finalist, if you want to be part of a rising SA startup, you can join the team on the engineering side.

Keen on AI-first development? Join Jem as:

🏗️ Senior Product Engineer in Joburg 

🏄‍♂️ Senior Product Engineer in Cape Town

💪🏽 Personal Business Partner in Cape Town

See all Jem jobs now →

GAME TIME

Riddle us this…

What is the Jozi-based platform helping young people land jobs, internships, and bursaries, all from their cellphones?

WHAT YOU SAID

Power to the peeps…

On Tuesday we asked about checking what your business pays for power, and we have the first 3-way tie in Open Letter history…

🟨🟨🟨🟨⬜️⬜️ 🦉 We charge at night. Like energy vampires. (15.5%)

🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 😬 Didn’t know time mattered. We just… plug in. (23%)

🟨🟨🟨🟨⬜️⬜️ 📊 We’ve got graphs, forecasts and a CFO who’s obsessed. (15.5%)

🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 🧾 Wait, there’s a cheaper time to use electricity? (23%)

🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 💡 When the lights are on, we’re making money, so it doesn't really matter… (23%)

Your 2 cents…

That just happens to be our motto, Charmaine: read The Open Letter = get a little smarter. 💪

Ooh, can’t wait to welcome you, Andy — remember you can expense things like Open Collab to the company, so you don’t have to pay out of pocket (helpful if you’ve got an investor, too). 🤓

HOW DID WE DO?

BEFORE YOU GO

Here are 3 Ways We Can Help You

Advertise or Partners — Engage {{active_subscriber_count}} South African professionals that read The Open Letter — partner with us or run an ad campaign — Reply to this email to get started.

Grow with Content — Love The Open Letter? Want to build a newsletter just like that for your brand? Want to grow your brand with content? We can do it for you. Check out Stream.

Startup Community — Join 100+ SA founders in our SA startup founder community called The Open Collab. Weekly online masterclasses, in-person and online meetups and a network like never before.

Until next time,
Elvorne, Renier & Jason

Squad

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Competitive SA access? If you’re keen to try Google DeepMind’s new Veo 3 AI video creator, you know, so you can create vids like this, you might not have to fork over $250 (R4’500 per month). With the Flow tool and Google One, South Africans can get 1’000 credits for just R430 pm. Nice.

In this Open Letter:

• Smart move: New solar intelligence can save hotels/Airbnbs R5M a day.
• SA’s zero carbon charging, free Samsung SOS+ & PnP’s new-look asap!
• The fastest tools to explore ideas, build apps & market them on LinkedIn.
• Know who delivers clean drinking water to schools? The results are in.
• Lonely building your startup? Join The Open Collab and get support.

Your Content Isn’t the Problem — It’s Your Funnel

Most B2B tech teams waste time writing more content when they should be fixing why it’s not converting.

That’s what Stream’s Precision C.O.N.T.E.N.T. Method does: we reverse-engineer your 10 best deals to find out what really worked — and build a full content marketing engine around that.

✅ Reverse-map your real buyer journey (from first touch to closed deal)

✅ Build actions for every step of the funnel — not just awareness

✅ Track what moves the needle, quarter by quarter

Is this what your scale-up needs?
Only one way to find out.

Show me the method →

Stream. Precision content for B2B Tech.

TRENDING NOW

Saving SA Hotels and Airbnbs R5 Million Per Day

In this Tuesday deep dive, we explore the effects of SA’s business energy tariffs on hotels and Airbnbs before introducing you to the startup that’s slashing those by 50% out of the gate…

It’s been 11 days (and counting) since we last had loadshedding. And so far, 2025’s been a good year with only 8 days of loadshedding, compared to 2023’s 284 days.

No wonder, then, that now in winter, many SA businesses that invested in the R17.5 billion solar boom of 2023 are shifting focus from energy independence to energy intelligence: maximising the financial return of every kilowatt.

Why? Well, when there’s less sunshine, heavy-use businesses like hotels often need to dip back into Eskom grid usage, which gets pricey…

While inflation hit 129% from 2007 to 2022, Eskom’s tariffs increased 5x the rate of inflation: a staggering 653%, not including 18% and 13% increases in ‘23 and ‘24, the nearly 13% increase of April ‘25 and more increases coming in ‘26 and ‘27 – leaving South Africa with the world’s 54th most expensive electricity.

And it becomes particularly important when you consider that businesses get charged way more per kilowatt than the average person:

The devastating business cost of keeping the lights on

Both Eskom and municipalities use Time-of-Use (TOU) tariffs, which charge businesses:

• More during peak periods (mornings and evenings).
• Less during off-peak (late at night or early morning hours)
• Standard prices for transitional periods between the two.

Now, imagine you’re a hotel, lodge, residence or Airbnb, etc., where your customers pay for your facilities and insist on getting their money’s worth. Studies show that tourists’ water and energy usage often doubles or triples when they stay in a paid room, and you can bet that’s during peak time, putting strain on the grid and your pocket. 

Hotels in SA can run up staggering utility bills per month (with 140k hotels and Airbnbs, an average usage of 15kWh per room, costing R36 each, that’s an estimate of R5 million in energy costs per day), eating into the bottom line and putting the ROI from their fancy solar system in jeopardy.

Good thing we found an SA startup that’s using smart tools and AI to drop any hotel’s energy usage by 50% (for some, they’ve even managed to completely offset, as in 100% cost reduction, with a little clever use of tech)...

The local startup maximising the financial return of every kilowatt

Soluno is a South African startup helping businesses turn their solar investments into serious savings. They give businesses with existing solar setups of 100kW or more (big ones, with a hefty price tag) a smart software platform that manages how energy is stored, used and even sold back to the grid.

Instead of letting those batteries sit idle as backup waiting for the next round of loadshedding, Soluno makes them an active part of your savings game: The system charges batteries when electricity is cheapest (usually during off-peak hours late at night) and then draws from those batteries during peak periods, when power is most expensive, to ensure your get the lowest price and max ROI on your energy. 

And if conditions are right, Soluno can even help clients feed excess energy back into the grid during peak times, earning them credits at a higher rate than they pay for what they draw at night.

Now remember, companies with massive solar installations can also run off pure solar during the day, and Soluno will automatically and continuously manage the flow of energy usage versus solar power, stored battery power, grid power and feeding excess power back, so you always get max benefit.

How much benefit? Soluno confidently guarantees savings for hotels and heavy-use industries, with some clients seeing reductions of up to 50%, and in some cases, even full offset. As the platform learns your usage patterns over time, it continually adapts to maximise financial returns.

“Free” power? Why not? While Eskom’s stable, for now, the price pressure’s still there, so solutions like Soluno helping businesses gain more real energy ROI mean we’re watching this space….

CHECK THIS OUT

Go Global with Your IP

A practical roadmap for high-growth companies

Startups and high-growth South African companies face a major hurdle: Exchange Controls restrict their ability to move Intellectual Property (IP) offshore, limiting access to global investment. 

The IP Strategy Flow, however, offers a clear and practical framework to overcome this by enabling companies to create and own their IP in an offshore structure, building hard currency value and positioning for international funding and exit:

1. Invention Culture

It starts at the top. Founders and boards make a documented commitment to innovation. This early decision empowers the company to develop new ideas offshore and lays the groundwork for legally establishing IP outside of South Africa.

2. Blue Sky Structure

A Blue Sky team explores new product ideas through structured sessions held offshore. At least one person, employed by the offshore company, must attend and record detailed notes on ideas and proposals. These records are key to showing that the IP originated offshore.

3. Board Process

The team refines concepts into formal proposals outlining commercial potential, development needs and strategy. And the board authorises budgets and accountability structures, creating a documented trail of offshore decision-making and ownership.

4. Development Starts

With board approval, a product manager leads execution. Contracts, timelines and deliverables are clearly defined to ensure the IP remains securely offshore in both structure and practice.

5. Commercialisation

OffshoreCo begins generating revenue. A sales manager formalises contracts, invoices clients and retains profits offshore, further cementing offshore ownership.

6. Enhancement & Maintenance

Product improvements based on user input. Maintenance and support are built into offshore operations and contracts, keeping all enhancements aligned with the IP Strategy.

Get some more insights here:

Exchange controls no longer need to define your company’s ceiling. With this kind of IP Strategy Flow, you can access international markets, attract capital and grow value offshore, in hard currency. 

It’s more than strategy, it’s your roadmap to global relevance.

Explore the IP Strategy Flow in detail →

IN SHORT

Grab a few of these to keep the convo flowing…

🔌 Charge it up. The Development Bank of Southern Africa has dropped a cool R100 million equity investment into Zero Carbon Charge to accelerate SA’s shift towards a net-zero transport economy, and power CHARGE’s mission to install ultra-fast EV charging stations every 150 km along national roads. Very interesting stuff.

🚨 Don't panic. Samsung SA recently launched Samsung SOS+ through its partnership with local emergency-response-on-demand platform AURA. This free-to-use, 24/7 emergency response subscription is exclusive to the new Galaxy A56, A36 and A26 devices, and valid for 12 months. Incredible accomplishment by the AURA team.

🛵 (Online) store revamp. Pick n Pay is bringing some major updates to its online grocery delivery platform, asap!, as well as a revamp of the Pick n Pay website coming 1 June. These enhancements come off the back of a 48.7% growth in online sales in the year leading up to 2 March 2025. Online grocery space is hotting up.

🪙 Smooth crypto moves. According to a recent Pretoria High Court case brought by Standard Bank against the South African Reserve Bank (SARB), Cryptocurrencies are not subject to SA exchange control regulations since they do not constitute “capital” or “currency”. But don’t pop the champagne just yet, as legal experts are betting SARB will amend its regulations to include cryptocurrencies and close the loophole.

💰 Got Spaza Cash. MTN is entering the payments market by offering MoMo pay. It allows merchants to accept instant payments via QR code, merchant ID or payment request, at a minimal fee of just 0.5%.

😎 The Stack. Founders need tools and suppliers they can trust. Check out our Founder’s Stack with easy-peasy business valuations with bizval, hardware, software, acceleration and funding for remarkable builds with Octoco and loads more vital startup tools & services.

FOUNDER’S CORNER

3 Tips for Business Builders

Brought to you by Lula — Fast, simple business funding

Get the latest trending business ideas. Even a free account with Ideabrowser gives you insane info on revenue potential, proof and signals, market cap, GTM and more on one random trending idea per day. Paid options give you full access to all ideas and even custom reports.

Turn your idea into a website or MVP. We’ve all heard about vibe coding, and Macaly lets you take any idea and use prompts only to generate a full website or even app in a few minutes.

Run a full marketing campaign on LinkedIn. Once your site or MVP app is up, Taplio’s AI was trained on over 500M LinkedIn posts, so it’s a great place to go and create weeks’ worth of great content and ads in just a few minutes.

BUILDING TOGETHER

Happening over at The Open Collab

29 May 12:000 — Dos and Don’ts of Early-Stage Startup Fundraising: Get a breakdown of real fundraising scenarios with convertibles, SAFEs, equity and clauses that make or break your venture future with Jaques Stemmet from venture legal specialists, Dommisse Attorneys — reserve your seat for free.

30 May 12:000 — Power of Storytelling Masterclass: Marketing, driving sales and attracting investment all boils down to your ability to craft and share stories — Jo Eyre from Voxeon gives SA startups the inside track.

13 June 12:00 — The Art of Strategy Masterclass: How high-growth founders think & win: Cut through complexity and create a scalable strategy for profitable growth with Jason Goldberg, Art of Scale author and co-founder of Edge Growth.

Thinking about joining The Open Collab?

• Supercharge your network in the SA startup landscape — get that introduction, get that customer, or meet that partner.
• Get feedback on your products, services and/or offers from others who have built and are building their own products right now.
• Join all our online and in-person events for free!
• Exclusive 1-on-1 sessions with startup consultants.

SA’s only dedicated tech startup and scale-up founder network.

Join The Open Collab Today →

WHAT YOU SAID

Keep ‘em hydrated…

Last Friday, we riddled you on a SA startup with a unique solution to purify water in rural areas, and most recognised Kusini Water…

🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 💧 Kusini Water (66%)

 🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🌰 NutriDrop (17%)

⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🚰 ClearSpring SA (0)

🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 💦 AquaKind (17%)

Your 2 cents…

Whoops, slight unfair advantage, but we’ll take it, Charmaine. 🎯

HOW DID WE DO?

BEFORE YOU GO

Here are 3 Ways We Can Help You

Advertise or Partner — Engage 21k South African professionals that read The Open Letter — partner with us or run an ad campaign — Reply to this email to get started.

Grow with Content — Love The Open Letter? Want to build a newsletter just like that for your brand? Want to grow your brand with content? We can do it for you. Check out Stream.

Startup Community — Join 100+ SA founders in our SA startup founder community called The Open Collab. Weekly online masterclasses, in-person and online meetups and a network like never before.

Until next time,
Elvorne, Renier & Jason

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Affordable food to feed your family? It all starts with lowering agricultural production costs, which one startup is looking to do with armies of giant robotic centipedes. Movement looks pretty good, now we just want to see how it’s actually gonna tend plants with all those legs. 🪴

But first, it’s time for a Fast Five Friday: 5 things in startup you should know in 5 minutes — let’s go!

📢 Founders: Don’t Let Fundraising Mistakes Cost You Your Startup

Raising your first round? One bad clause can quietly shape — or sink — your future. That’s why we’re opening this session to the public.

Do’s and Don’ts of Early-Stage Fundraising with Jaques Stemmet from Dommisse Attorneys breaks down the legal and financial traps founders face — so you can negotiate smarter and protect your vision.

✅ Convertibles vs. SAFEs vs. Equity — what works when and why

✅ Legal terms to watch — like drag-along, liquidation prefs, and staged rounds

✅ Cap table visuals + real-world deal walkthroughs and founder impact

📅 29 May | 🕛 12:00–1:00 PM | 🔴 Live on LinkedIn

Reserve your seat now →

The Open Collab. Helping SA founders build better.

1. ROBODOC

How you like them apples?

The WHO recommends that countries have 10 doctors per 10,000 people. But South Africa falls short with just 8, causing issues like long waiting times, inadequate care and simply missing the chance to diagnose illnesses early enough to save lives.

Enter SA-born AI startup Envisionit Deep AI with AI to streamline & improve medical imaging diagnosis for radiology by combining computer vision and pattern recognition software.

With a suite of AI-powered imaging technology products, Envisionit is helping doctors locally and around the world analyse X-rays and mammograms to diagnose serious conditions better and faster. They’ve even developed their own dermatology tool, Dermify, that screens for a variety of skin conditions, including skin cancer. Nice one.

2. GETTING IT DELIVERED

Feel the need… for speed…

Nearly half of SA’s population resides in townships, where an estimated 1 million “informal” businesses drive the over R200 billion per year (some say it’s much bigger than that) township economy.

And, while the wheels are clearly turning in townships themselves, last-mile delivery is still a big opportunity.

Local logistics startup Delivery Ka Speed (Sepitori for “Speedy Delivery”, a shoutout to its Hammanskraal roots) is making moves to bridge the gap and ensure peeps living in townships can access food deliveries and courier services.

They’ve recently partnered with The Spar Group to bring the on-demand groceries delivery service Spar2U to Mamelodi, Ivory Park, Hammanskraal, and more.

And just last week, they announced that they’ve arrived in The Mother City. Nicely done. We’re watching this space.

3. POLISHING THAT JEM

A desk to build for the deskless?

Around 75% of SA’s workforce are deskless workers: Doctors, nurses, security guards, construction workers, etc., who don’t sit at a desk and don't have a company email.

That’s why our friends at Jem HR built a WhatsApp-based platform to deliver payslips, savings tools, fair finance and learning resources, while helping employers reduce churn and reach people in the field. And it’s been a big year for Jem: Closing a R60 million funding round before making Top 10 finalist at Innovation City’s Startup of the Year 2025. And it’s only May.

But here’s a cool opportunity if you’re looking to work shoulder-to-shoulder building, selling, scaling, travelling, and thinking across multiple companies with the founder of a high-growth local startup. 

Jem HR’s Co-Founder and CEO, Simon Ellis, is on the hunt for a Personal Business Partner, a career-defining, founder-in-training role. And the specs are pretty meaty: check it out here.

Simon is also part of our startup founder and builder community, The Open Collab. Come and join us, let’s build together.  

4. GUARDIANS OF THE FOREST

The African teens cutting down deforestation

The world loses around 10 million hectares of forest each year, with another 70 million hectares affected by fires. That’s roughly one soccer field lost to deforestation every second, threatening biodiversity, accelerating climate change and undermining forest-dependent livelihoods.

ReforestAI is a Nigeria-based team using AI, IoT and satellite data to monitor forest health and detect illegal logging in real time. Their system flags suspicious activity early, making it easier for conservation teams to act before the damage is done. It also collects environmental data, like soil quality and wildlife movement, to help predict threats and guide forest restoration.

Founded by three teens, Bright Attai, Blessed Pepple and Lesley John Jumbo, the team recently won National Geographic’s 2025 Slingshot Challenge (landing a $10’000 grant in the process). Check out the prototype walkthrough here, and the Slingshot entry video below. Still early days for the team and the tech, but fascinating nonetheless. 

5. WASHING UP

The laundromat in your driveway

We’re truly living in the age of convenience… from groceries delivered to your house in an hour to a dentist that comes to your house for a cleaning or your car’s annual service at the office. US consumers can even get their laundry washed, dried, hung and folded, all in their driveway.

Based in Charlotte, North Carolina (USA), The Lorry Laundrette is a mobile laundry lorry service. The lorry is equipped with four sets of LG washers and dryers, including 1 high-capacity set for bedding, etc., powered by an onboard generator, and it carries 1’500 litres of fresh water.

Customers can book anything from 2 to 5-hour slots, depending on the amount of laundry needing to be washed. And since they’ve got four washing sets, multiple simultaneous loads are no problem. Might make for an interesting opportunity to explore locally…

IN SHORT

Your shortcut to sounding switched on…

🏆 Dip your toes in. SA’s Department of Science, Technology, and Innovation’s Innovation Bridge Portal has just launched The SA Tech Challenge with a cool R3-million prize pool. The contest aims to elevate impactful and scalable small, micro and medium enterprises, positioning SA as a hub of digital innovation and entrepreneurship. Lekker.

⚡️ Green is the new light(s). Eskom has put out an invitation to tender to construct a pilot renewable green hydrogen facility at its R&D centre in Jozi. The pilot will contribute to the power utility’s decarbonisation strategy to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2050.

🧺 Iron, Man! Elon Musk dropped a new vid of Tesla’s humanoid robot, Optimus, doing household chores on X this week. The 1-minute clip shows Optimus stirring a pot, vacuuming and cleaning a table with a brush and dustpan — (apparently) all learned using videos of humans doing those tasks. But will you need to nag it for 6 months before it finally fixes that shelf?

🇿🇦 Nation of winners. A coding and robotics educator, Nadine Smith, from local private education provider ADvTECH, has just won the 2025 EDGE in Tech Athena Award for Early Career Leadership. One of only 4 winners, Smith is the only winner from Africa, in recognition of her work in making STEM more inclusive and accessible. *Cue applause.

😎 The Stack. Founders need tools and suppliers they can trust. Check out our Founder’s Stack with the best in IP offshoring and global market access with Finance Isle of Man, your own CFO for a fraction of the cost with OCFO, and loads more vital startup tools & services.

CHECK THIS OUT

Triple Your Startup’s Value?

Stability is way more attractive than unfettered growth

Still think rapid growth automatically translates to high business value?

Think again: bizval’s internal data shows today’s investors and buyers will pay almost triple for ventures with moderate yet consistent growth.

The sweet spot? A 25% to 35% growth rate gives an average R63m, compared to just R18m at a 50% growth rate. Check it:

Average Value By Growth Expectation

When you hit that 25%-35% sweet spot…

As exciting as rapid growth seems, it’s no longer the tech norm, especially in SA.

Buyers are looking long-term and favouring moderate growth companies because they imply lower risk and more predictable returns (fast growers often struggle with cash flow issues, operational inefficiencies or even market saturation).

So, what’s the play?

It’s to realise that growth and value are a strategic toolset: Learn to use them and you could engineer a more significant upside for everyone.

Focus on developing a strategy that balances expansion with strong financial management – organic growth through customer retention and gradual market expansion can be more valuable than overly aggressive scaling.

Where to start? Begin by knowing your business’s current value.

And, as an Open Letter reader, you get yours for free.

Get started with a free express valuation →

DON’T MISS THIS

Coming Up in SA’s Most Vibrant Tech Founder Network

Next up in our members-only founder network — The Open Collab.

23 May 12:000 — Business Value AMA: Using business valuation as a strategic growth tool: The secrets to leveraging growth no one tells you with Graham Stephan from bizval.

29 May 12:000 — Dos and Don’ts of Early-Stage Startup Fundraising: Get a breakdown of real fundraising scenarios with convertibles, SAFEs, equity and clauses that make or break your venture future with Jaques Stemmet from venture legal specialists, Dommisse Attorneys — reserve your seat for free.

30 May 12:000 — Power of Storytelling Masterclass: Marketing, driving sales and attracting investment all boils down to your ability to craft and share stories — Jo Eyre from Voxeon gives SA startups the inside track.

PLUS: When you join The Open Collab get access to expert sessions, more than 90 SA founders to network with and weekly online and offline network engagements.

Join The Open Collab

JOBS IN TECH

Career glow-up, anyone?

💎 Personal Business Partner (founder-in-training) @ Jem HR

🏗️ Product Owner @ SiiRA

🧭 Tech Lead @ Red Badger

🎨 Senior Product Designer @ Turn.io

🤳 Content and Social Media Executive @ One&Only Resorts

Hiring? Get in touch, and we will feature it here.

GAME TIME

Riddle us this…

Not pipes from a plant,

Not filters fresh off the shelf

But macadamia nut shells and grit

Clean the water itself.

We work where it's dry,

Where taps may run slow

From village to school,

Which local startup makes clean water go?

WHAT YOU SAID

Speak-a my language…

On Tuesday, we asked how often you switch languages in a conversation, and most do it fluently…

🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 🦎 So often I don’t even realise I’m doing it. (28%)

🟨🟨🟨🟨⬜️⬜️ 👪 Only with certain people, like family and friends. (21%)

🟨🟨🟨🟨⬜️⬜️ 🧱 Rarely. I stick to one unless I really need to switch. (18%)

🟨🟨🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🗣️ I understand more than one, but I only speak one confidently. (15%)

🟨🟨🟨🟨⬜️⬜️ 🤝 I switch languages on purpose as it helps me connect better. (18%)

Your 2 cents…

Ah, but even responding means you understand those, right, Elijah? 🧠

Wait, isn’t Mengels SA’s official language? 😋

And the more languages you know, the more you can mix! 🧪

HOW DID WE DO?

BEFORE YOU GO

Here are 3 Ways We Can Help You

Advertise or Partners — Engage 21k South African professionals that read The Open Letter — partner with us or run an ad campaign — Reply to this email to get started.

Grow with Content — Love The Open Letter? Want to build a newsletter just like that for your brand? Want to grow your brand with content? We can do it for you. Check out Stream.

Startup Community — Join 100+ SA founders in our SA startup founder community called The Open Collab. Weekly online masterclasses, in-person and online meetups and a network like never before.

Until next time,
Elvorne, Renier & Jason

Squad

Powered by beehiiv

‍

Isolating voices? AI translation works well one-on-one, but falls apart in a crowded place with lots of people speaking at once. That’s why a team is working on spatial speech translation using various types of speakers and mics, and an algorithm to translate multiple voices and feed them to you spatially. The code’s also open source for those who want to tinker a bit.

In this Open Letter:

• Smart talk: How AI can double employment in this R53bn SA industry.
• AURA’s big US play, Uber’s bus sharing & ZA’s big sporting winners.
• SA dev salaries, AI startup ideas & must-listen founder podcasts.
• Recognised SA’s hospital-at-home startup? The results are in.
• Lonely building your startup? Join The Open Collab and get support.

📢  Johannesburg Founders & Scale-Up Leaders: This Is The Moment You've Been Waiting For

You’ve built something great, but now it’s getting chaotic. Daily fires. Team issues. Missed opportunities. You know you need a better system to scale with clarity and control. The Path to Scale Bootcamp is your way out of the chaos.

Over two transformative days, you’ll get:

✅ The 12 Laws of Scale to break through growth constraints

✅ A clear diagnosis of your business bottlenecks + a structured system to scale sustainably

✅ A leadership playbook to align your team and drive execution

…and much more!

📅 27–28 May 2025

📍 Edge Growth, Hyde Park, Johannesburg

You can scale with clarity and control using the Art of Scale.

Get Tickets Now →

TRENDING NOW

The Automation Powering this R53 billion SA Industry

In today’s Tuesday deep dive, we unpack SA’s R billions-strong BPO employment machine, and showcase a startup helping SA become more competitive…

Call centres are quietly becoming a massive economic opportunity for SA.

In 2024, SA’s Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) industry generated R53 billion in revenue, nearly triple the value from 2019 (and about half the size of SA’s tourism and agriculture industries).

During the same 5-year period, it doubled employment from 65k to 150k jobs in 2024.

About 100k of those jobs serve international clients, bringing in about R35 billion per year, earning SA the distinction of becoming global BPO advisors Ryan Strategic Advisory’s second most attractive BPO destination in the world.

Today, over 100 international firms, including Amazon, Google, Microsoft and many Fortune 500 companies, run BPO through SA.

Why? Well, SA has a large pool of educated, English-speaking youth who routinely get ~18% higher customer experience ratings than traditional BPO providers in India and the Philippines.

SA itself is investing heavily in this sector, setting itself a goal of increasing employment to 500k by 2030 — one McKinsey analysis suggests it could be closer to 775k new jobs by 2030, if SA plays its cards right.

At which point revenue will grow to $8–$19 billion (R140–R180 bn, eclipsing even agriculture). So, how does SA claim this opportunity?

Speaking the right language

When it comes to BPO excellence, quality and compliance are the cornerstones. And at scale, AI can do a really great job at ensuring everyone sticks to the rules and the quality of services meets expectations.

But that means the AI listening needs to get Koos’s thick Afrikaans accent and catch what he’s saying if he hits up an Afrikaans customer on the other side.

‍

Get it right here, and you might be onto something. SA has 12 official languages (in third place behind Bolivia with 37 languages and India with 22) and there are several countries where this is common.

Enter a local startup tackling this head-on…

The local startup adding quality to your support calls

Botlhale AI is a local startup building the linguistic infrastructure for South Africa’s digital economy. Starting with SA’s own languages and a few African ones, they’ve built a suite of products to help SA call centres understand and measure performance in many languages on the phone, via chat, or through voice-enabled platforms.

Their products include Vela, a multilingual call analytics engine designed specifically for South African call centres. It can detect language shifts mid-call, transcribe noisy, low-resolution audio, and surface insights beyond basic keyword flags (like identifying repeat calls and the reasons behind them). 

When we chatted to Botlhale Co-Founder Thapelo Nthite recently, he shared that it’s built for the reality of how South Africans actually speak: switching between languages, speaking informally, and often in less-than-ideal conditions (loud call centres, spotty cell phone reception, etc).

And, of course, the big aim with this is learning the nuances to be able to onboard new languages super fast, definitely branching out into more African languages and maybe even tackling the big international ones – why not if Fortune 500s want SA over India?

Beyond call centres, Botlhale has developed a broader suite of tools under the Bua product line. These include a chatbot builder using a library of prebuilt conversation templates, a multilingual help desk with live chat translation, and APIs for developers to build their own speech-enabled solutions. 

Botlhale were recently crowned Innovation City’s Startup of the Year 2025, a well-deserved title, for a potentially game-changing solution.

‍

IN SHORT

Tech headlines to quote at your leisure…

🚨 +273 million AURA. ZA-born on-demand security response platform AURA has landed R273 million in a Series B funding round co-led by the Cathay AfricInvest Innovation Fund (CAIF) and Partech. The funds will help fuel their expansion into the US, and drive their mission to make access to life-saving services seamless, borderless. Well done, Warren and team.

🚐 Get on the Bus. Uber is launching its own version of a bus system in key US cities this week, including New York City, San Francisco, Chicago, Philadelphia, Dallas, Boston, and Baltimore. The “Route Share” option will be available from 6 to 8AM and 4 to 8PM local time, and will cost “up to 50% less than UberX”. Very interesting.

🛒 Cars to Cart. WeBuyCars is shipping more than 15’000 cars a month from its supermarkets and buying pods nationwide. And it’s planning to up that to 23’000 cars monthly by 2028 via its physical infrastructure. In the six months before 31 March, WeBuyCars added 10 new buying pods and 1 supermarket, with 2 facilities with a vehicle capacity of 1’300 each coming by the end of this year in Gauteng & the WC.

🇿🇦 No DNA, just RSA. Africa’s first-ever winner of the World’s Strongest Man title is bringing the title home to SA. Rayno Nel beat multiple former winners and was the first rookie to lift the title since 1997. SA was also crowned U-20 Africa Cup of Nations Winners, beating Morocco 1-0. All this hot off the heels of “The sub-10 king” Akani Simbine breaking Usain Bolt's record of running sub-10 seconds in the 100m for 11 consecutive years last month. Lekka man.

😎 The Stack. Founders need tools and suppliers they can trust. Check out our Founder’s Stack with insane lead-gen and conversion optimisation by Stream, 90% off your first 6 months’ accounting with Xero, plus loads more vital startup tools & services.

FOUNDER’S CORNER

3 Tips for Business Builders

Brought to you by Lula — Fast, simple business funding

Startup Ideas You Can Now Build Because of AI. There are a bunch of startup ideas that could never work until now. In this video by Y Combinator, they unpack several startup ideas that are now viable because of AI. Go build one and let us know, we’d love to feature it.

How Much Should You Pay Those Devs? OfferZen, SA’s largest marketplace of software developers, released its annual state of the developer nation report. In it, they unpack the most popular tech stacks, developer salaries, what makes devs stay and much more. Grab it here.

Do You Podcast? Get the best tips and insights from local and international entrepreneurs from this list of 6 Must-Listen Podcasts for SA Entrepreneurs. 

BUILDING TOGETHER

Happening over at The Open Collab

22 May 18:00 — In-Person Event, Cape Town: Come meet everyone as we all get together at Innovation City for networking, refreshments and a fireside chat with two SA founders who raised over R1 billion each this year alone — get your tickets (use code OPENLETTER50 for a special reader discount).

23 May 12:000 — Business Value AMA: Using business valuation as a strategic growth tool: The secrets to leveraging growth no one tells you with Graham Stephan from bizval.

30 May 12:000 — Power of Storytelling Masterclass: Marketing, driving sales and attracting investment all boils down to your ability to craft and share stories — Jo Eyre from Voxeon gives SA startups the inside track.

Thinking about joining The Open Collab?

• Supercharge your network in the SA startup landscape — get that introduction, get that customer, or meet that partner.
• Get feedback on your products, services and/or offers from others who have built and are building their own products right now.
• Join all our online and in-person events for free!
• Exclusive 1-on-1 sessions with startup consultants.

SA’s only dedicated tech startup and scale-up founder network.

Join The Open Collab Today →

WHAT YOU SAID

Good medicine…

Last Friday, we gave you three made-up SA startups and one real one, and most people recognised Quro Medical…

🟨🟨🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🛏️ Carebnb: Turns local B&Bs into pop-up clinics during flu season. (26%)

🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 💉 MediNest: Uses drones to deliver vaccines to rural schools. (15%)

🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 📡 Quro Medical: Offers hospital-at-home care with real-time remote monitoring. (44%)

🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 📋 PulseCheckr: AI-powered clipboards for nurses to automate vitals tracking. (15%)

Your 2 cents…

Ah shucks, H, we’re very glad you like it and are still planning on doing big things in the SA tech space 🚀.

HOW DID WE DO?

BEFORE YOU GO

Here are 3 Ways We Can Help You

Advertise or Partners — Engage 23k South African professionals that read The Open Letter - partner with us or run an ad campaign — Reply to this email to get started.

Grow with Content — Love The Open Letter? Want to build a newsletter just like that for your brand? Want to grow your brand with content? We can do it for you. Check out Stream.

Startup Community — Join 100+ SA founders in our SA startup founder community called The Open Collab. Weekly online masterclasses, in-person and online meetups and a network like never before.

Until next time,
Elvorne, Renier & Jason

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Tiny furniture? If you’ve ever dreamt of LEGO text-to-model capability, check out LegoGPT, the first tool to generate “stable” (meaning so accurate, a robot can actually build straight from your design) LEGO models from your prompts. It can even add colours and cool textures — try it yourself here.

But first, it’s time for another great Fast-Five Friday — 5 things in startup and tech you should know, in 5 minutes. Let’s go…

Hey Cape Town, Come Ask The Hard Questions

By now, most people know we’re bringing a fireside chat with two of SA’s top FinTechs on the 22nd of May, but no one knows we secretly organised some side panels where you can come and ask top experts your questions.

So at our event on the 22nd, you can either:

✅ Join the venture-building and scaling session with Heinrich de Lange from Octoco and Matt Beck from OfferZen.

✅ Join the Funraising panel with Egla Ntumba from Misift Ventures, Christiaan Jacobs from Ocfo and Jacques Stemmet from Dommisse.

✅ Join the networking session where you will hang out with 55+ founders, 15+ investors and 40+ corporate leaders.

One thing, tickets are going fast, and we are almost sold out. Don’t delay, get them now (use OPENLETTER50 to get a sweet R50 discount).

Buy Tickets Now →

In-person. It’s just better.

1. SUPPORT YOU NEED

Connecting the payment dots

Africa’s $317.0 billion (2024) e-commerce market is projected to triple to $1 trillion by 2033 (a CAGR of 13.8%). And SA’s Top 5 e-commerce stores generate 51% of the net sales. Meaning by then, your smaller local e-commerce players will deliver half a trillion in e-commerce spend. 

Now, payments are super complex, and SA e-commerce is already losing R20 billion a year to cart abandonment (CX Report 2024), which is why big players like Takealot have entire payment ops teams ensuring everything runs smoothly.

In fact, where most would have maybe only one PSP (Peach, Paystack, etc.), the big guys might have ops teams running decision-making on which PSP route is most optimal for every type of transaction.

Your smaller e-commerce player can’t do that, which is where Njiapay comes in. 

They help small to medium-sized online businesses with a payment-as-a-service solution that does what the big guys do:

• gives them a single, UI/UX optimised and unified checkout that connects to all the payment service providers and methods their customers trust
• uses intelligence to route to the best-performing payment option
• and then consolidates reporting across the different channels

Plus: fraud, analytics, 3DS, pay-by-link, and so much more. 

Like giving the little guy the power of a big retailer – no wonder Njiapay closed A $1 million pre-seed funding round led by HAVAÍC earlier this year. And with Africa's e-commerce growing, we think they are onto something!

2. WASTE NOT, WANT NOT

Something nice, at half the price

South Africa wastes about 10 million tonnes of food each year – a third of our entire annual local production. 

And local start-up Refreshi is trying to change that by giving app users access to heavily discounted baked goods, sweet treats, fruits, veggies and even cheese from nearby bakeries and grocery stores.

Stores make up a mixed bag of items towards the end of the day, pop it on the app, and nearby users can lock in an order and collect it on their way home from work.

As a bonus, the app also shows you how much money, water, land usage and CO2 you’ve helped save and avoid with your purchases.

While it’s still early days (currently only going in Cape Town), we’re watching this space.

3. LACE UP

Wanna run into other founders?

Running is great for clearing your head – just 2 days a week significantly reduces stress.

Add in some fresh air, a bit of routine and the camaraderie of running with a few lekker founders and startup builders, and you could find yourself a little more zen, and a whole lot more motivated.

Founders Running Club is a great way to meet other peeps who are building, scaling, investing or just figuring things out in their local startup ecosystem. And SA has our very own chapter in the Mother City.

Every Saturday at 08:30 in winter (or Thursdays at 17:30 in summer), FRC-CT runs (or walks) along the Atlantic Seaboard with either a 5km jog or a 3km walk, if that’s more your speed, followed by some networking afterwards. 

So, whether you’re burning calories or discussing your burn rate, check out FRC Cape Town.

‍

4. FROM THE OPEN COLLAB COMMUNITY

Addressing the unaddressed…

Some at the UN say as many as 4 billion people (phew, that’s half the globe!) do not have a formal address – the bulk of which are in Africa, Asia and South America.

And without an address, they’re literally off the map. 

They can't get a bank loan, or open an account, they can't legally run a business, have no voting rights or access to public utility services and in general struggle to participate in the economy (how is a courier going to find their house with no address?).

OkHi is an AI-powered smart address system providing a fully digital proof of address, using something a significant chunk of people do have access to, a smartphone...

Businesses can integrate OkHi’s mobile SDK (Software Development Kit) directly into their own app to collect and verify their customers’ addresses using movement and location data from their smartphones combined with custom AI models. Fancy stuff.

‍

Come join other startup builders like Roger Norton, Chief Product Officer at OkHi, in The Open Collab. Let’s solve real problems together.

5. INTERESTING STARTUP ABROAD

The canary in your kitchen

Our buildings are designed to keep the weather out. Problem is they also keep the rebreathed air (your and others’ breath) locked in. Gross.

This not-so-fresh air can cause anything from nausea, dizziness and sinus congestion, to dry throat, fatigue, and headache.

Birdie is a fresh air monitor made from recycled plastic and equipped with a state-of-the-art, Swiss-made (so you know it’s good) CO2 sensor to help remind people to let fresh air in (should be 2 or 3 times a day).

And if you ever heard about the coalmines of old that took canaries in cages down the mineshaft to detect toxic gases (if it passed out, it was time to skeddaddle back up to the surface), Birdie works the same way.

When air quality is poor, Birdie drops down until you open up some windows and let the fresh air in, bringing Birdie back to life. Cute man.

IN SHORT

Well-timed headlines to carry a whole convo…

🐺 Wolfing it up. Local WhatsApp-based public safety platform Community Wolf has landed a cool R8.3 million investment led by Fuel Ventures. The investment is to boost the development and distribution of the platform, including expanded marketing efforts.

🇿🇦 Flying the flag. The Financial Times has released its list of Africa's Fastest-Growing Companies 2025. South Africa and Nigeria make up more than half the list, with South Africa adding 51 companies. Compiled with Statista, the list ranks businesses on their compound growth rate between 2020 and 2023. Lekker man.

🤳 Spar Enters the Chat. Spar Mobile is the latest addition to the South African MVNO landscape. The retailer will piggyback off the MTN network, giving customers “free data” every time they shop. Swipe to swipe — nice.

🕊️ Celebrate Good Times. Happy Tax Freedom Day, the day when the Average South African has worked their tax bill in full, and can start earning for themselves. It fell on the 16th of May last year, so who knows where it will fall this year? Check out the interesting table of when TFD was each year for the last 30 years.

😎 The Stack. Founders need tools and suppliers they can trust. Check out our Founder’s Stack with all your tech recruitment streamlined and automated by Offerzen, zero-monthly-fee bank accounts and business loans in 4 minutes from Lula, plus loads more vital startup tools & services.

CHECK THIS OUT

Still Doing Everything Manually? It’s Time to Change That

Is your team still spending time chasing numbers, juggling spreadsheets, and dealing with endless admin tasks? If this sounds familiar, you're not just wasting time, you’re missing opportunities.

When your systems aren’t connected, your business can feel like it’s operating in silos. Data isn’t flowing the way it should, and processes are fragmented. The solution? Automation.

Here’s the game-changer:

By automating your core business functions, you eliminate inefficiencies, reduce the risk of errors, and gain real-time visibility into what’s really happening across your operations.

So why should you make the switch?

✅ Less admin, more doing – Automate repetitive tasks and let your team focus on driving growth and innovation. No more wasting hours on manual data entry and reconciliation.
✅ Real-time clarity – Stop waiting for reports to catch up. With automated systems, you’ll have access to live data that allows you to make informed decisions – fast.
✅ Fewer mistakes – Automation removes the human error factor, helping your business stay on track with accurate, up-to-date numbers.

A Smarter Way to Run Your Business

By putting the right systems in place, you’re not just cutting down on admin, you’re building a scalable foundation for sustainable growth.

With the correct systems, integration and automation in place, your team can be more productive, your data more accurate, and your business more agile. When the functions of your business are connected and effectively automated, you get back the time you need to focus on what really matters: growing your business.

🚀 Ready to streamline your operations and boost efficiency? Book a free session with OCFO today.

Claim your free session now

DON’T MISS THIS

Coming Up in SA’s Most Vibrant Tech Founder Network

Next up in our members-only founder network — The Open Collab.

16 May 12:00 — The Path to Scale Masterclass, Pt. 2: The science of success: Discover the hidden pitfalls and proven growth tools for every stage with Jason Goldberg, Art of Scale author and co-founder of Edge Growth — join The Open Collab to attend.

22 May 18:000 — In-Person Event, Cape Town: Come meet everyone as we all get together at Innovation City for networking, refreshments and a fireside chat with two SA founders who raised over R1 billion each this year alone — get your tickets (use code OPENLETTER50 for a special reader discount).

23 May 12:000 — Business Value AMA: Using business valuation as a strategic growth tool: The secrets to leveraging growth no one tells you with Graham Stephan from bizval.

PLUS: When you join The Open Collab get access to expert sessions, more than 100 SA founders to network with and weekly online and offline network engagements.

Join The Open Collab

JOBS IN TECH

Some of our friends are hiring. Noah person who fits the brief?

🚢 Product Lead for BOOST @ Sanlam

👨‍💻 Senior Network Engineer – Access & Last Mile (Team Lead) @ fibertime™

🎨 Head of Design @ Flood

🛰️ Engineering Manager @ CubeSpace ADCS

💰 Financial Manager @ MOYO

Hiring? Get in touch, and we will feature it here.

GAME TIME

Three ZA startup lies and a truth

Only one of these South African startups is real.

WHAT YOU SAID

Time to get paid…

On Tuesday, we asked about the most important AI tool for SMEs, and most favour automated collections…

🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 🧾 Automated invoicing & bookkeeping (32%)

🟨🟨🟨🟨⬜️⬜️ 🗂️ Document processing & data extraction (24%)

🟨🟨🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️ 💬 Customer support chatbots (15%)

🟨🟨🟨🟨🟨⬜️ 📈 Sales & lead scoring tools (27%)

⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🐙 AI-powered mood tracker (2%)

Your 2 cents…

Phew, ja that’ll certainly turn SMEs into powerhouses, Grace 💪.

Unlocking better fin relations and trust with providers, lekker one, Nkadimeng 💸.

Oh, yes, we can all do with a little more proper pipeline, Jabud 🚀.

Ha ha, no for sure, William — fastest way to chase your customers away that ⛔.

HOW DID WE DO?

BEFORE YOU GO

Here are 3 Ways We Can Help You

Advertise or Partners — Engage 23k South African professionals that read The Open Letter — partner with us or run an ad campaign — Reply to this email to get started.

Grow with Content — Love The Open Letter? Want to build a newsletter just like that for your brand? Want to grow your brand with content? We can do it for you. Check out Stream.

Startup Community — Join 100+ SA founders in our SA startup founder community called The Open Collab. Weekly online masterclasses, in-person and online meetups and a network like never before.

Until next time,
Elvorne, Renier & Jason

Squad

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Stealing wind? European energy producers are battling headwinds as new research shows the impact of the “wind theft” phenomenon. Basically, with so many wind farms popping up and each blade robbing a tiny bit of energy from the breeze, it’s reducing natural wind power in a wake that stretches almost 100km behind it, successively robbing about 10% of efficiency from every turbine in that wake. Wild!

In this Open Letter:

• Game changer: SA’s new AI marketplace putting SMEs on the AI map.
• SA’s record coding signups, mapping the moon & pricier iPhones.
• Growing with grants, scaling in Joburg & lekker brand naming tools.
• Using AR to teach new languages? The poll results are in.
• Lonely building your startup? Join The Open Collab and get support.

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Startups need every advantage to help them move smarter, faster. And what better way than to automate the basics?

That’s why we love a good cloud-accounting solution: Xero lets you track cash flow, claim expenses, send invoices and run your business from anywhere.

We love how it allows integrations through API and tools like Zapier and Make.com, making it super simple for even non-techies to automate accounting tasks.

And now Open Letter readers get 90% off their first 6 months with Xero – but only via our official link (no promo code needed).

Claim my 90% off now →

Xero — Cloud Accounting for SMEs and Beyond.

TRENDING NOW

Cutting Local SMEs a Slice of the $4 Trillion AI Pie

Where do SA companies get enterprise-grade AI solutions? And where do SA developers sell them? This new AI marketplace is looking to change SA’s AI game…

Does anyone even remember a world without AI…?

It’s a major market: The UK alone has seen a 600% increase in AI companies in the last decade, double that of any other European nation, but still nowhere near the US and China investment levels.

Here’s where the global AI cash is really flowing…

Instagram post by @visualcap

And why not? Predictions for the global AI market value are anywhere between $2.6–$4.4 trillion (McKinsey), $4.8 trillion (UN) and up to $15.7 trillion (PwC).

But, there’s a problem: Africa is falling behind. In 2024, the continent attracted less than 1% of the global AI venture funding. 

Weird, it seems like everyone’s using AI these days. So what gives?

The challenges of adopting AI…

Companies face a myriad of reasons why they can’t simply just incorporate AI into their business.

Everything from concerns around data accuracy or bias, insufficient proprietary data available to train and customise models, insufficient business case or a financial justification, and inadequate AI experience.

Not to mention the meaty price tag linked to building your own custom AI solution in-house. 

On the other hand, South Africa’s IT skills shortage means most larger local companies are importing AI skills, or simply going without it. But if the guys with deep pockets are finding it hard to access top AI talent pools, just imagine what it must be like for an SME that’s simply trying to get things done a little better.

‍

The AI tools they need

For SA SMEs, we’re not even talking about massive custom AI tools and platforms to change the game and obliterate the competition (although that would be pretty cool), we’re talking basic things like AI-powered translators, chatbots, document extraction and validation, verification tools and things that can replace archaic, manual processes. 

How do we get every SA business AI-empowered? 

The local player getting the little guy into the AI game

Highwind is a local AI product marketplace that gives small businesses access to enterprise-level AI solutions at a fraction of the price, and without having to hire an AI team.

From solutions to help cut costs, automate workflows and use data to make smarter decisions, they’re trying to make it as easy as possible for SMEs to integrate and deploy AI tools that are vetted, verified and do what it says on the box (to protect the users and their customers). 

There are already several unique solutions on the Highwind marketplace, many already proven and in use by SA companies in finance, healthcare, legal, logistics, manufacturing, retail and technology. But companies looking for a unique solution can also make a request, and the Highwind team can help get it built. Lekker!  

Naturally, this creates two immediate opportunities for South Africans:

• SA companies, come get your AI tools here
• And, AI founders, here’s a place to build and launch products

We recently chatted to Highwind and Melio AI (the AI consulting firm behind Highwind) Co-Founder, Merelda Wu, and she shared how the hidden costs of trying to build and implement your own custom AI solution can reach eye-watering amounts, the kind that puts it out of reach for many organisations, never mind small to medium-sized ones.  

With platforms like Highwind making it more accessible for SMEs to integrate enterprise-grade AI solutions into their businesses, we’re watching this space…

CHECK THIS OUT

Is Your Business Global-Ready?

In March, the Isle of Man Indaba dropped a quiet warning into SA’s startup ecosystem — and almost immediately, US President Trump’s wave of tariffs rattled international markets, disrupted export-reliant sectors and reminded business owners everywhere that global politics can shift overnight. 

South Africa is hardly immune: Remember our massive tariffs and Trump’s X war with SA in Feb this year?

If you think this kind of thing only affects governments, think again.

• Automotive and agri-exports are in the firing line, threatening jobs and local manufacturers.
• Investor confidence is taking a hit as SA’s global alliances fray.
• Raising capital is harder when your home country is on diplomatic watchlists.

For South African founders with global ambitions, the message is clear: You can’t afford to assume the world will always be on your side. A 100% local structure exposes you to currency risk, tax shocks and regulatory dead ends. Not to mention how it could impact your ability to expand.

Our playbook to help SA founders remain global-ready

1. Protect your value early

Political shocks. Currency swings. Unfriendly regimes. A well-positioned international holding company (like in the Isle of Man) can act as a vault, keeping your core assets, especially IP, safe and accessible.

2. Give investors what they need

Capital is scarce, and investors don’t fund risk. They fund clarity. A clean, globally aligned structure makes due diligence easier, sets you up for exits, and signals professionalism.

3. Keep your growth gains

SA’s tax drag is real. The Isle of Man’s zero dividend tax, no capital gains, and pro-business climate give you more control over your profits and how they’re reinvested.

Bottom line: if you’re building something global, you can’t rely on local conditions to stay stable. It’s time to think internationally — before you’re forced to.

See how Finance Isle of Man can help →

IN SHORT

Tech a few things with you…

🚀 Coding Rocketship. More than 217’000 learners have enrolled for the 2025 FNB App Academy, more than 12 times the number of participants in 2023, making it Africa’s biggest free digital skills program. The 9-week coding bootcamp covers hands-on coding, problem-solving, and UX design training at NQF 5 level. VERY nice.

🌕 Moon Maps. Just in case you were getting worried that you might get lost on the lunar surface, fear not. A Spanish tech company, in conjunction with the European Space Agency, is working on a GPS-like system for the moon called Lupin, testing new positioning, navigation and timing techniques. Phew. Katy Perry must be relieved.

🤕 iPhone Pain. Apple is planning on bumping up the prices on its range of iPhones coming out later this year, but instead of blaming Trump tariffs (these are on hold for 90 days, by the way), they’re linking it to new features and designs. Still, Ouch.

🛺 Catching Up? They might’ve been a tad late to the home delivery party, but Spar’s groceries-on-demand service Spar2U isn’t slowing down — having grown from just 87 sites in July 2022 to over 500 today. And with its KasiD and Delivery KA Speed collaboration, it might be worth keeping an eye on…

😎 The Stack. Founders need tools and suppliers they can trust. Check out our Founder’s Stack with easy-peasy business valuations with bizval, hardware, software, acceleration and funding for remarkable builds with Octoco and loads more vital startup tools & services.

FOUNDER’S CORNER

3 Tips for Business Builders

Brought to you by Stream — use content to build a strong funnel for your B2B scale-up.

Grow with grants. The South African Government has a few programs that support early-stage startups through the provision of grants (often cash) and, in many cases, do not expect much back in return. It could be a pain to get, but we have heard of many startups using this as a way to fund the business in the early days. A summary of some of the grants can be found here.

Calling all Johannesburg founders and scale-up leaders: If growth has turned into chaos — daily fires, misaligned teams, and missed opportunities — the Path to Scale Bootcamp is your reset button. It’s happening 27–28 May at Edge Growth in Hyde Park for two focused days of clarity and structure. You’ll unpack the 12 Laws of Scale, diagnose your bottlenecks, build a sustainable growth system, and walk away with a leadership playbook and six months of access to ArtofScale.io — plus a copy of The Art of Scale by Jason Goldberg. It’s time to scale with intention. Tickets here.

The most NB part of your startup name. Only one metric matters: Does your name enable people to talk about your startup? There are plenty of great tools: Namelix blends words creatively, Squadhelp lets you crowdsource a name and Govchain lets you simultaneously search the company registry to ensure it’s actually available and officially register it with CIPC at the same time — try their name search here.

BUILDING TOGETHER

Happening over at The Open Collab

16 May 12:00 — The Path to Scale Masterclass, Pt. 2: The science of success: Discover the hidden pitfalls and proven growth tools for every stage with Jason Goldberg, Art of Scale author and co-founder of Edge Growth — join The Open Collab to attend.

22 May 18:00 — In-Person Event, Cape Town: Come meet everyone as we all get together at Innovation City for networking, refreshments and a fireside chat with two SA founders who raised over R1 billion each this year alone — get your tickets (use code OPENLETTER50 for a special reader discount). Open Collab members get in for free.

23 May 12:00 — Business AMA: Using business valuation as a strategic growth tool: The secrets to leveraging growth no one tells you, with Graham Stephan from Bizval — exclusive to Open Collab members.

Thinking about joining The Open Collab?

• Supercharge your network in the SA startup landscape — get that introduction, get that customer, or meet that partner.
• Get feedback on your products, services and/or offers from others who have built and are building their own products right now.
• Join all our online and in-person events for free!
• Exclusive 1-on-1 sessions with startup consultants.

SA’s only dedicated tech startup and scale-up founder network.

Join The Open Collab Today →

WHAT YOU SAID

Pumping iron…

Last Friday, we riddled you about an SA startup using AR for language learning, and quite a few recognised Ambani Africa...

🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🧠 Thinki (12%)

🟨🟨🟨🟨⬜️⬜️ 🎓 TeachAR (38%)

🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 📚 Ambani Africa (50%)

⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 👩‍🏫 linguileARn (0)

HOW DID WE DO?

BEFORE YOU GO

Here are 3 Ways We Can Help You

Advertise or Partners — 23k South African professionals that read The Open Letter: partner with us or run an ad campaign — Reply to this email to get started.

Grow with Content — Love The Open Letter? Want to build a newsletter just like that for your brand? Want to grow your brand with content? We can do it for you. Check out Stream.

Startup Community — Join 100+ SA founders in our SA startup founder community called The Open Collab. Weekly online masterclasses, in-person and online meetups and a network like never before.

Until next time,
Elvorne, Renier & Jason

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‍

On his 99th birthday (yesterday), David Attenborough released the trailer for Ocean, a new documentary about preserving our oceans. A sensitive subject, since most Western countries, including SA, have strict quotas, while Chinese and many other Asian and South American companies still overfish routinely (often government subsidised, nogal).

And the almost-centenarian Attenborough reminds us that our oceans = life as we know it. And we can’t think of a better way to close off 99 years of exploring life on our planet. 🫡

Last Chance for The Early Birds

Coming up on 22 May, we will be hosting our first Cape Town in-person event for the year. The event will feature:

• A main panel with Trevor Gosling, co-founder and CEO of Lula, and Kiaan Pillay, co-founder and CEO of Stitch.
• Breakout sessions on fundraising and early-stage venture building.
• Networking with the top startup builders and operators in town.

Get your tickets now, early bird ticket sale ends today, PLUS use OPENLETTER50 to get an additional R50 off, exclusive to readers of The Open Letter.

Buy Tickets Now →

1. EARLY DAYS

Keeping the rideshare wheels turning

It’s getting more expensive for rideshare drivers like Uber and Bolt to operate (fuel alone can hit anywhere between R3’000–R6’000 per month). And drivers using a car owned by someone else need to cover their monthly “fee/instalment” before they can even start earning for themselves.

This puts drivers in a catch-22: They need to be driving to make money, but need to work smart with that money (for fuel) to keep the wheels turning.

The Brown Fuel Card is setting out to help these drivers out.

Their free Fuel Card provides loans for fuel to ridesharing drivers for between R1’000 and R5’000, with a 30-day repayment at 5% interest to take the bite out of filling up when income has been a little tight. We’re watching this space.

2. GET IN THE GAME

Love me (a) tender

Government tenders are a pretty big deal in SA. It’s also a great way for the government to lean on private sector expertise to get stuff done. And, all controversies aside, tenders can be a great first step for an SMME to get their foot in the door and some runs on the board.

That’s why we found the SA Government Tenders Database super interesting.

You can view all (1’500+) active tenders, see what’s been awarded, how many tenders (and their values per province), who’s got tenders out (Eskom leading the way by far with 202 advertised, with SANRAL having awarded the most – a juicy R26 billion).

It was built by Karl-Alexander Meier Mattern, the same person who brought us SA’s economic “cheatsheet” we featured in a previous FFF a couple of weeks ago. Lekker man.

3. FROM THE OPEN COLLAB COMMUNITY

A warmer way to cold email?

The average open rate for cold emails varies between 15% and 25%, with SaaS and business consulting emails falling to the lower end. But what if there was a better way to engage on email?

Studio-4U is a video-led email marketing service that trades walls of text for something more human: a real person on video (after all, we process videos 66’000 times faster), repping your brand, tailored to your audience.

It works like this:

• They research and script your campaign.
• You pick a video rep.
• They film short, branded clips to slot into your outbound flow.
• Your prospects get personalised intros, better context and someone warm to connect with, even before a sales call ever happens.
• You get detailed reports on who's opened the email, clicked the links and watched the intro video.

Studio-4U says they boost open rates up to 60–70%. And founder Ben Goodwin says they even have a cool quiz you can take right now to learn how to increase your B2B sales. Yes please!

Come build alongside SA founders like Ben from Studio-4U by joining our dedicated SA tech founder community: The Open Collab.

4. GUESS WHO’S BACK (MAYBE)?

A salute to those gone before us

Despite the African continent experiencing a bit of a funding winter (only 200 startups raised a total of $1.1 billion in 2024, down from the 406 that raised $2.4 billion the year before), African builders and innovators are never in short supply.

But sometimes those ideas just run out of juice: be it funding, passion or even just bad luck.

The Startup Graveyard Africa is a platform we recently stumbled across that showcases startups that closed their doors. Wait, before you bash us, it’s not a shaming exercise, each listing features detailed info on the startup and the untold stories of why they didn’t make it. 

With mega-handy filters, like industries, years and countries, it’s actually a great tool for builders to learn from those that came before. We can honestly see founders stumbling onto great ideas, using the platform to learn from past mistakes and building Africa’s next Unicorn.

Kudos to founder Kelvin Gobo for having the confidence to put this out there.

‍

5. BUT IS IT REAL?

Superbike for the skies?

The internet has been abuzz with speculation about this Polish-invented flying speeder-like bike straight out of the Star Wars universe. The Volonaut Airbike is apparently a jet-powered, single-occupant “superbike for the skies” that can hit speeds of up to 200km/h (the website claims).

The problem? The company gives zero info on how it works and shows no footage of take-off, landing or manoeuvring, young Padawan, leaving many people calling it fake or AI-generated. Many couch analysts on YouTube agree, but one personal mobility expert seems to think it’s the real deal, speculating that it’s likely gas-turbine powered and probably extremely loud in reality (flight sound is drowned out in the video).

Now, we know Dubai’s jet suit racing is real, but you don’t have all the jets placed under your centre of mass there, so the Volonaut would have to be something closer to the Williams X-Jet from the 1970s that was ditched after the US Army refused to buy it.

Maybe the world’s ready for something like this now, though? That’s if it’s real, of course. What do you think? Our verdict: If it’s not real, why would you design it to look like you’re riding a wheelchair/sky-toilet?

IN SHORT

Serve hot takes, without the homework….

🧟‍♂️ Not Dead Yet. Gotta hand it to the South African Post Office: they’ve got big plans to become digitally connected and financially stable by 2028. Amongst its key initiatives, it plans on empowering small businesses and delivering essential services to rural and underserved areas. Let’s hope they can deliver.

🤖 Can Touch This. Amazon’s new warehouse robot, the two-armed Vulcan, can apparently “feel” the items it touches thanks to force sensors, a camera and a suction cup, and has already processed 500k orders. What’s with the intense robot names? What about something significantly less sinister, like Steve?

✈️ Breach on Board. South African Airways suffered a “significant cyber incident” on Saturday, 3 May 2025, which disrupted access to the airline’s website, mobile app, and several internal operational systems. The airline immediately activated its disaster management and business continuity protocols, and normal system functionality was restored later the same day.

🏆 Bean to Cup. Two SA coffee shops, Espressolab De Waterkant in The Mother City and The Whippet in Jozi have made it into the 100 best coffee shops in the world, with Espressolab ranking 11th (making it the best coffee shop in Africa), and the Whippet ranking 89th. Hellooo weekend plans.

😎 The Stack. Founders need tools and suppliers they can trust. Check out our Founder’s Stack with all your VC and startup legal sorted by Dommisse Attorneys, your own CFO for a fraction of the cost with OCFO and loads more vital startup tools & services.

CHECK THIS OUT

Dev hiring chaos = tech team death spiral

Find yourself reading too many CVs? Then read this….

Whether you’re scaling a startup or growing a product team, hiring developers shouldn’t drain your time or derail your roadmap.

But somehow, “get one dev onboarded” turns into a month of CV triage, back-to-back calls, and ghosted follow-ups.

It’s a hidden cost and breaks momentum.

OfferZen Embedded gives you hiring muscle — without the overhead:

✅ Access to 100,000+ vetted devs on SA’s biggest tech hiring platform

✅ A premium, end-to-end recruitment partner working inside your stack

✅ Faster hires, no admin drag, zero bad-fit distractions

You build. They hire,

Get OfferZen Embedded Today →

PS want to know just how much hiring is costing you? Use this free hiring cost calculator.

DON’T MISS THIS

Coming Up in SA’s Most Vibrant Tech Founder Network

Next up in our members-only founder network — The Open Collab.

9 May 12:000 — Legal AMA: Term sheet, SAFE notes and legal traps to watch out for when you’re building a venture in South Africa, with the VC legal pros at Dommisse Attorneys — join The Open Collab to attend.

16 May 12:00 — The Path to Scale Masterclass, Pt. 2: The science of success: Discover the hidden pitfalls and proven growth tools for every stage with Jason Goldberg, Art of Scale author and co-founder of Edge Growth — join The Open Collab to attend.

23 May 12:000 — Business AMA: Using business valuation as a strategic growth tool: The secrets to leveraging growth no one tells you with Graham Stephan from Bizval.

PLUS: When you join The Open Collab get access to expert sessions, more than 100 SA founders to network with and weekly online and offline network engagements.

Join The Open Collab →

JOBS IN TECH

Work that works for you.

🧱 Data Product Manager @ Superbalist

🍍 Creative Director @ Pineapple

🏓 Senior Traffic & Production Manager @ Lula

🧑‍💻 React.js Developers at Syneru — download job spec below 👇

Syneru_React_Developer_Job_Listing.pdf

185.25 KB • PDF File

Download

Hiring? Get in touch, and we will feature it here.

GAME TIME

Find zen with today’s ZA startup haiku…

Learning lights the room,

Stories leap through AR worlds,

Play becomes power.

WHAT YOU SAID

Enabling SA business…

On Tuesday, we asked what FinTech tool you’d like to empower businesses, and for most, it’s either better analytics or sales tools…

🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 💸 Make getting paid feel instant and painless (8%)

🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 📊 Turn messy data into money-saving decisions (32%)

🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 🛒 Help small businesses sell like the big guys (32%)

🟨🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🧾 Make tax season feel like a spa day (14%)

🟨🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🏦 Replace boring banks with actual business tools (14%)

HOW DID WE DO?

BEFORE YOU GO

Here are 3 Ways We Can Help You

Advertise or Partners — Engage 23k South African professionals that read The Open Letter - partner with us or run an ad campaign — Reply to this email to get started.

Grow with Content — Love The Open Letter? Want to build a newsletter just like that for your brand? Want to grow your brand with content? We can do it for you. Check out Stream.

Startup Community — Join 100+ SA founders in our SA startup founder community called The Open Collab. Weekly online masterclasses, in-person and online meetups and a network like never before.

Until next time,
Elvorne, Renier & Jason

Squad

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Cruelty-free? An Austrian biotech company looked at those de-extincted dire wolves and decided to skip the Jurassic Park “bring them back” phase and go straight for the money-maker: Announcing they’re developing “real” T-Rex leather for bags, purses, belts, whatever.

We tried phoning some scientists to ask if this is possible, but they couldn’t stop laughing long enough to answer us. 🤷

In this Open Letter:

• SA startup special: How to raise R3bn in funding (by the guys who did it).
• SA’s next president, (still) no Starlink for us & the last days of Skype.
• Fine-tuned skills: Vibe coding to vibe marketing & a better prompt guide.
• Know this SA township energy startup? The results are in.
• Lonely building your startup? Join The Open Collab and get support.

TRENDING NOW

How to Raise R3bn in South Africa

In a very special Tuesday edition, we’re giving you the chance to learn how to raise funding from two founders who’ve raised over R3 billion between them…

Capitec recently became South Africa’s most valuable bank when its R407 billion market capitalisation surpassed FirstRand’s R401 billion for the first time. A milestone driven by strong financial results, including a 66.97% increase in market cap over the past year.

The fascinating tale of arguably South Africa’s most successful digital-era “FinTech” is deepened by stories of the early days as you walk through its birthplace and still-headquarters, Technopark in Stellenbosch. Stories of founders and employees investing everything they had into the dream (there weren’t many VCs with big cheques back in the early 2000s). 

Over the years, those who held onto their early shares were handsomely rewarded as Capitec rose to become the 5th largest company on the JSE by market capitalisation.

Can SA repeat this? 

Financial services play a massive role in developing economies, and there is money to be made as countries grow. While SA has been growing slowly as of late, there’s reason to believe many a well-positioned FinTech could become the next Capitec story. But, just like with Capitec, building a FinTech requires a lot of capital.

While VC funding in Africa seems to have slowed down last year, with African startups securing $2.2 billion in funding (around R40 billion) in 2024, a 25% decline from 2023’s $2.9 billion (around R54 billion), it’s the fintechs that seem to stand out as the ones being able to land the big rounds:

Name

Year of latest raise

Size in $

Tyme

2024

$250 million

Yoco

2021

$83 million

Ozow

2021

$48 million

Peach

2023

$30 million

Precium

2024

$5 million

Lula

2023

$35 million

Stitch

2025

$55 million

And with big raises comes scale. An intensely complicated task, and that’s why our next event in Cape Town is bringing together two exciting FinTech co-founders who’ve raised over R3bn between them: Trevor Gosling (Co-Founder & CEO of Lula) and Kiaan Pillay (Co-Founder & CEO of Stitch), to hear their stories in Cape Town 22 May.

Here is a little preview of what to expect…

Covering a R540 Billion Gap

In 2019, the International Finance Corporation (IFC) estimated that South Africa’s formal MSME (micro and small enterprise) sector faced a R540 billion credit gap, with an additional R432 billion in unmet credit demand from the informal sector. The traditional banks often overlook these small businesses due to rigid criteria, outdated risk models or slow processes.

That’s where Lula stepped in, when it launched 10 years ago, offering funding of up to R5 million to small businesses. But since only 15% (or about half a million) are formalised, a potentially even bigger opportunity is to offer innovative banking solutions to these businesses to help them formalise. That’s why Lula launched a business banking offering with a zero monthly fee option (for those starting out).

The Quiet Engine Powering African FinTech

There’s a paradox at the heart of African FinTech: demand is booming (with some saying Africa is poised to be the fastest-growing Fintech market between 2023 and 2030)... but the infrastructure is patchy at best. 

Every payment, transfer or user verification is a mini war against fragmentation. It’s not that innovation is lacking; it’s that the foundation is a minefield – a major pain point for most founders we talk to in payments across Africa. True story.

Stitch saw that early and launched their counterplay in 2019.

Building the APIs that power everything from bank-to-bank transfers and card payments to user verification, top-ups, payouts and recurring billing, Stitch is on a mission to grow from a payment service provider to a comprehensive payments partner.

For developers, their solutions mean fewer headaches. For businesses, it means faster, cheaper, more secure ways to move money and onboard users.

As other local FinTechs, gig platforms, marketplaces, ecommerce solutions, neobanks and more scale, the need for one unified backend has never been greater. Stitch now powers everything from startup MVPs to enterprise-grade FinTech infrastructure.

Part of a wave of “infrastructure-first” startups, they’re building the rails that cross markets, sectors, and borders. And with FinTech players like Lula and Stitch empowering businesses, we’re watching this space…

Join us in Cape Town for a Fireside Chat with Lula & Stitch

‍

DATE: Thursday, 22 May 2025
TIME: 6-9 PM
VENUE: Innovation City, Darter Road, Longkloof, Gardens, Cape Town, 8001.

We’ll unpack how to navigate funding, product-market fit and regulatory hurdles, what it takes to build trust and credibility with investors and clients alike, and the next big FinTech opportunities from their unique view of the market.

PLUS: We’ll have some bonus side-panels on fundraising, early-stage venture building and great networking opportunities with fellow builders shaping the future of tech in SA.

Early Bird tickets available till Friday + use OPENLETTER50 to get R50 off, an Open Letter exclusive.

Get your tickets here →

CHECK THIS OUT

Is Your Business Name Available?

There’s magic in the perfect name.

We know many founders with successful businesses today who say it was all a pipedream, until the day their partner phoned and said, “We got it”. They’d registered the perfect name for the idea.

Names matter (a lot)

The right name can sharpen your brand, build trust, and create momentum:
📈 77% of consumers say brand name influences their buying decisions
🧠 72% of top-performing brand names are made-up or blended words
💡 Memorable names make hiring easier and reduce marketing spend

But finding a great name that’s actually available (legally and digitally) is harder than it looks.

Make it real

✅ Govchain lets you check legal name availability with their instant name search tool
✅ Spot names that work across domain, social and trademark checks
✅ Register when you’re ready — all online, no manual forms or queueing

If you’ve got a name in mind, it’s worth locking it down.

Check if my name’s available →

IN SHORT

A few quick ones in the tech space…

⚰️ Skype Shelved. After 23 years in the video-calling biz, Skype is getting shelved, with its last day yesterday. Microsoft has created a guide to help users migrate to MS Teams (its Slack rival), which is great if you hate yourself. Can't help but wonder if the move was to consolidate users into Teams.

🛒 Jozi you ok? Research by the PMBEJD shows that when it comes to groceries, Joburg is the most expensive out of the metros, with a monthly basket coming in at R5’559,46, which is R134,23 more expensive than Cape Town. So much for mountain tax…

🛰️ Hook it up. The Democratic Republic of Congo has just become the latest African country to get itself some of that sweet Starlink high-speed satellite internets. Despite having previously blocked the company from operating, the DRC announced that Starlink DRC will start providing services to its 115 million citizens in “the coming days”.

⏱️ Buffett Calls Time. Warren Buffett is stepping down from Berkshire Hathaway Inc. at the age of 94. Greg Abel, the vice chairman for non-insurance operations for the $1.16 trillion company, is set to take over the reins, with many shocked at Saturday’s announcement at the company’s annual shareholder meeting. What will you be doing at 94?

🗳️ Patrice 4 Prez? Some senior ANC members are already throwing their weight behind billionaire businessman Patrice Motsepe to step into the political arena and stand as SA’s next presidential candidate. But with the next ANC National Conference only in 2027, there’s still a lot of water to flow under the bridge. Interesting…

😎 The Stack. Founders need tools and suppliers they can trust. Check out our Founder’s Stack with all your business registration and compliance automated by Govchain, 90% off your first 6 months’ accounting with Xero, plus loads more vital startup tools & services.

BUILDER’S CORNER

3 Tips for Business Builders

Brought to you by Stream — Get more high quality leads for your B2B SaaS business.

Vibe coding yet? World-renowned startup accelerator, Y-combinator, has always favoured builder founders. And it makes sense then that they love the vibe-coding movement. Here is a recent video they released on how to get the most out of it.

But it’s not only coding. Vibe marketing has been trending recently as the image generation capabilities have made substantial leaps as of late. Here is an introduction to vibe marketing by Greg Isenberg that can get you going.

Garbage in, garbage out. The usefulness of your engagement with tools like ChatGPT, Grok, Claude or Gemini is very much dependent on how you prompt them. Want to get better at prompting your new best buddy? Check out this prompt engineering deep dive by Anthropic

BUILDING TOGETHER

Happening over at The Open Collab

In the last few days alone, in our online network, we…

• Enjoyed the short week and holidays a bit… 🏖️ (but glad to be back now).
• Secured event speakers who’ve raised almost R3bn between them.
• Plus: Got our free tickets for the big in-person event on 22 May.
• Looking to find Mordi contacts with a good BPO business.
• Helped Thijan with some options for a great UX designer.
• Got members first dibs on a 🔥 head of marketing role in SA.
• Helped Elijah get a lekker rental option in Stellenbosch 🏡.

Thinking about joining The Open Collab?

• Supercharge your network in the SA startup landscape — get that introduction, get that customer, or meet that partner.
• Get feedback on your products, services and/or offers from others who have built and are building their own products right now.
• Join all our online and in-person events for free!
• Exclusive 1-on-1 sessions with startup consultants.

SA’s only dedicated tech startup and scale-up founder network.

Join The Open Collab→

WHAT YOU SAID

Smarter power…

Last Friday, we riddled you about a South African startup providing solar power and smart energy management for township homes, and most recognised Zonke Energy…

🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 🔋 Zonke Energy (60%)

🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ ☀️ SunScan (10%)

⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ ⚡ PowerPulse (5%)

🟨🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🔧 IlangaLite (25%)

HOW DID WE DO?

BEFORE YOU GO

Here are 3 Ways We Can Help You

Advertise or Partners — Engage 23k South African professionals that read The Open Letter: Partner with us or run an ad campaign — reply to this email to get started.

Grow with Content — Love The Open Letter? Want to build a newsletter just like that for your brand? Want to grow your brand with content? We can do it for you. Check out Stream.

Startup Community — Join 100+ SA founders in our SA startup founder community called The Open Collab. Weekly online masterclasses, in-person and online meetups and a network like never before.

Until next time,
Elvorne, Renier & Jason

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War games? For all you Halo fans out there, check out Japan’s working railgun to deter China’s hypersonic missiles. Using electromagnetism instead of conventional ballistics, the railgun can currently fire 2—3x faster than any traditional 40mm gun. See it in action here (don’t blink, or you’ll miss it). Plans are to scale that up by a factor of 4 in the coming years. 🧨

Before all-out Indo-Pacific war, though, let’s enjoy another Fast-Five Friday: 5 things in the startup space in 5 minutes. Let’s go…

90% Off Your Accounting Fees for 6 Months!

Startups need every advantage to help them move smarter, faster. And what better way than to automate the basics?

That’s why we love a good cloud-accounting solution: Xero lets you track cash flow, claim expenses, send invoices and run your business from anywhere.

We love how it allows integrations through API and tools like Zapier and Make.com, making it super simple for even non-techies to automate accounting tasks.

And now Open Letter readers get 90% off their first 6 months with Xero – but only via our official link (no promo code needed).

Claim my 90% off now →

Xero — Could Accounting for SMEs and Beyond.

1. LOCK IT IN

Automate the admin, reclaim the care

Businesses around the world lose as many as 202 business days to admin and admin-related tasks per year. But it’s even worse for doctors, who definitely didn’t sign up for the paperwork.

Booking appointments, chasing payments, sending reminders, and filling out notes are so far from the whole thing of saving people’s lives, yet it's vital if you want a well-run, profitable, long-term, stable business.

Built in SA, Bookem is a full-service practice management platform primarily aimed at healthcare professionals, but can also be used by professionals needing automated bookings, reminders, invoicing, digital forms, even video calls, giving them a virtual front desk, assistant and bookkeeper, all in one.

It syncs with your calendar, can handle treatment-specific codes, and helps doctors run modern, professional practices with less effort.

Check out the walkthrough to see Bookem in action:

2. HOLDING THE BAG

Removing the marketplace scam sting

Chances are you (or someone you know) have been a victim of a scam, either buying or selling stuff online. Heck, there’s even a rising global trend in totally fake online stores…

But local escrow service provider TradeSafe is hoping to take the sting out of online shopping by providing a bank-backed escrow service to protect buyers and sellers (for both individuals and businesses).

How it works: The buyer and seller agree on terms, with either one registering with TradeSafe and quickly creating a transaction. The buyer then deposits funds into a secure TradeSafe escrow account, at which point TradeSafe issues a letter of comfort to the seller.

Knowing that the money is with TradeSafe, the seller delivers the goods or services and, once the buyer confirms the agreement has been fulfilled, TradeSafe releases the funds, completing the transaction.

You can even create milestone payments, when you don't just want to send a large amount of cash to someone upfront for a house build, or reno, etc.

3. GRASSROOTS LEVEL

Plant-powered MedTech

In SA, there are around 20’000 plant species (roughly 10% of all plants on the planet), with the Cape Floral Kingdom (70% of which are found only here) making up about half of that. And more than a few of them are revered for their medicinal purposes – humans have been using plants to cure all sorts of ailments and diseases for millennia.

CureRoot is a South African BioTech startup that's exploring African medicinal plants for drug discovery using AI.

By combining the study of natural compounds and traditional knowledge of medicinal plants, they are building a chemical library focused on treatments for health challenges, including infectious diseases, oncology, cardiometabolic disease and autoimmune disorders. 

And while it’s still early days (CureRoot started in 2023), and less than 1% of all African plant metabolites (the natural chemicals that plants produce) have been studied, we’re watching this space…

4. FROM THE OPEN COLLAB COMMUNITY

Taking the gamble out of rentals

Most landlords in SA self-manage their properties (about 75% of them, according to PropTech founder Ross Fitzcharles), because rental agents cut into already squeezed margins. 

Yet most don’t have the right tools, safety net, or backup to do this properly, exposing them to all sorts of high-stakes risks like missed rent, bad tenants and long, drawn-out legal battles.

Preferental is a local PropTech platform giving landlords the ability to self-manage their properties with a bunch of helpful tools. From AI-driven tenant screening, rental guarantees (even if tenants don’t pay) with built-in insurance, as well as expertly drafted lease agreements and, if needed, legal letters of demand. 

Their newly launched “Deposit Plus” feature lets tenants pay deposits over 10 instalments (making new rentals more accessible), and the landlord’s deposit is guaranteed from day one.

Want in? Connect with more ZA startup founders and builders like Ross Fitzcharles, Founder & CEO of Preferental, in our Founder community: The Open Collab.

5. SCHOOL IN A BOX UP IN ARICA

Blooming lekker classrooms

In Africa, thousands of kids are not in school, and major contributing factors are building costs, remote locations and lack of infrastructure (like electricity & even an internet connection).

BloomBox Design Labs is a non-profit that transforms shipping containers into solar-powered computer classrooms​ in Malawi. Their low-profile roof sits on top of upcycled containers and can retract or expand as needed for transport or to keep safe at night, via a handcrank system.

The solar system is purpose-built for each installation, with energy needs calculated (and exceeded) depending on the number of computers and other resources that need to be powered.

Recently, Starlink has come on board to provide high-speed satellite internet at each BloomBox, making it a very cool option for remote parts of Africa, or even as a school solution for refugee camps.

IN SHORT

Cause knowing just enough is a superpower…

🌍 African AI Acceleration. Applications are open for the 3-month Google for Startups Accelerator Africa programme aimed at seed to Series A startups based in Africa, preferably building AI-first solutions. Apply here.

🤖 Another one. Meta has launched a separate app for its AI assistant, but it will still be available as per usual on WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook and Messenger. Add that to your growing folder of “AI apps”…

🛸 Found you. The Border Management Authority (BMA) prevented over 6’200 attempted illegal crossings into SA over the Easter period, fuelled by night-vision drones with AI and advanced body cams. Could also come in handy finding Easter eggs…

💰 Investment Boom Incoming? South Africa and Kenya have emerged as the top investment destinations over the next three years by 65% of general partners at private equity firms surveyed by the African Private Capital Association. We here for it…

😎 The Stack. Founders need tools and suppliers they can trust. Check out our Founder’s Stack with all your tech recruitment streamlined and automated by Offerzen, zero-monthly-fee bank accounts and business loans in 4 minutes from Lula, plus loads more vital startup tools & services.

CHECK THIS OUT

Skyrocket Your Online Sales in 2025

Cape Town. 7–8 May 2025. Free Expo Pass Inside.

Online success isn’t just about having a good idea — it’s about who you meet, what you learn, and how fast you adapt.

That’s why Converge Africa 2025 is the unmissable destination for founders, e-commerce operators, and digital pros ready to scale smarter. And this year, The Open Letter’s own Renier Kriel is hosting the Startup Pitch Stage — showcasing the boldest new ventures on the continent.

Want in? 🎯 Use code 0PV1S to grab your FREE expo pass.

Claim your spot here →

Here’s what’s waiting for you:

✅ 30+ speakers on conversion, logistics, marketing & payments — real, usable insights
✅ Live startup pitches hosted by Renier — fresh ideas, fast
✅ 2 full days of networking with brands like Microsoft, Takealot, Shoprite & Paystack

If you're scaling an online business in Africa, this is where the momentum lives.

💼 Want the full experience? Book a Corporate Pass for 3 days of VIP workshops, food and high-level networking in Cape Town from 7—8 May 2025.

Book my VIP seats now →

DON’T MISS THIS

How Does One Raise R1 billion+ in SA?

Very few people manage to raise any amount of money in SA, let alone a R1 billion+, but both Lula co-founder Trevor Gosling and Stitch co-founder Kiaan Pillay have done this. On 22 May 2025, we are getting both of them on stage at Innovation City Cape Town to talk about:

— Raising substantial amounts of capital in South Africa
— Deploying that capital efficiently as they scale
— Exclusive learnings from their journeys

This is an event you don’t want to miss! Get your tickets now and use OPENLETTER50 to get R50 off, exclusive to readers of The Open Letter.

Buy Tickets →

JOBS IN TECH

Treat yo’self to a better 9–5…

📋 Product Manager @ Ignition Group

👩‍💻 Senior Frontend Engineer @ Cue

🤖 Artificial Intelligence Lead @ Health Collective

🎨 Senior Designer @ Ogilvy South Africa

💰 Head of Finance and Operations @ Old Mutual South Africa

Hiring? Get in touch, and we will feature it here.

GAME TIME

Did you know?

There’s a South African startup providing solar power and smart energy management for township homes, helping families save money and stay connected, even during load shedding.

WHAT YOU SAID

For your health…

On Tuesday, we asked how often you go to the doctor, and it‘s a case of “as needed” for most…

🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🗓️ Once a year (13%)

🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 🤒 Only when I’m sick (60%)

🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 📋 Frequently – currently managing a long-term condition (10%)

🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 😖 When my partner tells me to go (11%)

⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ ⛑️ Never. Got my first aid badge in Scouts (and a Dischem Benefit card) (6%)

Your 2 cents…

Well, Gogga, judging from the poll results, if you’re healthy and living well, that’s about the standard approach for most of us here 🧘‍♀️🥗🍎🌱🔆.

HOW DID WE DO?

BEFORE YOU GO

Here are 3 Ways We Can Help You

Advertise or Partners — Engage 23k South African professionals that read The Open Letter — partner with us or run an ad campaign. Reply to this email to get started.

Grow with Content — Is your funnel not bringing in the leads? Check out Stream content marketing for B2B scale-ups.

Startup Community — Join 100+ SA founders in our SA startup founder community called The Open Collab. Weekly online masterclasses, in-person and online meetups and a network like never before.

Until next time,
Elvorne, Renier & Jason

Squad

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‍

Too soon? A little frustrated with how fast tech is evolving (and affecting his career opportunities), one NY artist opened the world’s first co-working space for AI chatbots. The art installation is a reminder that a world without humans isn’t much of anything… 📦

In this Open Letter:

• Making an impact: The startup helping people live 5-10 years longer.
• AI jet fighters, CPT desalination & WhatsApp in any language.
• Constantly falling behind? It’s not you, it’s your resourcing (here’s the fix).
• Who knew this SA logistics tracking startup? The results are in.
• Lonely building your startup? Join The Open Collab and get support.

Cape Town, are you ready?!

We are hosting our first Cape Town in-person gathering of the year on the 22nd of May at Innovation City Cape Town.

Featuring

A fireside chat with two of SA’s hottest FinTechs right now: Trevor Gosling (Co-Founder & CEO of Lula) and Kiaan Pillay (Co-Founder & CEO of Stitch).

PLUS

Side-panels on fundraising, early-stage venture building and great networking.

Come engage SA’s most vibrant startup community in person. Get your tickets now!

Buy tickets now →

 Early Bird tickets available + use OPENLETTER50 to get R50 off, exclusive to readers of The Open Letter

TRENDING NOW

How to Live 5-10 Years Longer

In today’s Tuesday Deep Dive, we look at the poor state of preventative care in South Africa and meet a local startup solving for a better way to get people healthy (and living longer)…

“I feel fine.”

We’ve all said that the doc, but in reality, being healthy isn’t just about how you feel.

In South Africa, non-communicable diseases (NCDs) like cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, cancer and chronic respiratory illnesses have seen a steady 58.7% increase in deaths over the last two decades.

In fact, the WHO reckons that with proper preventative care, most people could probably live 5–10 years longer.

Problem is: we have great preventative healthcare (better than ever before in history), but people just aren’t using it. Nationwide screening rates for chronic diseases of lifestyle (CDL) are only around 20%.

And therein lies the rub. There’s a gap between diagnosing diseases and preventative treatments that shows up as a major flaw in our healthcare system: Patient care is predominantly reactive, addressing illnesses only after the symptoms have already manifested.​

And it’s crazy to think that as much as 80% of heart diseases could be prevented by making some lifestyle changes. But how can you know which changes to make if you’re not getting screened for it while you still seem “healthy”?

The hidden cost of inaction

Aside from the obvious reasons you’ll want to catch a chronic disease early, South Africans are also pretty bad at adhering to medication (once a disease has been detected) – somewhere between 7% and 83.5% of us don’t adhere to prescriptions (LOL, what a wild range!).

This means everything from wasted meds, disease progression, reduced functional abilities, a lower quality of life and an increased use of medical resources like nursing homes and hospital visits.

But it has economic repercussions too: sick days cost our economy an estimated R19 billion every year, and about 15% of SA employees are absent on any given day.

Pre-emptive healthcare could just be the key to solving some of SA’s major healthcare challenges…

The local player driving proactive patient care

Engage Mx is a local HealthTech platform designed to give doctors more accurate data, so they can reach the right patients before it's too late.

Integrating directly into a provider’s billing software, it layers in medication and laboratory data (which is often housed in other disjointed, siloed systems) to build a unique health and risk profile for every patient.

Then Engage Mx identifies who’s overdue for important medical interventions and contacts the patient on their doctor’s behalf via SMS, email or WhatsApp, helping bring the patient back to the provider for care.

The system runs in the background, with no extra admin required, giving medical providers a structured, data-driven way to ensure preventative care. It can even be tailored to match regional clinical guidelines and patient demographics.

A healthier South Africa

We recently caught up with Engage Mx Co-founder and CEO Dr Benji Ozynski, who says the medical practices already using the platform are seeing a 37% increase in screening rates and 35% improvement in patients returning for follow-up care – a mega-important step in managing chronic and long-term conditions. 

Some healthcare providers report a 25% reduction in complications tied to chronic illnesses, quite likely due to earlier detection and more consistent monitoring.

With platforms like Engage Mx helping make proactive, personalised healthcare more achievable, one flagged file, one reminder message and one early check-up at a time, we’re watching this space…

CHECK THIS OUT

You’re Not Behind — You’re Under-Resourced

And the difference really matters…

Most high-growth businesses don’t stall because of bad planning.

They stall because finance becomes the bottleneck – they don’t have the right people in place when it counts.

Without enough financial firepower, your best strategies can slow down, your growth targets slip, and your funding goals get harder to hit. It’s not about trying harder. 

It’s about resourcing smarter.

Here are 3 powerful ways to scale finance capacity without missing a beat

✅ Cover critical gaps: If a key finance team member heads out on maternity leave, plug in top-tier interim talent to keep your momentum.

✅ Sharpen your growth strategy: Bring in a part-time CFO to balance growth and profitability without taking on full-time cost and risk.

✅ Boost firepower for crunch time: Facing year-end deadlines, audits, or system upgrades? Drop in a project-based finance team to handle the load expertly.

Ready to scale like you mean it?

🎯 Book a session with OCFO and access the finance talent that turns strategy into traction.

Claim my FREE consult →

IN SHORT

Catching up after the holidays…

🚰 Water Wise. Cape Town’s R8.5 billion Faure New Water Scheme is set to start utilising purified sea and waste water from 2030/2031. The scheme aims to produce as much as 100 million litres of purified, recycled drinking water per day (about 10% of the city’s daily usage). Dunno, hey. How clean can you really get it…

🤝 Switch it up. WhatsApp has just launched in-chat translations, allowing users to translate specific chats with different people into the required language, which is great for international businesses. Still early days though, so translations are lightweight, leaving a little room for error, and doesn't support any African languages just yet. Perhaps Zuck should get some advice from Startup of the Year 2025 winner, Botlhale AI…

🤖 FighterJetPT. Seems like AI-piloted fighter jets might not be so far-fetched, with systems enabled by AI already demonstrating “superior performance” in military exercises. While it has some benefits to kinematic performance and decision-making time, the jury is still out on whether we’re entirely comfortable with AI selecting and engaging targets autonomously. Should be fine…

😎 The Stack. Founders need tools and suppliers they can trust. Check out our Founder’s Stack with easy-peasy business valuations with bizval, hardware, software, acceleration and funding for remarkable builds with Octoco and loads more vital startup tools & services.

BUILDER’S CORNER

3 Tips for Business Builders

Brought to you by Stream — high-quality written content to grow your brand.

Building an online business today is about more than just a good idea — it’s about finding the right people, learning from those who’ve done it before and staying close to where new ideas are taking shape. Converge Africa 2025 brings together founders, entrepreneurs and e-commerce leaders for two days of connection and conversation. It’s happening 7–8 May, and if you’re part of The Open Letter community, you can attend the expo for free — just use code 0PV1S when you register. Get tickets here.

Applications are open for the first intake of the timbuktoo Creatives Lab, aimed at powering innovation in the cultural and creative industries, with space for 15 creative businesses in SA across the audio-visual, design, music and multi-media industries, as well as organisations aligned to Cultural & Natural Heritage Preservation. Nice one. Applications close 7 May 2025…

Using ChatGPT as your co-founder? Then you prolly need this list of prompts for 18 different startup roles. From developing your marketing strategy to defining S.M.A.R.T goals, these prompts can help you supercharge your startup build.

BUILDING TOGETHER

Happening over at The Open Collab

In the last few days alone, in our online network, we…

• Had a remarkable scaling masterclass with Edge Growth’s Jason Goldberg.
• Got busy setting up a few padel games in Joburg and Cape Town 🎾.
• Helped Lenard with some options for tracking movement in a retail environment.
• Looking 👀 to help Elijah find a lekker place to stay in Stellenbosch.
• Obvs relaxing a bit over the long weekend… 😎

Thinking about joining The Open Collab?

• Supercharge your network in the SA startup landscape — get that introduction, get that customer, or meet that partner.
• Get feedback on your products, services and/or offers from others who have built and are building their own products right now.
• Join all our online and in-person events for free!
• Exclusive 1-on-1 sessions with startup consultants.

SA’s only dedicated tech startup and scale-up founder network.

Join The Open Collab Today →

WHAT YOU SAID

To the stores…

Last Friday, we riddled you about an SA startup changing how we scan products and pallets in warehousing, and quite a few recognised DroneScan…

🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🚁 StockFly (12%)

🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 📦 DroneScan (66%)

🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 📊 ScanLogic (15%)

⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🔄 AeroSort (7%)

Your 2 cents…

Glad you liked the riddle, Mahlangu! 🎮

Hi EJ, that’s what every business owner is asking: How do I reach my audience to sell more? And the answer is almost always: create a distribution channel, market, build trust and then flywheel. Usually, it starts with the founder cold-calling and making the first sales up to Rand X. If you want to shorten the time to get traction, check out the 3 ways we can help you in the footer of this email. 🚀

‍

BEFORE YOU GO

Here are 3 Ways We Can Help You

Advertise or Partners — Engage 23k South African professionals that read The Open Letter - partner with us or run an ad campaign — Reply to this email to get started.

Grow with Content — Love The Open Letter? Want to build a newsletter just like that for your brand? Want to grow your brand with content? We can do it for you. Check out Stream.

Startup Community — Join 100+ SA founders in our SA startup founder community called The Open Collab. Weekly online masterclasses, in-person and online meetups and a network like never before.

Until next time,
Elvorne, Renier & Jason

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‍

A little too polite? We couldn’t help but snicker when we heard Sam Altman saying that users saying “please” and “thank you” to ChatGPT has cost OpenAI tens of millions of dollars in energy and computing costs. A small price to pay for the machines to remember our good manners one day.

Before that genteel robot uprising, though, it’s time for a very special Fast-10 Friday: 10+ SA startups and some tech news you should know. Let’s go…

‍

Thinking About Selling Your Business? Start Here

Knowing your business's worth is a powerful lever in any negotiation. And knowing what it is now can help you build towards your goals.

Get a free indicative valuation for your business for Open Letter readers, but only for a limited time.

Get Your Indicative Valuation Now

bizval. Financial insights that fuel growth.

Fast Five (+5) Friday

Earlier in the week, we attended the Live Pitch Event for the Top 10 Finalists of our friends over at Innovation City’s Startup of the Year 2025.

DRUMROLL, PLEASE

The Winner of Startup of the Year 2025 is…

Congrats to:

Bots that speak your mother tongue

Botlhale AI, co-founded by Thapelo Nthite is officially the 2025 Innovation City Startup of the Year. Botlhale is building multilingual chatbots and call centre tools in African languages, making digital services more inclusive for millions.

The SA call centre industry employs more than 250k+ South Africans and brings in roughly R63 billion, a sizable market. Add the fact that only 8.7% of South Africans speak English as a first language, and Botlhale might just be onto something!

‍

NINE MORE OF SA’S BEST

And The Runners Up Are…

Retail, but make it a platform

Flood builds Shopify-style infrastructure for brick-and-mortar giants, turning telcos, banks, and broadcasters into digital marketplaces. Think discovery, commerce, and payments all in one place.

The offline-to-online race is on, and Flood is using the distribution and mass adoption of existing brands to reach customers with white-labelled solutions. Brands win because it increases revenue per customer, and customers win because of convenience.

Investing for the R99-data-bundle generation

Fynbos is on a mission to unlock wealth for 1 million young South Africans by making it easy to automate putting away money in emergency savings and tax-free accounts with zero platform fees, maximising your savings.

ICYMI: Check out this Open Letter feature on Fybos from the start of the year.

HR in your pocket 

Designed for frontline and deskless workers, Jem HR delivers payroll solutions and benefits via WhatsApp. Being plugged into payroll enables them to manage risk better and, in doing so, offer better financial services to these employees. Already helping over 150,000 people build financial wellness while making HR easier for employers, too. If you

ICYMI: Check out this episode from our podcast with Caroline from Jem.

Recruitment, slicker and quicker

JOBJACK helps companies find entry-level talent through a smart, all-in-one digital platform. Screening, assessments, risk checks, all in one. They have amassed a whopping 3 million detailed profiles of work seekers, and as soon as a client decides to hire, finding that perfect candidate becomes a lot easier.

AI that reads the fine print for you

Lawyered Up, backed by Google and powered by Vega AI, is giving SMEs affordable legal support through an AI-driven platform. Drafts, compliance, contracts – automated, affordable, and finally within reach. 25’000 SMEs already access the platform, and they are planning to hit 100k across Africa by the end of the year.

ICYMI: Catch our Tuesday Deep Dive into Lawyered Up here.

The smarter way to rent

LeaseSurance Agent replaces old-school rental deposits with lease insurance, giving landlords better risk control and renters more flexibility. It’s tech-first real estate, with a data engine driving smarter decisions.

ICYMI: Check out this edition of The Open Letter featuring LeaseSurance.

Yes, we do have the receipts

Callbi Speech Analytics provides AI-powered transcription and analytics software for contact centres, trained specifically on South African languages and dialects. It enables companies to analyse local conversations accurately, at a fraction of the cost of global alternatives.

Making gas cylinders smarter

The LP Gas industry in Africa is estimated to be $9.6 billion a year, and for many in areas where the electricity supply is unpredictable, gas offers an affordable way to cook, improving quality of life and health. But for LP gas retailers, theft is a major issue, with more than 20% of gas being stolen or lost through rogue refills.

Sensify prevents LP Gas theft and rogue refills with a patented “lock-and-key” valve system and cloud software. Real-time tracking means more safety, more loyalty, and no more disappearing inventory.

Fitness apps, made personal

The global personal trainer industry is valued at ±$40billion and Sudor lets fitness creators launch their own branded app complete with video, chat, and payments capabilities. No code, no stress, just the ability to turn your fitness brand into an app.

Huge congrats to all the winners and finalists. We are rooting for all of you and cheering you on to greatness. We’re watching this space…

IN SHORT

Stay five headlines ahead of everyone else…

💳 Extending Capabilities. Local FinTech Kazang is extending its terminal capabilities to accept card payments for bill payments, helping turn more than 90’000 spaza shops across SA, Namibia, Botswana, and Zambia into financial service hubs. Nice one.

👍 Thumbs up. SA’s Electoral Commission has started its 6-month consultation process with voters, political parties, interest groups and civil society organisations to help shape the policy on e-voting in SA. SA’s Dads give it a thumbs up.

🤖 AI Funding Blitz. 19 US-based AI startups have already raised $100 million so far in 2025, including OpenAI, Lambda, Harvey, and ElevenLabs. Some very interesting stuff is being built (and funded) in this space.

✖️ Take VAT back. After mounting pressure from pretty much everyone in SA, Gov has relented and canned the 0.5% VAT increase. And, unrelated yet seemingly suspicious, we got klapped with Stage 2 loadshedding from 4 PM yesterday… hmmm…

😎 The Stack. Founders need tools and suppliers they can trust. Check out our Founder’s Stack with all your VC and startup legal sorted by Dommisse Attorneys, your own CFO for a fraction of the cost with OCFO and loads more vital startup tools & services.

CHECK THIS OUT

The Venture Partner You’ve Been Looking For

Hardware, software, execution, investment — done right

In a startup world full of noise, Octoco has quietly built one of SA’s most capable engineering teams — and now they’re five years in. (Happy birthday, guys!)

Started in 2020 to fill a gap in real CTO support, Octoco has evolved into a full-scale venture and engineering studio, combining hardware, software, and strategy under one roof. 

From solving problems big firms couldn’t crack to investing in tools like LeaseSurance and Henlo Coffee, they’ve delivered across 12+ industries — always with the same mantra: build properly or don’t build at all.

Today, their 70+ team blends technical depth with startup grit — and they’re just getting started.

What makes them different?

It’s not just that they write code or wire up devices. It’s how they approach problems:

• They step in when the stakes are high, not just to consult but to execute.
• They operate like co-founders, not contractors.
• They’ve earned their reputation by solving tough problems others couldn’t.

And they do it all while growing a culture that values curiosity, clarity, and quality execution above all else.

What’s next?

Octoco is expanding again — this time into AI. Their new Octoco AI department will deepen their ability to solve complex, frontier-level problems for clients who want more than off-the-shelf solutions.

If you're building something ambitious and need a partner who’s seen the full journey — from idea to implementation — Octoco is the team to call.

Build with Octoco

JOBS IN TECH

Get a job that gets you...

🧰 Head of Product Management for Africa @ PayU

👩‍💻 Chief Technology Officer @ Prescient Group

🌱 Head of Seed & Growth Portfolio @ E Squared Investments

🫙 Head of Pre-Seed & Growth Portfolio @ E Squared Investments

💼 Key Account Manager @ Picup

Hiring? Get in touch, and we will feature it here.

GAME TIME

Riddle us this…

I move without wheels,

Across warehouses and racks.

I scan all your stock,

No ladders, stairs, or backs.

No rider, no fuss,

Just code and eyes that see.

Built in Durban town —

Which startup could I be?

WHAT YOU SAID

Next in tech…

On Tuesday, we asked about the most important tech jobs of the future, and everyone’s swinging AI…

🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 🤖 AI anything (38%)

⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 👩‍💻 Full-stack web development (1%)

🟨🟨🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️ 📊 Data science (20%)

🟨🟨🟨🟨⬜️⬜️ 🔒 Cybersecurity (25%)

⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ ☁️ Cloud engineering (1%)

🟨🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🔌 Knowing which plug kills the machine overlords (15%)

Your 2 cents…

Ha ha, ja, Andersen, you mean “what founders do in the first few years”, and then need to find someone else to take over. Definitely. 😅

Defs, Ruan. We saw a report the other day that languages like COBOL, C and C++ are susceptible to like 70% of the most common vulnerabilities — and so many systems are still legacy. ⌛

For sure, CNProp. At the risk of playing matchmaker, sounds like you and Ruan ☝ could team up and build the next big thing, too. 🚀

Thanks, Lungile! We’re extremely fond of you, too. 🤜🤛

BEFORE YOU GO

Here are 3 Ways We Can Help You

Advertise or Partner — Engage 23k South African professionals that read The Open Letter - partner with us or run an ad campaign — Reply to this email to get started.

Grow with Content — Love The Open Letter? Want to build a newsletter just like that for your brand? Want to grow your brand with content? We can do it for you. Check out Stream.

Startup Community — Join 100+ SA founders in our SA startup founder community called The Open Collab. Weekly online masterclasses, in-person and online meetups and a network like never before.

Until next time,
Elvorne, Renier & Jason

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Time to think twice? With so many companies announcing hiring freezes in favour of AI, the latest AI chatbot scandal should serve as a cautionary tale. Anysphere, the only startup to reach $100M ARR faster than OpenAI is in hot water after its support bot hallucinated policy and peeved off many users, costing subscriptions and a potential valuation backlash.

In this Open Letter:

• Skilling ‘em up: The startup with an 80% new dev creation rate.
• Smart moves: Want to know how much your business is worth? We got you.
• OpenAI’s agent cheatsheet, startup pitching & SA’s guaranteed jobs.
• Builder’s corner: Bootstrap 101, AI agents & Google acceleration.
• What most of us keep in a safe: The results are in.
• Lonely building your startup? Join The Open Collab and get support.

‍

Your paid ads are tired. Your leads are cold. Your sales team’s crying into their CRMs.

Meanwhile, companies with solid content strategies generate 3x more leads at 62% less cost.

Enter Stream: the content marketing agency for B2B scale-ups who are done settling for bland blogs and boring PDFs.

We craft sharp, strategic content that doesn’t just exist — it converts. Think SEO that ranks, thought leadership that actually leads, and assets your sales team will actually use.

Stop burning budget on ad clicks that bounce.

Start building trust, pipeline, and momentum — one killer piece of content at a time.

Meet us to learn more

Stream. Content that sells.

TRENDING NOW

A 90% New Dev Placement Rate in SA

In today’s Tuesday Deep Dive, we look at Africa’s dev skills gap and meet a local startup solving for a better way to train new devs with an 80% success rate and 90% placement rate…

You can't blame someone for thinking ZA’s tech and startup scenes are heading to the moon… what with recent funding raises by Jem and Stitch, and the startups The Open Letter covers week in and week out.

But an underlying issue might just cause big headaches for startups, corporates and anyone wanting to build innovative tech products locally… the skills gap.

There are only around 700k software devs/programmers/engineers across the African continent, with just over 133’000 of those calling Mzansi home (the highest number across the whole continent).

Even our BRICS buddies are churning out more software champs:
🇧🇷 Brazil: 632k
🇷🇺 Russia: 830k
🇮🇳 India: 2.5 million
🇨🇳 China: 3.8 million
🇿🇦 South Africa: 133k

Our limited local supply issue is also exacerbated by international companies luring away SA talent (around 50%, according to informal chats with reps at Offerzen) with big paychecks and even bigger opportunities elsewhere.

Traditional tech qualifications are bottle necking

Tech is evolving at an alarming rate – just look at ChatGPT acquiring 1 million users in 5 days in 2022, when before that, Instagram took 2.5 months, Facebook 10 months, Airbnb 2.5 years and Netflix 3.5 years. 

That’s sped up to 1 million users in an hour in 2025, and that rapid evolution of tech means today’s tech skills may become obsolete in a few years. 

Studies suggest that the half-life of technical skills (i.e. how long before a skill becomes half as valuable) is now less than five years. In some tech fields, it's as low as two and a half. Goodness gracious.

This means your traditional tertiary degree (like a 3-year undergrad Computer Science) takes longer to complete than the remaining lifespan of your acquired knowledge.​ While the way of thinking and level of complexity in bachelor's degrees definitely does help, many South Africans simply cannot afford the roughly R200k per year required to study at a university (fees, accommodation and living expenses).

The alternative? A jam-packed coding course that gets you into the workplace asap.

‍

A local EdTech for Tech Ed…

Zaio is a local tech training platform, offering an alternative approach to tech education. 

With accredited, 100% online bootcamps focused on practical, project-based learning in full-stack web development, data science, cybersecurity and cloud engineering available from anywhere, 24/7, 365, they can run six cohorts of 30–50 participants per discipline per year (that’s between 720 and 1’200 students a year).

Combining pre-recorded content with live classes and a proprietary coding editor makes for an interactive and collaborative learning environment – as a video plays, it pauses and prompts students to complete specific coding exercises and assess these in real-time before continuing.

And, of course, Zaio bolsters learning with the latest tech…

Leveraging AI for personalised learning

Something we found really interesting is how Zaio integrates AI to provide immediate, personalised feedback for students – as learners progress, AI analyses their inputs, identifies recurring mistakes and offers tailored guidance, creating an adaptive learning method that’s available 24/7.

And it seems to be working: Zaio has an 80%+ student pass rate and is making a serious contribution to adding more devs to the ZA tech space.

We caught up with Zaio Founder & CEO, Mvelo Hlophe, who says Zaio has a 90% graduate placement rate, with companies like Amazon, Google, FNB, Accenture and Rain, nogal. 

Zaio’s training is attractive for big players, partly because their courses can be tailored specifically to help corporate partners align with skills development goals, help satisfy BEE scorecard requirements or run SETA-funded learnerships, etc.

With EdTech platforms like Zaio building an AI-leveraged tech talent engine and getting new devs placed 90% of the time, we’re watching this space…

CHECK THIS OUT

What’s Your Business Worth Right Now?

(And how does that compare to last quarter?)

If your long-term goal is to sell your company or attract serious investment, the end of Q1 is the perfect time to take stock of your progress.

Just like reviewing your KPIs or financials, a business valuation should be part of your quarterly rhythm. Why? Because tracking your valuation over time helps you see where you’re gaining ground… and where you’re leaving value on the table.

A good valuation goes beyond revenue and profit. It tells you:

✅ What’s driving your business forward
✅ Where there are gaps or risks
✅ How your team, brand and customer base add real-world value

We’ve partnered with bizval to give all Open Letter readers a free express business valuation, so you can benchmark where you are and start building a roadmap for more.

Get your valuation here

And if you’re ready for a deeper dive, bizval is offering 10% off all paid services — just use the code THEOPENLETTER at checkout.

Founders who win don’t wait until exit to determine their worth. They track it — quarterly — and make sharper moves because of it.

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IN SHORT

Let’s catch you up right now…

🔍 Job Hunting in SA? AI skills are no longer a buzzword in hiring, but fast becoming one of the most attractive skill sets in the workplace. According to online recruitment platform Pnet, the number of AI professionals securing new roles has seen a 96% increase from Q4:2019/Q1:2020 to Q4:2024/Q1:2025, with demand for AI professionals jumping 183% between Q1:2018 and Q1:2024. Hot dang…

🎤 Startup of the Year Live Pitches. Don't forget to get your tickets for Innovation City’s Startup of the Year Live Pitching event on Wednesday night (23 April) in Cape Town. 10 SA startups go head to head in a live pitch event at Innovation City, with the winner walking away as SA’s Startup of the Year 2025. Pull in, we’re gonna be there.

💰 Jozi’s Big Pitch 2025 Qualifier. Get your tix to the first in-person qualifier of The Big Pitch 2025 hosted by Startup Club ZA and SA Future Trust. On Wednesday night (23 April), 10 startups will compete in the Jozi Regionals (with CT’s regionals happening in August), for a $1 million investment. Nice one.

🌳 Fast Tracking Environmental Screening. South Africa’s Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment has launched the National Web-Based Environmental Screening Tool, enabling developers to assess site sensitivity and streamline environmental approvals. Having already processed over 3,000 applications, the platform is showing the value of reducing bureaucratic delays to facilitate faster decision-making.

😎 The Stack. Founders need tools and suppliers they can trust. Check out our Founder’s Stack with super streamlined business registration and compliance via Govchain, all your tech recruitment sorted by OfferZen and loads more vital startup tools & services.

BUILDER’S CORNER

3 Tips for Business Builders

Brought to you by Stream — high-quality written content to grow your brand.

Bootstrapped to $12B! Ben Chestnut, co-founder and former CEO of Mailchimp, discusses how they bootstrapped their business to a cool $12B sale. That’s right, no VC. He shares the story and what he's up to post-exit. Great motivation for bootstrapping builders — watch it here.

Do you wanna build an (AI) agent? Well, OpenAI just dropped an in-depth 32-page Practical Guide to Building Agents to help developer teams looking to build AI Agents. The methodical approach laid out covers everything from models, tools and instructions to guardrails and safeguards. Very cool.

Get accelerated by Google! Google has opened applications for its 2025 Accelerator Africa program, targeting Seed to Series A startups leveraging AI to address systemic challenges. Selected startups will receive equity-free support, up to $350,000 in Google Cloud credits, mentorship, and access to a global network of investors and partners. More details here.

BUILDING TOGETHER

Happening over at The Open Collab

In the last few days alone, in our online network, we…

• Confirmed our next event speakers: 2 founders who’ve collectively raised some R2.8 billion — looking forward to seeing everyone round 22 May 📢.
• Discussed corporate hiring freezes in the face of AI, on the back of news that Mediclinic’s freezing to save R2bn per year.
• Learnt about a 🥇 ChatGPT prompt to discover your own blind spots.
• Gave members first dibs on a mobile project build opportunity.
• Helped Carlin get some contacts to help him invest company profits wisely.
• Discovered the world’s best AI notetaker — by far.
• Seeing loads of founders listing startups on our community boards, nice 💃🏻🪩

Thinking about joining The Open Collab?

• Supercharge your network in the SA startup landscape — get that introduction, get that customer, or meet that partner.
• Get feedback on your products, services and/or offers from others who have built and are building their own products right now.
• Join all our online and in-person events for free!
• Exclusive 1-on-1 sessions with startup consultants.

SA’s only dedicated tech startup and scale-up founder network.

Join The Open Collab

WHAT YOU SAID

All in there…

Last Tuesday, we asked about the most valuable thing you’d put in an intelligent safe, and the farm’s the way…

🟨🟨🟨🟨⬜️⬜️ 💍 Gold/Jewellery (20%)

🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🪙 A rare collection of coins/Pokemon cards (9%)

🟨🟨🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🌱 Seeds for when the Apocalypse hits (14%)

🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 📷 Gigs of evidence confirming UFOs/Bigfoot/other conspiracy (9%)

🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 ❤️ The fam (albeit a tight squeeze) (26%)

🟨🟨🟨🟨🟨⬜️ 🔫 Firearms (22%)

Ha ha, yes Andersen, maybe that should be our next topic… 🕵🏻‍♀️.

Argh, sorry Mervyn — our mistake. See below: If you share The Open Letter with 1 friend or colleague, and they sign up, we’ll send you the list of 100+ data-backed SA business needs… 👇

BEFORE YOU GO

Here are 3 Ways We Can Help You

Advertise or Partners — Engage 22k South African professionals that read The Open Letter - partner with us or run an ad campaign.

Build A Newsletter — Love The Open Letter? Want to build a newsletter just like that for your brand? We can build it with you. Check out Stream.

Startup Community — Join 100+ SA founders in our SA startup founder community called The Open Collab. Weekly online masterclasses, in-person and online meetups and a network like never before.

Until next time,
Elvorne, Renier & Jason

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Ever wanted to drive upside down? Well, then check out this EV: British hypercar maker McMurtry used what they call “active aerodynamics” to generate enough downforce for them to drive this machine like Batman. Don’t forget your seat belt, though.

In this Open Letter:

• Unbreakable: The venture helping secure SA’s R128bn per day.
• Fully optimised: Take the pain out of hiring top devs and engineers.
• Stitch raises funding, OpenAI verifying organisations & CT’s F1 bid.
• Level up: Startup MBA, import-export clarity & the big pitch event.
• Who recognised this SA fisheries startup? The results are in.
• Startup power: 100+ businesses SA needs right now.

Closing The Authority Gap!

It’s impossible to scale without trust and it’s impossible to build trust without authority.

At Stream, we help tech companies go from “we’ve got PMF” to “we own our space” – with on-brand, strategic content that builds trust and turns interest into action.

‍

Book a free 45-minute content strategy session now and learn how content can take you from the unknown to the chosen.

Book a call now

TRENDING NOW

Safeguarding R128bn Per Day

Commercial crime in South Africa is out of control – and seriously damaging to society and the entire economy. So today’s Tuesday Deep Dive showcases a scale-up that’s securing SA banks and retailers’ physical safety…

At any given moment, there’s about R128bn in cash in circulation in South Africa…

And SA banks and retailers lose billions annually due to theft, robbery and internal fraud. In 2023 alone, crime in general cost our economy R700bn (6.7% of GDP). 

In 2022, bank burglaries increased by 17%, and losses skyrocketed by 366%. This decreased only slightly in 2023 after the SA Post Office shifted from cash-based SASSA payments to electronic.

Weird story, the number of laptops and office equipment stolen increased that same year (because there’s no cash to steal).

‍

Retail numbers are hard to find, but if you scour through SAPS’s quarterly crime reports, you’ll see that commercial crime is practically the only crime to have consistently and reliably increased over the last 4 years: 19.2% in Q1 of 2024 and 18.5% in Q2.

And it doesn’t just hurt banks and retailers; this type of crime impacts every one of us…

So, what’s the problem?

Economically, the insurance impact alone is devastating to the country:

• In 2024, every Rand lost to commercial crime cost the victim company R3.64 to replace.
• That’s why commercial insurance costs have outpaced CPI from 2021 to 2024.
• Off the back of a 103% rise in the average cost per claim to commercial insurers in 2019 and 2020.
• Causing SA’s biggest international insurance partner, Lloyds, to hike up the price of reinsurance in SA by tenfold in 2021, and start refusing to reinsure most SA companies because it’s just too risky.

But even those increases are covered by We the Peeps, of course. Go check your bank statements and grocery slips to see how prices have increased over the last 5 years…

The true cost of commercial crime

Where’s the opportunity? Well, there are two ways to look at it:

• Cybercrime is skyrocketing every year (45% in 2023 alone), driving up financial losses by 47%), so software is one possible route – hence the rise in cybersecurity startups in Africa.
  
• Physical crime is another thing altogether, requiring a unique mix of software, social and hardware solutions – hence a rise in new solutions like Namola we showcased a while ago and the Wolf safety app before that.

But while a lot is happening on the software and social front, you don’t see much innovation where it’s most needed: hardware, where a core problem is that traditional security measures (CCTV, safes, manual stock control etc) are just not cutting it anymore.

So, one day in 2016, a group of South Africans got together to ask “Why don’t we just build the world’s most advanced smart safe?” 

And that’s when things really started to get interesting… 

The local scale-up helping SA commercials protect their own

Intelligent Safe’s Sentry is like if Robocop and The Terminator had a baby in the banking and retail sector. 

Seriously, the founders got together and made a list of every security technology available to mankind – biometrics, time-delayed doors, vibration and motion detection, backup communication, sirens, tilt detection and automatic pepper spray deployment (of course it shoots you), to name just a few – and said: Let’s build it all into one ultimate safe not even Tom Cruise can break into.

‍

It’s got so many additional features, but we can’t tell you about them for legal reasons – security industry, hello! 

But the company’s MD, whom we also can’t name for security reasons (so let’s just call him Arnold Strongarms for now), explains that the tech features so many traditionally independent systems that the team spent a few years enhancing and polishing the offering over time.

Fully remote & adaptable

The system integrates with a mobile app that allows their clients to be fully remote and assist their in-store teams with adding users, dispensing inventory and approving requests, as well as receiving notifications when certain events on the safe take place. It also allows them the ability to review event logs and view time and attendance as needed by the store.

They’re currently operating in the high-value retail space (think cellphones etc.), jewellery and precious metals, but also have safes operational in the manufacturing sector where expensive tooling like grind disks and bolts etc. need to be kept safe and checked in and out when used.

And, with numerous new-generation safes operating in a few key malls and places around the country (no we can’t tell you where they are), the company is finally ready to start focusing on scale. 

It’ll be interesting to see SA’s commercial crime stats when we get a few of these babies deployed in banks and shops around the country. We’re watching this space…

CHECK THIS OUT

How to Hire the Best People (Without the Admin)

Hiring the right engineers is critical, but let’s be real: it can also tie up your senior staff in streams of interviews and live coding events, wasting a lot of time and money.

That’s why OfferZen built Embedded

✅ an end-to-end recruitment service 
✅ designed to take hiring off your plate 
✅ and save you up to 80% of hiring manager time. 

OfferZen’s talent partners handle everything from sourcing to background checks while ensuring every candidate aligns with your culture and tech needs.

It helps you waste less time and spare strategic resources by giving you the first choice of the highest quality candidates with an optimised process.

‍

With Embedded, OfferZen uses 9 years of tech recruitment expertise to help you fine-tune your hiring process and hire top talent – fast.

Ready to cut the cost and chaos from your hiring process?

Check out OfferZen Embedded

IN SHORT

Something interesting to share…

🪡 Securing the bag. Local FinTech Stitch has secured $55 million in additional funding to help advance its payment solutions throughout the African continent. Nice one, Stitch team.

📡 Connecting the Kingdom. Lesotho has officially granted Elon Musk’s Starlink a 10-year license to operate, just hours after denying that the move was tied to tariff negotiations with the US. The internet’s arriving — but the politics are very much still in play. And, of course, we here in Mzansi are asking “What about us?”

☑️ Locking it down. OpenAI is introducing a verification process for developers to be able to access the most advanced models and capabilities on the platform called ‘Verified Organization’. This is to combat the misuse of OpenAI’s API and could also be aimed at preventing IP theft. Very interesting.

🤖 Are we human? GPT-4.5 has passed the Turing test (study still to be peer-reviewed). The OpenAI model was judged to be human 73% of the time by study participants, with the other AI models hitting considerably lower levels of 56%, 23% and 21%. Starting to see why peeps on Facebook are getting caught by them deepfakes…

🏎️ ZA GP. SA’s hope of a local F1 Grand Prix is set to take its next step as Gov will decide which bid to support: a return to a refurbished Kyalami racetrack, or a 5.7km street circuit along the ocean and Green Point stadium set to the natural backdrops of Robben Island, the waterfront and Table Mountain.

😎 The Stack. Founders need tools and suppliers they can trust. Check out our Founder’s Stack with your own CFO for a fraction of the cost with OCFO and startup legal and off-shoring support from Dommisse and 12 more vital startup tools & services.

BUILDER’S CORNER

3 Tips for Business Builders

Brought to you by Stream — high-quality written content to grow your brand.

Make sense of global tariffs: ​Tariffs are back in the global spotlight, and for South African businesses that rely on imported goods or international supply chains, understanding what’s happening – and how to respond – is more important than ever. Join this webinar hosted by Lula to understand how to navigate this season of uncertainty.

Startup level up. Applications are open for the CatalyzU Micro MBA in Venture Capital & Entrepreneurship. Industry experts deliver this 12-week programme to advance the participant’s understanding of venture capital and startup entrepreneurship. Apply before 28 April 2025. Psst. Get 10% off tuition if you’re accepted using OPENLETTER10.

Hear the top 10 pitch. Watching other founders pitch is a great way to learn how to present your businesses well. Come join the Innovation City Startup of the Year live pitch event next week Wednesday, 23 April, in Cape Town. Tickets available here.

BUILDING TOGETHER

Happening over at The Open Collab

In the last few days alone, in our online network, we…

• Got a killer prompt checklist for power SEO posts with AI from Gustav 🦾.
• Had an awesome time meeting each other and networking during Chat Roulette.
• Celebrated another successful funding round with Taariq and the Stitch team.
• Crowd-sourced Chris some options for a referral partner management platform.
• Discussed and shared major social, web and podcast strategies during Office Hours.
• Rediscovered the value of niching and doubling down on the things that drive real value 🚀.
• Got some free Personal Brand LinkedIn content writing for members via Matt — we expect big things!

Thinking about joining The Open Collab?

• Supercharge your network in the SA startup landscape — get that introduction, get that customer, or meet that partner.
• Get feedback on your products, services and/or offers from others who have built and are building their own products right now.
• Join all our online and in-person events for free!
• Exclusive 1-on-1 sessions with startup consultants.

SA’s only dedicated tech startup and scale-up founder network.

Join The Open Collab

WHAT YOU SAID

Something fishy…

Last Friday, we gave you 4 startups and only one of them was real. Most of us recognised fisheries startup ABALOBI…

🟨🟨🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️ ☕ Mugify: 3D prints biodegradable coffee cups for cafes on demand. (22%)

🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 🐟 ABALOBI: Connects small-scale fishers directly to consumers through a digital marketplace. (49%)

⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🍼 BabyWhisper: uses AI to translate baby cries into specific needs. (5%)

🟨🟨🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🏗️ rebrickza: develops self-healing concrete for affordable housing. (24%)

Your 2 cents…

Oh, no, Elijah! How many weeks was that? Let's start again 🎈📌💥

Definitely, BzaarZA. If they can keep it all legal and help small-scale fishers earn a living = happiness 🐳.

HAVE A BREAK

Easter is coming up this weekend. So we decided we’re not sending you an FFF this coming Good Friday. Relax, rest up and enjoy some time with the fam.

We’ll see you back here and ready to do business next week.

BEFORE YOU GO

Here are 3 Ways We Can Help You

Advertise or Partners — Engage 22k South African professionals that read The Open Letter - partner with us or run an ad campaign.

Build A Newsletter — Love The Open Letter? Want to build a newsletter just like that for your brand? We can build it with you. Check out Stream.

Startup Community — Join 100+ SA founders in our SA startup founder community called The Open Collab. Weekly online masterclasses, in-person and online meetups and a network like never before.

Until next time,
Elvorne, Renier & Jason

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Like to ride? We got excited when Kawasaki announced this hyper-agile 150cc hydrogen-powered horse/wolf bike hybrid. Only problem is, it’s still a concept and the actual prototype doesn’t seem nearly as agile as the video claims. Still, we dream. 🎠

Right now, though, it’s another Fast Five Friday: 5 things in startup you should know, including number 4’s easy secret to getting e-commerce customers to spend up to 70% more — let’s go!

‍

1. EARLY DAYS

A voice-activated panic button?

House burgled while you’re away? It’s unpleasant, but, hopefully, you’ve got insurance and can get your stuff replaced (albeit with a bit of admin)...

It gets traumatic when it’s a contact crime (where the victim comes into contact with the perpetrator). With nearly 4’000 more contact crimes reported in Q1 of 2023/2024 compared to the same period the year before, contact crimes are on the rise.

So SA's (and the world’s) first voice-activated panic super app comes at a good time. 

The Valor app lets users request immediate armed security and other response services with a simple custom voice command. The user’s location is sent to Valor’s control room, and their bank is alerted to lock down their banking profile/s. Plus, the operator stays on the line, listening in on the situation to update response units in real-time.

‍

2. KEEP AN EYE ON THESE

SA’s economic “cheatsheet”

It’s important to keep tabs on various touchpoints of South Africa’s economy…

But the info’s disjointed and sometimes comes with a propaganda-esque flair of alarmism and fear-mongering. So we were happy to find this nifty lil dashboard that visualises all the key economic indicators in SA, all in one place (and without the panic)...

The South Africa Macro Dashboard (or sa-gov) tracks things like interest rates, inflation, GDP, deficits, etc. by taking data from various SARB website routes once a week, and populating the dashboard so we can track the health of SA’s economy.

The dashboard was built by Karl-Alexander Meier Mattern, and he’s already gotten a bunch of suggestions and requests to help improve an already very helpful tool. We’re keeping an eye on this. 

‍

3. INTERNATIONAL NEWS

De-extincted zombie wolves?

The dire wolf is an extinct species of wolf that lived in the Americas during the Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene periods, between 125’000 and 10’000 years ago.

First identified and named in 1858, the species gained a renewed popularity due to its appearance in the TV show “Game of Thrones”.

This week, Colossal Biosciences caused a stir with the announcement that they’d used both cloning and gene-editing based on two ancient samples of dire wolf DNA to birth three dire wolf pups, essentially “bringing this species back from extinction”…

Of course, something like this doesn't come without its detractors, with some scientists saying they’ve essentially cloned a glorified genetically modified grey wolf…

Colossal is apparently also planning to “bring back” the woolly mammoth, the dodo and the thylacine (aka the Tasmanian tiger), not to mention the woolly mouse they announced in March, cloned from woolly mammoth DNA. 

‍

4. FROM THE OPEN COLLAB COMMUNITY

Securing the bag, over and over again

One way to build brand loyalty and lock in that sweet, sweet recurring revenue is subscriptions – good for consumables people buy recurringly (monthly, weekly, etc) or even loyalty programmes (think Uber One, Takealot More, etc).

Infact, subscribers of such programmes in SA are likely to spend up to 70% more and transact almost twice as often that those that don’t.

Local e-commerce subscription platform ReserveIt is helping local e-comms process and collect recurring subs and other payments with a simple no-code implementation that gives their clients the ability to cancel, pause or skip a subscription, update the included products, or add new products with a higher level of control and customisation.

It’s all done through a slick subs storefront (also easy no-code implementation) and portal where your customers can manage their subscriptions (pause, add new products or change their shipping information)... Noice.

‍

Don’t be alone on your founder and builder journey. Build with other SA startup founders and builders like Yaseen Hamdulay, one of the founders of ReserveIt in our community: The Open Collab.

5. AND THEN THERE WERE 10

Innovation City’s Top 10 Pitch Event

Things are heating up for Innovation City’s Startup of the Year 2025, and it’s down to the Top 10 finalists:

• Botlhale AI
• Callbi Speech Analytics
• Flood
• Fynbos Money
• Sudor Apps
• Jem
• JOBJACK
• Lawyered Up LLC Powered by Vega
• Sensify
• LeaseSurance

These 10 SA startups will be battling it out on 23 April to see who will be crowned Innovation City’s Startup of the Year 2025 – and you can come watch them battle it out in a live pitching event… 

WHEN: Wednesday, 23 April 2025 from 17h00–19h30
WHERE: Innovation City, Darter Studio, Longkloof, Gardens, Cape Town, 8001

Check out what the Top 10 are building, connect with other innovators, learn from industry experts, spot the next trend and future opportunities, and celebrate success in a vibrant, inspiring community.

Plus, come say Hoesit to The Open Letter’s very own Renier Kriel, who forms part of this year’s judging panel.

Get your tickets from Quicket, but hurry, seats are limited.

Get your tickets

IN SHORT

Cause dropping a headline or two at the braai never hurt anyone…

📦 On the move. Local food delivery platform Spaza Eats has just dropped its ”Spaza Parcel” delivery service to support informal traders, families, and small businesses in sending and receiving parcels. We love to see it…

👀 For your eyes only. WhatsApp is testing out some more privacy features as it is trialling advanced chat privacy features, including disabling chat exporting and automatic media downloads. What about screenshots, though?

🛻 E-Powered Bakkies. Bakkie-mal South Africa is getting a double-cab 4x4 electric bakkie (no, it’s not THAT one)... Enviro has announced the arrival of the Riddara RD6, a fully electric double-cab bakkie built by Geely. Looks insane.

🍃 Cannabis backtrack. The Department of Health has made a U-turn on the regulations that banned importing, producing and selling of foodstuffs containing cannabis. Hmmm…

😎 The Stack. Founders need tools and suppliers they can trust. Check out our Founder’s Stack with all your VC and startup legal sorted by Dommisse Attorneys, smarter and faster business banking and finance with Lula and loads more vital startup tools & services.

CHECK THIS OUT

Why Is the Isle of Man Talking to South Africans?

It’s not just about tax (although that’s nice too). The Isle of Man is showing real interest in South Africa’s startup and tech scene — and it’s worth paying attention to.

So why the outreach?

1. They see the opportunity

South Africa has talent, hustle, and high-growth ventures. The Isle of Man wants to help founders build a bridge to international markets — with the support of a stable, business-friendly jurisdiction. See their 2025 strategic objectives.

2. It’s a launchpad for going global

Many startups use the Isle of Man as a stepping stone to the UK, EU, and international investors. It offers a simple, trusted route for cross-border structuring and growth.

3. There’s a real startup ecosystem there

From FinTech and digital assets to gaming and e-commerce, the island isn’t just open to innovation — it’s actively enabling it through frameworks and government support.

4. They already work with SA founders

More than 35 South African businesses have a footprint on the island — including past winners of their annual Innovation Challenge.

5. They’re serious about sustainability

The Isle of Man is the only nation designated as an entire UNESCO Biosphere, attracting founders who think long-term and build with impact in mind.

6. They make it easy

From company setup to legal and financial services, the island’s well-established support ecosystem makes it easy to structure globally — without red tape.

7. They’re inviting you

This isn’t a cold sales pitch — it’s a real effort to connect with African founders and offer a platform to scale. You don’t need to figure it out alone.

Discover the Isle of Man

DON’T MISS THIS

Coming Up in SA’s Most Vibrant Tech Founder Network

Next up in our members-only founder network — The Open Collab.

11 April 12:000 — Chat Roulette: Meet other SA founders and builders when we all log in for an online check-in and chat to get to network — join The Open Collab to attend.

16 April 10:000 — Office Hours: Groups of SA founders log in and “work together” digitally via our platform and WhatsApp for an hour, helping and supporting each other — join The Open Collab to attend.

25 April 12:00 — The Path to Scale Masterclass: Discover the hidden pitfalls and proven tools of growth with Jason Goldberg, Art of Scale author and co-founder of Edge Growth.

PLUS: When you join The Open Collab get access to expert sessions, more than 90 SA founders to network with and weekly online and offline network engagements.

Join The Open Collab

JOBS IN TECH

Some of our friends are hiring. Noah person who fits the brief?

👨‍💻 Junior Software Engineer roles @ Octoco

🩺 Senior Full Stack Engineer @ Udok

🧱 Product Manager (Syft Analytics) @ Xero

🎨 Senior UI/UX Designer @ 5CA

💥 Marketing Manager @ Franc

Hiring? Get in touch, and we will feature it here.

GAME TIME

Three ZA startup lies and a truth

Only one of these South African startups is real.

WHAT YOU SAID

Pumping iron…

On Tuesday, we asked about your favourite workout, and weights are the game…

🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🏃‍♀️ Running on the treadmill (13%)

🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 🏋️‍♀️ Lifting weights (41%)

⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🤳 Filming content (4%)

🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🏊 Swimming (13%)

🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🧘‍♀️ Yoga/Pilates (10%)

🟨🟨🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🍕 Fitness whole pizza in my mouth (19%)

Your 2 cents…

Nice, Bruce! No cool-off? ♨️

Lekker, Madelein. Also hear the ocean calling sometimes. 🤿

Ha ha, the way you’re running between events, probably counts as cardio. ❤️‍🔥

Nice, Nick! Pretty sure they’d welcome your feedback over at Octiv. 🎯

BEFORE YOU GO

Here are 3 Ways We Can Help You

Advertise or Partners — Engage 22k South African professionals that read The Open Letter - partner with us or run an ad campaign — Reply to this email to get started.

Grow with Content — Love The Open Letter? Want to build a newsletter just like that for your brand? Want to grow your brand with content? We can do it for you. Check out Stream.

Startup Community — Join 100+ SA founders in our SA startup founder community called The Open Collab. Weekly online masterclasses, in-person and online meetups and a network like never before.

Until next time,
Elvorne, Renier & Jason

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