Never miss an edition again, sign up for our 5-minute 🇿🇦 startup newsletter that over 20'000 South African professionals trust.

🌍 Address-ing Earth's Hidden 4 Billion

Plus: Air so dirty it kills a plastic canary 🦜, half-price treats, running with founders & giving the little guy that big-retailer power.

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.

Ja, but can you FICA and secure a loan with it?

‍

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

🧠 Putting Local SMEs on The $4 Trillion AI Map

Plus: SA’s record coding signups 🚀, mapping the moon & even pricier iPhones.

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.

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 — Cloud Accounting for SMEs and Beyond.

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 new hire sure had an interesting way of getting stuff done…

‍

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

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.

👑 R26bn Up for Grabs

Plus: Keeping your Uber on time 🚘, Poland’s flying Star Wars wheelchair & if this email were a video instead.

‍

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.

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.

Squad

💵 How to Raise R3bn in South Africa

Plus: SA’s next president? 🇿🇦 Everyone gets Starlink but us, Warren Buffett retires & the perfect business name.

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.

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

Our first Cape Town in-person gathering of the year; looks like a jol…

‍

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.

😎 Less Admin, More Money

Plus: Root-powered health 🌳, more rental income & SA’s solar-powered classrooms.

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:

Explore Bookem: Guided walkthrough of our healthcare practice management and EHR software: vimeo.com/1005766823

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…

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.

Squad

🔥 How to Live 5-10 Years Longer

Plus: AI jet fighters 🚀, CPT desalination, WhatsApp in any language & what to do if you’re always falling behind in work.

‍

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

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…

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.

🇿🇦 The Top 10 Startups in SA Right Now?

Plus: No more VAT hike 🔥, e-voting in SA & monster AI funding.

‍

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…

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.

🚀 Placing 90% of New Devs in Dream Jobs

Plus: OpenAI’s agent cheatsheet 🧙‍♂️, startup pitching, SA’s guaranteed jobs & introducing free business valuations for all Open Letter readers.

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.

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.

So, how we gonna keep training relevant?

‍

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.

Start now with bizval

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.

🔐 Safeguarding R128bn Per Day

Plus: A Cape Town grand prix? 🏁 OpenAI verifying organisations & Stitch’s successful next funding round.

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.

The written content you need, to grow your brand.

‍

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

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.

Ideal for whether you have internal hiring processes or not

‍

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.

💸 These Customers Spend 70% More...

Plus: The SA economic cheat sheet 🇿🇦, voice-activated panic button & meet the 10 Startup of the Year finalists.

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.

Nothing but the facts and key economic stats…

‍

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.

Cute: Remus, one of the dire wolf pups, at 2 months old…

‍

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.

While you sit back and watch your ARR grow…

‍

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.

🦾 When Software Runs The Fitness Studio

Plus: AI’s fake Quake 🫨, banking apps’ IDs, ZA’s winning TechLadies & selecting the perfect company name.

SA’s next top pothole? South Africans are no strangers to potholes, but this guy took pothole analysis to the next level. He goes around and films potholes and gives them a rating — you know so you can avoid the 10/10 ones altogether.

In this Open Letter:

Power play: Getting software to run your entire fitness studio.
AI’s fake Quake, banking apps’ IDs & ZA’s winning TechLadies.
Step one: Picking the perfect name for your new/next company.
Who recognised this local skills training startup? The results are in.
Startup power: 100+ businesses SA needs right now.

‍

A Masterclass in Scaling!

In two weeks, we have serial entrepreneur and Art of Scale author Jason Goldberg, founder of SME, enterprise and supplier development leaders, Edge Growth, doing an exclusive series of masterclasses in The Open Collab founder network.

The first one is about the Path to Scale.

Real insights into the science of failure and success.

‍

Jason is going to give us a map to navigate the hidden pitfalls and some tools to conquer during various company lifecycle stages. Join The Open Collab founder network to get access right now.

Join The Open Collab

The Local Player Doing the Heavy Lifting for Global Gyms

In today’s Tuesday Deep Dive, we look at the joys and frustrations of running a boutique gym and meet a local startup solving for a better way to manage the entire process, start to finish…

Running a gym or fitness studio is a workout all on its own…

Juggling everything from class schedules, membership fees, client retention, payment reconciliations and wrangling your trainers, coaches and staff. Not to mention keeping the place clean, the equipment running and the playlist banging can be a logistical triathlon.

And, more often than not, it’s all managed with disjointed systems, spreadsheets, WhatsApp groups, free booking apps, card readers and manual check-in sheets.

This causes friction for management, staff and the customer: One missed payment, a double-booked class, or an unregistered drop-in is all it takes to frustrate a loyal member out the door.

No wonder then that operational inefficiencies and poor member management are two of the 8 main reasons why gyms fail…

Yeah, chainsaws, blindfolded on a rollercoaster…

‍

Retention is the name of the game

Gyms are constantly trying to find ways to increase the lifetime value of their members.

Makes sense, since it’s a $100 billion+ global industry – closer to home, Virgin Active’s 634k (ish) active members bring in a cool R552 million.

And, just like any other business on the planet, loyalty matters. Retaining members locks in that sweet, sweet recurring revenue.

But they’re up against it from the very first set:

Over 80% of gym members leave within their first year of signing up.
It costs gyms 5x as much to get a new member vs nurturing an existing one.

Focusing on a frictionless member experience goes a long way to achieving member loyalty and keeping your bottom line healthy.

The local player doing the heavy lifting for gym owners

Octiv, an end-to-end gym management software platform, helps gyms consolidate all their activities into one platform.

The platform handles everything from:

Members: customisable branded members’ app, bookings and payments, class scheduling, workout programming and injury tracking.
Growth & engagement: Integrated lead management and member communication tools.
Operations: Membership management, automated invoicing, digital contracts and waivers.
Insights: Reporting dashboards to track coaching hours, member attendance, and financials.

We recently chatted to Octiv Founder & CEO Mark Fawzy, who says working on an app to replace a wet workout logbook in his gym bag sparked the idea of a gym management app to consolidate the various disjointed software systems used to run the CrossFit box where he trained.

Before it was Octiv, Mark’s BoxChamp was being used by nearly all the CrossFit boxes in SA at the time – with more boutique gyms like boxing and functional fitness gyms, yoga and pilates studios wanting to use the app and urging the Octiv rebrand.

When Covid hit, Octiv had to build in features like online virtual training sessions, a Covid symptom checker and, later on, an online booking system.

The future of exercise

With more than 1’200 gyms in 45 countries worldwide, Octiv is not slowing down.

They help gyms get a good handle on member and attendance trends with digital access control: scanning or snapping via the mobile app or personalised PIN codes. Having also recently launched Octiv Pay (powered by Stripe), which manages all payments directly within the platform, they’re opening markets like the UAE, US, Hong Kong, Thailand, etc.

All of this leads us to believe a data-rich platform like Octiv is a prime use case for AI to help gyms make better decisions i.t.o. classes or when to intervene in a member’s fitness journey to retain them…

They’re also looking to do some awesome stuff in the AI-powered, personalised coaching space, integrating with wearables and helping coaches provide better coaching with real-time daily insights into their clients' fitness needs.

With platforms like Octiv seriously flexing their muscles in the gym management platform space, we’re watching this…

CHECK THIS OUT

How to Find a Name That Sticks

Cool Name. Legal Name. Sorted.

What’s in your company name?

A lot, actually: 77% of consumers make purchasing decisions on brand name; 72% of the best brand names are made-up words or acronyms; and companies with cool names and branding pay 10% lower salaries.

You want something punchy, memorable and available. But every good name feels taken — and the pressure to “get it right” can lead to days of overthinking.

Start smart

Here’s the truth: you don’t need the perfect name to start. You need a good one you can register – get insights on what legal and trading names mean in SA.

Here are 3 powerful ways to get there faster:

✅ Use a name generator – Tools like NameLix use AI to spark unique, brandable ideas based on keywords you feed it. Great for creative inspiration.

✅ Mash it up – Combine two words you love. Think Shopify (shop + simplify) or Paystack (payments + stack). It’s a proven naming formula that works.

✅ Play the domain game – Check what’s available on .co.za/.com/.io with a hosting provider (or just try GoDaddy), try variations and don’t be afraid of quirky spellings — Fiverr and Lyft sure weren’t.

Lock it in

Found your perfect company name?

You can make sure it’s legally available in SA for free in just a few seconds with the company name search tool by our friends over at Govchain.

Check if my name’s available

IN SHORT

Did you hear…?

🏆 Wired4Winning. Last week, the second annual Wired4Women Awards winners were announced. This year’s awards saw nearly 500 submissions, with 65 finalists selected across the 13 award categories, recognising women’s achievements in tech and inspiring the next generation of women to see ICT as a viable and rewarding career path. Nice one, ladies.

🪪 Smart Play. SA’s smart ID and passport services are coming to your banking app soon. This comes after an agreement was reached between Home Affairs, the Border Management Agency (BMA), Government Printing Works (GPW), and SARS, and forms part of the plan to replace SA’s green ID book with smart ID cards over the next 5 years. Mooi.

🔫 Shake 'n Quake. Microsoft just dropped an AI-generated version of the old-school FPS Quake II. It’s to demo the gaming capabilities of its Copilot AI (part of its Labs initiative). We tried it out, but it’s very limited. Janky gameplay, with random stuff appearing as you change your view, not to mention reaching a time limit pretty quickly. A long way to go, but it seems promising…

💰 Content cash in. Spotify paid local Artists around R400 million in royalties last year, up 54% YOY. Awesome, given that SA and Nigeria are Spotify’s 2 biggest African markets. There’s also been a renewed call for TikTok to pay SA content creators despite the fact that with 17 million active users in the country (one of the largest African audiences), SA creators have been excluded from the opportunity. Scandalous.

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

BUILDER’S CORNER

3 Tips for Startup Founders

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

You’ve heard about Product-Market Fit: But have you heard about Brian Balfour’s Four Fits? Balfour led product development at HubSpot for years, developing a more holistic model for building tools for a specific market and distribution channel, with a supporting business model. He calls it the Four Fits and, if you are building a product, it’s worth checking out!

Building a newsletter business (like us!): Greg Isenberg is well known for unpacking business ideas and then showing people how to build them. Well, recently he had Beehiiv founder, Tyler Denk, on his pod to show in detail how one can use Beehiiv to build a newsletter as a business. You can watch it here.

Get $1m in funding: The Big Pitch is a StartupClubZA initiative that selects 10 startups from Joburg and 10 from Cape Town to participate in a pitch event where the eventual winner will walk away with an offer to invest $1 million. That’s right, one million dollars, which, looking at the direction of the ZAR lately, could be close to R20 million invested into your business. One catch: Joburg entries close today at 5 pm. So hurry up and enter here, Joburg friends.

BUILDING TOGETHER

Happening over at The Open Collab

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

Attended an exclusive scaling marketing masterclass 🌟.
Had a jol with the Mxit “return” on ESP last week (and playing Snake too).
Helped Mordi get some options for a front-end developer.
Got access to Gustav’s awesome funding roadmaps Notion toolkit.
Got access to Benjamin’s sales-driving tools.
Had long discussions about funding and sales acceleration 🤔.
Welcomed some more new members, ‘cos it’s fun in here 💃🏻🕺🏽…

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

Skillin’ up…

On Friday, we riddled you about an SA startup in the training space, and not everyone recognised Umuzi…

🟨🟨🟨🟨🟨🟨🔥 SkillForge – An AI-driven learning platform for African entrepreneurs. (50%)

🟩🟩🟩⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🏡 Umuzi – A skills training program for young professionals in high-demand industries. (22%)

🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 📚 EduLink SA – A tutoring marketplace connecting students with expert mentors. (14%)

🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🥾 NextStep Academy – A boot camp for job seekers entering tech and finance. (14%)

WE OWE YOU SOME CLARITY

In last week's (Friday, 4 April) Fast Five Friday titled Gatvol? There’s an AI for that, our first entry on the local rates and tax objection tool, Gatvol AI, gave stats on general property taxes in SA. These are actually unrelated to what the product does (help you evaluate to object to municipal rates) and were only used to illustrate that SA rates and taxes on property are generally pretty high.

The intention of the post was: If you feel you’re paying high rates, you can use this tool to get a new property valuation, and then the tool will help you object to your current rates and maybe help you get them lowered a bit.

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.

👉 Gatvol? There's an AI For That...

Plus: Robotic tattoos 🦾, small business simplified & opening the power grid for business.

‍

Expensive imports? US president Trump has slapped the entire world with trade tariffs, including 10% on all the penguins and seals on some uninhabited islands. Closer to home, South Africa is one of Trump’s “worst offenders” with a 30% tariff. The highest tariff in the world, though, goes to none other than poor Lesotho, whom Trump says “no one’s ever heard of” — shame.

Before the global trade war, though, it’s time for another Fast-Five Friday — 5 must-know things in SA startup, in 5 minutes. Let’s go…

‍

Hey, Look — We Got Some Awesome New Partners!

A very hearty welcome to 3 new partners joining our mission of championing SA founders and their startups…

Easy company registration and compliance on auto-pilot: Govchain.

‍

Accurate and holistic business valuations: bizval.

‍

The only place to go for your tech recruitment: OfferZen.

‍

Find theirs and loads more Open Letter partners’ special offers in our founder stack.

Check it out now

1. EARLY DAYS

Slowing the municipality’s roll

Owning property in South Africa is a pretty costly exercise…

SA ranks 3rd in the world for highest property taxes at 23.12%, pipped only by Singapore in 1st place (35.58%), and Belgium slightly higher than us at 24%.

Most people don’t know if their property valuation is accurate, and the problem is that if it’s too high, you pay unnecessary taxes. But even if you know it’s been valued too high, the process to object to this is a nightmare.

But we stumbled upon a South African startup that was “gatvol” of this and, low and behold, launched Gatvol AI, SA’s first AI-powered Municipal rates objector.

Combining technology, legal expertise and property knowledge, the platform uses AI to extract your valuation details directly from the municipal valuations roll, incorporate property data and comparable sales, to get a more precise valuation.

Gatvol will then compile an objection and submit it to the municipality on your behalf, hopefully scoring you reduced tariffs on your home.

Oh sorry, didn’t realise I’d installed solar, a braai room and a fire pool…

‍

2. MAKING ITS MARK…

Would you get tatt’ed by a robot?

Tattoo artists have a pretty finite earning potential: How many hours they can tattoo per day?

Sure, they could open up their own shop with extra booths employing other artists and such… but by and large, it is what it is.

Blackdot, a TattTech startup, has launched a machine that will give tattoo artists scale by letting them upload their designs to a marketplace and receive revenue from it each time someone gets tattooed by one of these machines, even if they’re on the other side of the world…

And it’s great for people getting tatts too, with reported pain levels as low as 2 out of 10, vs between 5 and 8 of conventional tattoo guns. And because Blackdot’s machine uses tiny black dots as fine as human hair, it can create very accurate, highly detailed tattoos.

Relax, if anything goes wrong it can 3D-print you a new arm too…

‍

3. FROM THE OPEN COLLAB FOUNDER NETWORK

Opening up the SA grid for business

With SA currently allowing independent companies to produce up to 100 MW of electricity, and plans are to remove the threshold altogether in the future, electricity generators (IPPS) can now buy and sell energy through the transmission grid (subject to Eskom and municipal agreement).

But it’s not straightforward: Eskom still supplies the power, you just prove you generated the same into the grid and it gets credited. Plus there are multiple stakeholders involved in the transaction, archaic metering systems & ops, and a matching process required between supply and usage.

To help simplify and streamline things, local EnerTech startup Open Access Energy is building a suite of products to:

Facilitate the transactions between generators, consumers, Eskom and municipalities
IPP proposal creation (normally a 3–5 process) now in just 5 minutes
A (free) solution for municipalities and utilities to access smart meters, collect and interpret the data, apply tariffs, and bill customers all in one place.

A vital service when SA’s energy market gets more opened up by 2026/2027.

Do you want to build with lekker startup builders like Timo C. King, head of product at Open Access Energy? Come on over, we build together at The Open Collab…

4. GET AI BUILT INTO YOUR FINANCE OPERATIONS

Simplify How You Run Your Business

Running a small business means juggling a million things. But what if you could take care of invoicing, quotes and accounting questions — without ever logging in?

That’s the power of Just Ask Xero (JAX) — your new AI business sidekick by our friends over at Xero.

It’s still in beta, but JAX is being developed to help you handle everyday tasks with a simple message, wherever you are: email, SMS or WhatsApp, JAX meets you where you work — and gets it done.

With JAX, you can:

✅ Create and send invoices while you’re still on the job.
✅ Get real-time answers on quotes, payments and what you’re owed.
✅ Ask support questions and get instant help — no digging needed.

No more end-of-day admin. No more second-guessing.

Smarter workflows start with JAX.

Plus: Did you know that if you use our exclusive Open Letter Xero partnership, you get Xero 90% off for 6 months?

No jokes.

Get your first 6 months of Xero @ 90% off

5. PITY THE (APRIL) FOOL

Sadly, Mxit isn’t back to stay — our exclusive breaking news on Tuesday was an April Fool’s joke in collaboration with our friends Dan Southwood-Wells and Herman Maritz from EskomSePush…

They restyled ESP to look like Mxit, complete with retro fonts and colours, bringing a wave of nostalgia to thousands of South Africans. We created the noise with our PR piece.

The prank went viral, racking up nearly 10k comments and reactions on Mxit (ag, we mean ESP), 20k+ site visitors, 400+ new Open Letter subscribers, and even landing on a Best April Fools’ 2025 list.

More than just a joke, this was a tribute to a true South African tech icon. Mxit wasn’t just a chat app… it was a launchpad for friendships, moonbases, and a generation of tech entrepreneurs.

Here’s to the OG social media app built right here in SA – and a big thanks to Dan, Herman and the ESP team for making it happen!

Now hit reply to this email and tell us: what was your favourite Mxit memory?

Hello, old friend. It’s been like 100 years…

‍

IN SHORT

Cool tech stories to drop at the braai this weekend…

🦻Listen up. SA-born hearing tech, hearX, has merged with Eargo to form LXE Hearing, combining Eargo’s cutting-edge design, emphasis on clinical quality and customer-first approach with hearX’s suite of Bose-powered products and its award-winning mobile app. Nice one.

🤖 Three free pics. ChatGPT’s new image generator has been so popular that OpenAI has rolled it out to its free tier users. This has, however, been limited to 3 image creations per day. At least for now.

☔️ Whatever the weather. Google has added its AI Nowcasting weather tool to its search to provide “highly localised and immediate weather updates” using satellite imagery and AI… Cool, so opposed to just looking out the window?

🌍 African STEM boost. Amazon has just launched its first African Think Big Space in Cape Town to train 100 educators to reach 10’000 learners across 6 provinces to bridge the gaps in STEM education. Let’s GO!

🏆 Last Chance to Enter. Innovation City’s Startup of the Year competition’s entries close today at 17:00! Innovation City membership, 100k+ in UX design and public recognition, this is a great opportunity to showcase your startup among the best there is. Don’t miss your chance at winning this prestigious award, enter here.

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.

4 April 12:00 — An Open Collab Network Exclusive Masterclass: Marketing for scaling your startup with Kurt Schröder from Double Shift — join The Open Collab to attend.

11 April 12:000 — Chat Roulette: Meet other SA founders and builders when we all login for an online check-in and chat to get to network — join The Open Collab to attend.

25 April 12:00 — The Path to Scale Masterclass: Discover the hidden pitfalls and proven growth tools with Jason Goldberg, Art of Scale author and co-founder of Edge Growth.

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

Join The Open Collab

JOBS IN TECH

“Yeah, I got skills. What you gon’ do about it?”

🪴 Product Owner @ Flexhire

👷‍♀️ Software Engineering Team Lead @ Bash

🎨 Product Designer @ Sand Dollar Design

😎 Talent Partner (Tech) @ MoonPay

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

GAME TIME

Find zen with today’s ZA startup haiku

Code, design, create,

Learning paths to shape careers,

Future skills today.

WHAT YOU SAID

On Tuesday, we asked about the most important workplace skill, and social’s the way…

🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 🤝 Social skills (65%)

⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 💀 Meme/GIF/Viral vid skills (5%)

🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🔥 Braai skils, of course (16%)

⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🎛️ Nah, it's your DJ skills (3%)

🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 💬 Actually, I discovered the perfect work skill… (11%)

Your 2 cents…

Ah, so a little bit of self-sacrifice, eh Vuyo. Spoken like a true founder. #startuplife 🛼

Right you are, Mpho, and we all sometimes wish we had a little more of it. 🤓

In a way that’s quite true, Bosvalu. How else you gonna attract a crowd? 🔊

He he, and we guess the best politicians win? 🎩

BEFORE YOU GO

Here are 3 Ways We Can Help You

Advertise or Partners — Engage 22 000 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 network called The Open Collab. Weekly online masterclasses, in-person and online meetups and a network like never before.

Until next time,
Elvorne, Renier & Jason

🧠 Making 20M+ Way Smarter South Africans

Plus: Mxit is back 🇿🇦, Apple’s health coach, voice-activated panic buttons & how to teach kids about money.

Looking good? This guy built his own custom Tesla roadster (from Model 3 parts) and drove it around town to gauge people’s reactions. Pretty cool, but not as cool as today’s Open Letter exclusive… see below…

In this Open Letter:

Open Letter exclusive: Are you sitting down? ‘Cos Mxit is back…!
Boosting performance: Using tech to boost 20M+ brains at work.
Apple’s health coach, Africa’s biggest startups & teaching kids about money.
Scaling to comps and overseas funding: 3 Things in startup this week.
SA’s biggest recent funding round raisers: The results are in.
Lonely building your startup? Join The Open Collab and get support.

‍

EXCLUSIVE: MXIT IS BACK!

Break out your phones and prepare to party like it’s 2005 because South Africa’s pioneering original instant messaging social network Mxit is back — with a few exciting new updates… check out our exclusive preview.

Welcome home, South Africa Get the scoop on Mxit’s big return

‍

Unlocking the Power of 20M+ Way Smarter South Africans

In today’s Tuesday Deep Dive, we examine the business impact of emotional intelligence, showcasing a local startup doing some amazing things with AI in this space…

Emotional intelligence (EQ) is a big deal in the workplace.

It’s the ability to understand, manage and use your own emotions while recognising and influencing others’ for better communication and relationships, along 5 core EQ verticals:

Empathy
Social skills
Self-awareness
Self-regulation
Motivation.

And, as you can imagine, EQ is magic in the workplace: Directly linked to performance, which is why it’s so rare – only 36% of us are truly emotionally intelligent and 90% of top performers rank highly in it, hence they get more money in the bank, while those without it experience poor communication, low morale and more conflicts, driving stress and burnout.

No wonder emotionally intelligent organisations report stronger customer experiences, higher customer loyalty and advocacy. #winning

If you think about it, it kinda makes sense…

‍

Ok, so how do you build EQ?

Surprisingly it’s much the same as building physical strength: Consistent effort and many reps.

At a neurological level, our brains form neural pathways based on repeated thoughts and behaviours; the more we engage in certain patterns, the stronger these pathways become. If those patterns happen to be good, great! If not, performance could suffer.

Enter neuroplasticity, your brain's ability to reorganise itself by making new neural connections throughout life: When you gradually replace old/negative patterns with positive thinking and behaviours, you can rewire your brain to make new neural connections over time.

And it’s important to do because our brains (unfortunately) have an inherent negativity bias – we tend to focus more on negative experiences. So it’s good practice to offset every single negative experience with at least three positive ones.

The local player building your brain gym

Mygrow is an emotional intelligence enablement platform driving personal and collective growth for individuals and teams with an online brain gym featuring pro psych workouts like the Three Good Things technique, signature strengths, affirming statements and more.

The platform takes users on a journey through daily video-based learning on a specific technique before a short learning-affirmation quiz, and then jumping into actually doing it.

Best part? You can make major changes with a series of just 10 minutes a day.

Mygrow designed their program around one daily session (they call it a Droplet), so no “catching up” or skipping ahead… And their gamified leaderboard tracks individual growth across teams, so you can see who’s working to grow their EQ.

Using AI to measure growth…

Mygrow’s powered by an AI-driven technique engine that scores your attempt at each technique (plus about 12 other factors), analyses your historical data and provides feedback for improving on a given technique.

And it works best in groups: Mygrow starts with a pilot of 5 to 10% of the organisation, who eventually becomes Mygrow “champions” that act as cheerleaders for the next subset of employees – helping with check-ins and being an in-person driver for the product while normalising growth and development in the entire company.

A reporting dashboard informs champions who are engaging, which teams are struggling and who are showing a lower or higher growth score than the average. (Taking into account that everyone has a different EQ starting point and thus, journey.)

We recently chatted with Theran Knighton-Fitt, Mygrow co-founder and chief humanising officer, who is confident after their push into AI since 2024 (which brought so much more consistency than human coaches) that a Mygrow Droplet just 3 times per week can guarantee a skills growth impact of more than 70% for any organisation...

With platforms like Mygrow helping individuals and teams grow their EQ and thus skills and performance, we’re watching this space…

IN SHORT

A few tech things to take to work…

🚨Vocal panic button. The world’s first voice-activated panic super app has just launched in SA. Valor lets users set a custom panic command phrase which, when used dispatches response teams to their exact location while monitoring the ambient sounds to assess the situation and update response teams. Hopefully, you don't say it accidentally or forget what it is.

🍏 Coaching you to health. Apple is reportedly working on improving its Health app to add an AI Coach to advise users on how to get healthy. Supposedly called Health+, it’s been worked on since 2023, with a reported launch date in mid to late 2026. Hopefully, it doesn’t tune you about how much Apple TV you’re watching…

🌍 Africa’s biggest startups. Funding into startups on the African continent reached $2 billion last year — a return to pre-pandemic levels. Here’s a rundown of Africa’s Unicorns, including SA’s very own TymeBank (2024) at $1.5 billion and our “Soonicorns” Clickatell (about $500 million), Yoco ($400 million to $500 million) and Onafriq (between $300 million to $500 million). We love to see it…

🪴 Teach ‘em young. Local e-learning platform Fintr (the peeps behind the FinMaster boardgame) is launching its brand new newsletter Mini Millionaires to help parents raise money-smart kids using a short, practical weekly email filled with tips, stories, and simple guides. We’re signing up now…

🏠 PropTech Boom. Local PropTech startup, Launchbase (which we featured here), recently revealed that after consolidating data from 2024, their platform managed to sell R4.8b worth of properties. Flexing the potential of PropTech in SA.

😎 The Stack. Founders need tools and suppliers they can trust. Check out our Founder’s Stack with fractional CTO and tech scaling with Octoco, easy-peasy cloud-based accounting software from Xero and 5 more vital startup tools & services. Pss we have some new services and products on there, go check them out…

BUILDER’S CORNER

3 Things for Tech Founders

Brought to you by Stream — you build your business, we tell the story.

Read Jason Golberg’s The Art of Scale: If you’re between 10 and 200 people with the chaos of scale creeping in, this book breaks down the science and art of growing in emerging markets — without the Silicon Valley fluff. From strategy and team to money and leadership, it’s packed with real-world stories, practical tools, and actual answers, plus 50+ free online tools. Buy your copy here.

Use SA’s new open-source IP strategy resource: If you're raising global capital, this open-source framework is a must. Created by Dommisse Attorneys with SA SME Fund, SAVCA, and Endeavor, it shows you how to set up IP offshore — without losing your SA team or getting stuck in legal quicksand. Built for speed, scale, and investor trust. Start using it here.

Become a 2025 Startup of the Year: If you’re building in SA and ready to raise your profile, this one’s for you. Innovation City’s annual competition helped spotlight past winners like Kena Health and Wamly — and this year, there’s extra value: entrants get access to a benchmarking report based on anonymised data from all submissions. Entries close this Friday, 4 April. Enter here.

BUILDING TOGETHER

Happening over at The Open Collab

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

Had an awesome first in-person event in Joburg 🥂🪩.
Helped Malan find a couple of great labour law consultants.
Helped Benjamin get some business valuator options to review potential investments.
Sourced Enrico some good Stellenbosch co-working space options.
Celebrated the arrival of Piet’s awesome new company swag!
Got power growth-hacking lessons from the guy that grew SnapScan 🚀.
Celebrated the success of Marco’s collab-inspired marketing strategy.
Welcomed a host of new members — so much fun in here 💃🏻🕺🏽.

Coming up in The Open Collab:

Join Office Hours tomorrow where we talk about all things startup. Bring your questions and get help in moving faster than ever before.
This Friday we have a Startup Marketing Masterclass hosted by Kurt Schröder, founder and CEO of DoubleShift - a leading startup marketing and branding agency.
PLUS access all our previous masterclasses including growth hacking, a 3 part sales masterclass and much more.

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

Join The Open Collab

WHAT YOU SAID

All for the money…

Last Friday, we riddled you which SA startup raised the largest seed round in 2023, and most bet on Naked, but actually it was Peach Payments with a US$31 million Series A round in April that year…

🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 💰 FloatPays (13%)

🟨🟨🟨🟨🟨🟨 🛡️ Naked Insurance (54%)

🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🔗 Stitch (13%)

🟩🟩⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 💳 Peach Payments (20%)

BEFORE YOU GO

Here are 3 Ways We Can Help You

Advertise or Partners — Engage 22 000 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 Founder Network — Join 100+ SA founders in our SA startup founder network called The Open Collab. Weekly online masterclasses, in-person and online meetups and a network like never before.

Until next time,
Elvorne, Renier & Jason

🇿🇦 3 Local Startups That Scored Big

Plus: Your chance to be No. 4 🏆, First National Bok, rage bait antidote & local AI funding.

Tried OpenAI’s GPT‑4o native image gen yet? It lets you generate and edit uploaded images with prompts, so you can do fun stuff like become fake BFFs with Zuckerberg on the streets of Jozi or re-imagine The Open Letter team as South Park characters…

‍

Back on Earth, though, it’s time for a very special Fast-FOUR Friday — 3 Startups of the Year you should know… and your chance to become number 4. Let’s go…

‍

Thank You, Joburg!

Our first-ever in-person Joburg event was a big jol (last night). It was awesome connecting with the Gauteng crowd — and, of course, we all left a little smarter and with hopefully loads of new AI business model ideas.

Look out for more upcoming events here and, if you want near 24/7 access to 100+ SA founders building cool things, plus free entry to all of our events, consider joining The Open Collab.

1. THE BOOST YOU NEED

Innovation City’s Startup of the Year 2025

Innovation City in Cape Town’s Startup of the Year Competition is back for its 4th edition...

And, if you ask previous winners like Kena Health (2022), Wamly (2023) and AI Diagnostics (2024), winning this could help put you on the startup map, validate ideas and teams, and even open up some partnership and investment doors.

We’re an official partner for the 2025 awards, and we’re going to unlock some extra value for entrants:

anonymised report from all of the entries
to help SA startups benchmark their progress

Meaning win or lose, entering gives you deeper insights and great value!

Entries are open until next week Friday, 4 April 2025, with the winner announced on 24 April at the Innovation City Awards Night Ceremony.

So if you’re a South African Startup (with an office in SA), have been going for less than 5 years, with a team of 2 or more, and generating monthly recurring revenue with an MVP or service in the market, you should enter now…

‍

Do so here

In today’s newsletter, we take some time to share about previous award winners and what it’s meant for their businesses.

2. SCREEN TIME

Using the sound of TB to improve patient diagnosis

Tuberculosis is the leading cause of death from a single infectious agent worldwide (1.25 million died from TB in 2023 alone) with nearly 30% of cases missed because it shares symptoms with a host of other diseases.

AI Diagnostics is a Tuberculosis diagnostics tool (wireless digital stethoscope and data capturing app) that leverages their TB detection AI model to analyse the sound of a patient’s lungs to either rule out TB or prompt further tests.

And it’s already delivering results with a 63% reduction in missed TB-positive patients…

On Winning the Innovation City Startup of the Year in 2024:

Before the membership (which we won as part of the prize), I was pretty convinced that we could build this business with a remote team, but my time at Innovation City showed me otherwise. Remote calls can't simulate the relationships, gut and trust that develop during in-person engagements — all of which are key for deep collaboration.

Co-founder and CEO, Braden van Breda

3. CAN YOU TAKE ME HIRE?

Recruitment, slicker and quicker

Hiring for a role can be time-consuming and costly – taking as much as 42 days (and costing R30k–R60k) to hire one person. Eina.

Wamly, an HRTech platform for one-way video interviews lets companies evaluate candidates asynchronously and flexibly while getting a better feel for them as they answer interview questions in a self-interview-style flow.

The platform also features screening forms, customisable interview questions, skills testing capabilities and administrative and collaborative tools to streamline your team’s interview and hiring process – saving companies as much as 70% compared to traditional interviews.

On Winning the Innovation City Startup of the Year in 2023:

Wamly tripled in revenue, reached profitability, expanded our product offering, more than doubled our staff complement, and is now gearing up for a Series A round to expand even more internationally.

Founder and CEO Francois de Wet remarks:

4. IN CONSULTATION WITH

The doctor in your pocket

Seeing a private healthcare provider in SA is a costly exercise – costing between R400 and R1’000 a visit.

Not to mention the less than 8 Drs per 10’000 South Africans, making it tricky for most South Africans to see a doctor when they need to.

Kena Health is a healthcare app that connects you with nurses, clinical associates, doctors, and mental health professionals to diagnose and treat you for anything from acne to a UTI, via text, voice or video call – for just R235 per consultation (including sick notes & prescriptions).

On Winning the Innovation City Startup of the Year in 2022:

We’ve gone from launch to 50k consultations delivered. We’ve lowered the cost of care by over 70% compared to a local GP — while maintaining a 4.7/5 customer rating. And we’ve landed Old Mutual and Shoprite as partners, which will see our growth accelerate from here.

CEO & founder Saul Kornik says:

YOU NEXT?

Today’s 5th spot is reserved in honour of the soon-to-be 2025 Innovation City Startup of the Year.

Will it be you?

Only one way to find out…

Enter here

IN SHORT

Your weekend convo starters, shorted…

🤝 Making the Shyft. Standard Bank’s Shyft trading app has launched the ability to trade shares on the JSE. This is over and above giving both Standard Bank and other local Banks’ customers the ability to invest in US equities, the European stock market and UK-listed companies. Very cool…

💰Securing the Bag. Local AI startup NOSIBLE has landed $1 million in pre-seed funding in a round led by Atlantica Ventures to launch its growth marketing efforts, scale sales, and accelerate the GTM strategy. Nice one.

😡 Fighting the Rage. A new social media app has been launched to fight rage bait (any content that stirs controversy). Sez Us lets users rate other users’ posts for approval, influence, insightfulness, relevance and politeness, in the hope it makes users think twice about posting controversial content. Now, where’s the fun in that?

🏉 Backing the Boks. FNB has become the new principal sponsor of the Boks. Pick n Pay also becomes a Tier 1 sponsor, with its logo appearing on the back of the jersey, while Coca-Cola’s logo will appear on their shorts. Check out this hilarious vid about the new rule changes brought about by the FNB partnership.

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.

28 March 12:00 — Growth hack like SnapScan. An Open Collab Network Exclusive Masterclass: How to growth hack in SA with Ben Blaine from Neurabuild (ex SnapScan)— join The Open Collab to attend.

4 April 12:00 — Make them take note. An Open Collab Network Exclusive Masterclass: Marketing for scaling your startup with Kurt Schröder from Double Shift — join The Open Collab to attend.

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.

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

Lock in your next step…

🏗️ Product Manager: Insights & ML Empowerment, Group Data Platform @ Sanlam

👩‍💻 Various Tech Jobs @ Wamly

🎨 Senior User Interface Designer @ SYTMN

💼 Business Development Manager @ Cue

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

GAME TIME

Test your SA Startup knowledge…

WHAT YOU SAID

Rather handy…

On Tuesday, we asked how you tackle home renovations and repairs, and most of us are not too shabby at DIY…

🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 🧰 I’m well-versed in all things DIY. (33%)

🟨🟨🟨🟨⬜️⬜️ 🪵 I Noah guy. (24%)

🟨🟨🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️ 💬 I get recommendations on my neighbourhood groups. (16%)

🟨🟨🟨🟨⬜️⬜️ 💸 Saw the quote, fainted and now learning how to DIY on YouTube. (27%)

⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 👷‍♂️ Nah, I have an even better solution… (0)

Your 2 cents…

Nice, Isaac! So how often do you get it right before needing to make the call? 🔧

Great, Timothy! We’re trying to show everyone just how much wonderful talent and potential there is in our country. 🚀

BEFORE YOU GO

Here are 3 Ways We Can Help You

Advertise or Partners — Engage 22 000 South African professionals that read The Open Letter - partner with us or run an ad campaign.

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.

👷‍♀️ Bigger Deals for The Little Guy...

Plus: Paying off your takeout 🍟, Google’s Mzansi grads & Africa’s first AI factory.

Fast enough? Chinese carmaker BYD has announced a new EV model with a battery-charge time of just 5 minutes. That’s almost 3X as fast as Tesla Superchargers and about the same as filling up on diesel/petrol. Plus: BYD says it has its sights on releasing this in SA and Brazil specifically. 🏎️💨

In this Open Letter:

Sizing opportunities: Getting big buying power for the little guys.
Paying off takeout, Google’s Mzansi grads & Africa’s first AI factory.
Coming in hot: 3 Trends, tools and tips when building your startup.
Who knew this SA restaurant profit booster? The results are in.
Lonely building your startup? Join The Open Collab and get support.

‍

Joburg, See You On Thursday!

Our first-ever in-person Joburg The Open Letter event is happening this Thursday (27 March), meaning cool peeps, lots of gees, drinks and an evening of great conversations, networking and a whole lot of fun.

We’re doing a fireside chat with The Awareness Company’s Priaash Ramadeen and Melio AI’s Merelda Wu on new AI-powered business models and how to build an AI company in Africa.

Better hurry — tickets are almost gone.

Buy Tickets

Boosting SA's Small Builder Buying Power

In today’s Tuesday Deep Dive, we examine the challenges of contractors and independents up against megacorps in the built industry, showcasing a local startup that’s solving for a way to level the playing field and give the little guys a shot…

Trying to get a good deal on building supplies is hard…

Just ask the 55’000+ contractors on the Construction Industry Development Board’s Register of Contractors, and nearly 2’800 small independent hardware stores helping build South Africa.

(Not to mention the informal trader with a shelf or two of those critical basic building necessities…)

Sure hardware store chains and massive construction companies have big budgets and sweet, sweet bulk buying power to negotiate with, but what about the little guy doing smaller, ad hoc jobs, or the small independent hardware store that doesn't have the pipeline (or shelf space) for 40’000 boxes of tiles?

First rule of small business: Never say no to a potential business opportunity…

‍

But it leaves them scrambling…

They can't compete, so have to accept smaller margins, or run the risk of losing the deal entirely.
Shopping around at various suppliers for the best price is one solution, but quickly gets untenable when you have to source loads of items.

Go the distance…

Another challenge with the larger, hardware chains is their footprint is typically heavily concentrated in (and around) SA’s major metros and cities.

Just take a look at Builders’ stores, or even Talisman Tool Hire’s more than 100 stores. 70% of them are in Gauteng and the Western Cape, leaving only a handful in each of SA’s other provinces and neighbouring countries. (No wonder they dominate: 22% of all hardware stores in SA…)

This does mean you have large swathes of underserved areas in SA, but this means contractors need to travel large distances frequently to get their building supplies.

And independent hardware stores cannot get their stock delivered from manufacturers unless they place an order of a specific size.

Big buying power for the little guy…

Sellers Plug is a local startup that simplifies the building supply procurement process for contractors and independent hardware stores, using tech to streamline and help them harness the bulk buying power.

It all started during Covid, when Sellers Plug spotted an opportunity to consolidate orders from multiple contractors, get it from a larger supplier (usually near a big city/major metro), and bring it to a centralised warehouse to distribute.

It wasn’t long before they realised they could secure better prices with bulk orders, passing those savings onto the lil guy (who then operates with meatier margins).

A neat gig with a lot of potential: They naturally help independents deal with multiple large suppliers and even use local transporters to deliver the supplies from their warehouse directly to the site.

Great, now make it bigger…

Sellers Plug is now also working with small, emerging manufacturers to get their products onto their platform, which helps grow the industry from the other angle too – great for manufacturer expansion without having to invest in infrastructure like trucks and warehouses.

They’re currently building an AI inventory system to help their partners get a handle on which product line sells best in which province. And it will eventually provide a host of product insights, including packaging.

With platforms like Sellers Plug connecting contractors, independent hardware stores, local transporters and emerging manufacturers all in the name of helping the small guy win, you know we’re watching this space…

IN SHORT

Good to keep the conversation going…

💎 Polishing a Jem. Our friends, local HR Tech platform Jem HR have just announced (like at midnight last night) their R60m Pre-Series A funding round led by Old Mutual subsidiary Next176 (also friends of ours). The funding will help the WhatsApp-based HR & employee benefits platform expand beyond SA, grow the team, and enhance its platform with new products. Big congrats Caroline, Simon & the Jem HR team.

🌿 Branching Out. FNB’s venture capital arm, The FNB Vumela Enterprise Development Fund, and Edge Growth has just invested R15 million into local AI startup Trade Shield, a trade credit risk assessment platform that uses advanced data analytics, predictive modelling, and AI. Very nice…

🌍 On the Map. Cassava Technologies is looking to establish Africa’s first AI factory with its plans for a state-of-the-art data centre that’s powered by NVIDIA’s GPU-based supercomputers to accelerate AI model training, fine-tuning, and advanced inference capabilities. Taking African AI next-level…

🎓 Google Grads. SA’s first cohort of grads from Google’s Startups Accelerator: South Africa programme has been announced. The founders have completed the 3-month mentorship programme and have landed some non-dilutive funding as well as free credits on the Google Cloud Platform to facilitate app development. Congrats — keeping an eye on these startups…

🍔 Chow Now, Pay Later. DoorDash and Klarna got tongues-a-wagging this past week after they announced their partnership to give DoorDash customers the ability to purchase food on the platform and pay it off across four interest-free payments via BNPL player Klarna. Jip. Crazy times.

😎 The Stack. Founders need trustworthy tools and suppliers. Our Founder’s Stack includes an easy-to-apply R5M business finance facility from Lula, next-level authority building and lead generation with Stream, and loads more vital startup tools and services.

BUILDER’S CORNER

3 Things for Tech Founders

Brought to you by Stream — you build your business, we tell the story.

Vibe coding yet? Vibe coding is using AI tools to generate and refine software with natural language prompts. This means developers can create just by describing what they want (no need to write code). Naturally, this opens the door to more collaboration and allows people with limited technical ability to build really cool apps quickly (although having a technical background still helps a lot). Check out his cool guide to get you started.

Fancy $1m in funding? Our friends over at Startup Club ZA, just announced the Big Pitch, where founders get the chance to battle it out on stage for a shot at a massive $1,000,000 investment (yep, with six zeros — pending due diligence, of course). The next qualifier’s going down in Joburg on August 13, and if you’ve got a startup with some firepower, this is your cue to jump in. More details here.

What we’re reading: If we hear from one more American entrepreneur about how they use EOS (the Entrepreneurial Operating System), we’re going to start thinking that EOS might be the main reason the US is a global economic superpower. Seriously, though, tech startup founders, agencies and even media companies have been touting EOS to the point where we caved. We got ourselves Traction by Gino Wickman and are busy working through it.

BUILDING TOGETHER

Happening over at The Open Collab

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

Got a ton of awesome startup podcasts to check out — thanks, Elijah 🚀.
Got our tickets for our first-ever event in Joburg 🥳.
Got another host of awesome and unique startup tools.
Discovered a super affordable text-to-speech app for Mac.
Helped Lenard with some connections in the local EV space.
Helped connect Jason with some startups in the human rights space.
Got a few peeps a sweet 20% discount on their newsletter platforms.
Lined up a few beta testers for Thijan’s next project… 🏕️
Welcomed more new members — what a pleasant din in here.

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

Better bites…

Last Friday, we riddled you about an SA startup that helps increase restaurant profits, and many of us recognised Munch…

🟨🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🍽️ Morsel.Tech (20%)

🟨🟨🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️ 📖 MenuMate (25%)

🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 🍔 Munch (45%)

🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🥗 MealSync (10%)

Your 2 cents…

True dat, Khanyiso. It’s also happens to be 100% spot on. 🎯

BEFORE YOU GO

Here are 3 Ways We Can Help You

Advertise or Partners — Engage 22 000 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 80+ 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

📗 We Painting Joburg Green (You In?)

Plus: A break from the socials 🌲, study refunds & the ultimate SA panic button.

‍

Digging for secrets? An Italian team claims to have discovered massive spiral structures stretching over 600 metres underneath the pyramids of Giza. The peer-reviewed research was done with SAR scans (Synthetic Aperture Radar), and they think there might be more chambers up to 2km beneath the famous pyramids. What? 🐪

A little closer to home, though, it’s another Fast Five Friday: 5 Things in SA startup — let’s go!

Hi Jozi, Got Plans for Thursday Evening?

Until now, we have only held events in Cape Town & Stellenbosch, but that’s all changing this coming Thursday, 27 March, when we host our first-ever in-person event in Joburg!

Drinks, snacks, insights and great vibes.

‍

It’s going to be an evening filled with networking with other founders and innovators in your city, as well as a panel discussion with Merelda Wu from Melio AI and Priaash Ramadeen from The Awareness Company.

Buy Tickets Now

Psss.. today is your last chance to grab some early bird tickets at 50% off.

1. GET OUT THERE

Screening your screen time

Screen time is rising and SA leads the world…

We spend more than half our day (9 hours and 24 minutes) looking at screens, with just under 4 hours of that on social media: more than anywhere else on earth.

If you’re concerned about getting rectangular eyes, you could always add limits to your fav apps taking up most of your time, but these are pretty easy to bypass, not to mention rely heavily on our own self-restraint.

So we had a good laugh when we found Touch Grass, an app that lets you pick the apps that are most distracting to you, set a time limit on usage, and then force you outside to snap a pic of actual grass.

And don't bother trying to fool it by snapping a pic of other foliage. Touch Grass uses a computer vision AI to distinguish between outdoor grass and other plants…

Just make sure it’s the right kind of grass…

‍

2. EARLY DAYS

Boardroom with a brew

With the rise in work from anywhere, coffee shops need to cater to Elon’s beloved “laptop generation.” This means WiFi, plug points and even laptop-specific tables to lock in those digital workers.

A trick they’re missing though is a way to cancel ambient noise during video calls – cafes aren’t exactly libraries, you know. So when we ran into Air Offices co-founder Brendan at our last event in Stellenbosch, we were intrigued.

Air Offices lets you find and book closed-off boardroom spaces within some of Vida e Caffè’s 320 stores throughout Africa (a quiet place to take a virtual meeting or meet up in-person, off-site). This helps you ensure you’ve got a quiet spot to take that call.

It’s still early days for Air Offices, but we wouldn’t be surprised if more coffee shops start doing this real soon.

Get that dedicated room in the shop instead

‍

3. HAPPY HUMAN RIGHTS DAY

Doing the right thing

South Africans' 27 Rights are enshrined in Chapter 2 of SA’s Constitution: The Bill of Rights. But our Gender-Based Violence is out of control – with women and children in townships most vulnerable.

Memeza is a community safety initiative that’s looking to change that with SA’s first public alarm system: Hit the panic button and it alerts everyone from friends and family to the neighbours, SAPS and CPF via SMS – giving everyone the exact coordinates.

When Memeza ran their pilot programme in Diepsloot in 2023, they saw a 100% prevention rate in houses where the alarms were installed, a 60% decrease in serious crimes, and tellingly a migration in crime hotspots (criminals went elsewhere).

They’ve also deployed large quantities of their personal alarm that makes a sound as loud as fireworks (at 140 db – the threshold of pain), which led to a 67% decrease in sexual offences…

Alarms… effective

4. FROM THE OPEN COLLAB COMMUNITY

Study break

Around 60% of SA’s 200k annual first-year university students are dropping out (many due to finances)... Not to mention the stiff competition among the 1.9 million+ students vying for NSFAS funding…

It’s super strict: They won’t pay if you fail a funded model, potentially landing some SA students in hot water.

Enter Studii, the first-ever module protection cover (in the world) that helps students “re-fund” the payment of their failed modules for around R75 per month.

It doesn’t just give away “free money”, though… Studii looks at your participation mark when considering its payouts, motivating students to attend classes while providing some failsafe with that one pesky Statistics module until you pass.

‍

PS: Marco Booyse, co-founder and CEO at Studii is part of our Open Collab Founder Network. Join us over at The Open Collab and build with founders like Marco.

‍

5. THE ULTIMATE IP RESOURCE

A Game-Changer for SA Startup Investment

International investors have made it clear that they need to see your IP outside of SA before they invest. However, navigating IP, tax, and exchange control laws has been complex, expensive, and slow until now.

That’s why Dommisse Attorneys has partnered with SA SME Fund, SAVCA, and Endeavor to open source a standardised IP Strategy for South African companies.

Now, any startup can follow a predictable, repeatable process to establish IP offshore — from day one.

✅ Protect your IP while keeping your SA-based team.

✅ Unlock international investment with a framework investors trust.

✅ Move faster, reduce costs, and scale globally.

This isn’t just guidance — it’s a game changer for startups looking to raise global capital.

Get started now

IN SHORT

Short and schweet tech tidbits…

🌿 Good Tyming? TymeBank is forging ahead on its mission to become SA’s biggest digital bank. It hit 10.7 million customers at the end of last year, with deposits climbing from R6.3 billion to 6.9 billion in just 6 months. Nice to see.

🪄 Gee Wiz. Alphabet (Google’s Mom) announced its largest-ever (possibly) acquisition. It bought Israeli cybersecurity Wiz for a cool $32 billion, more than double the current record deal when Google took over Motorola Mobility for $12.5 billion in 2012. All cash nogals.

🤖 Meep. Morp. Zeep. Nvidia, Disney Research, and Google DeepMind are teaming up to develop Newton, a physics engine to simulate robotics movements IRL. Disney is set to use it to power Star Wars-inspired “cute little droids” for its theme parks. Again ask: What. Could. Go. Wrong…

🦄 AI Unicorns. 23 startups achieved unicorn status (reaching a coll $l billy valuation) in Q1 of this year. Nearly half of those are playing in the AI space, with 7 of the top 11 startups having a valuation between $1.6 billion and $2.8 billion being AI startups. Is this officially a thing now?

😎 The Stack. Founders need tools and suppliers they can trust. Check out our Founder’s Stack with your own CTO for remarkable tech builds with Octoco, your own CFO for a fraction of the price with OCFO and 12 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.

27 March 18:000 — In-Person Event: Our first-ever JHB event is happening and it’s all about building a world-class company with AI — Network members get in free, non-members get your tickets here.

28 March 12:00 — An Open Collab Network Exclusive Masterclass: How to growth hack in SA with Ben Blaine from Neurabuild — Join The Open Collab to attend.

4 April 12:00 — An Open Collab Network Exclusive Masterclass: Marketing for scaling your startup with Kurt Schröder from Double Shift — Join The Open Collab to attend.

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?

👩🏻‍💻 Our friends over at Lula are looking for a whole host of software and data engineers. Great company with a great culture — so if you’re keen on a move, go check it out!

🎯 Some of the most exciting startups in SA have come out of the Octoco stable. If you are a hardware engineer looking to work with SA’s finest, go check out their openings here.

💡 On Tuesday, we covered FARO (ICYMI: Tuesday’s Open Letter feat. FARO), SA’s latest retail startup that uses tech to scale unlike anything this country has seen before, and they’re hiring a CTO here.

🦾 Merelda Wu (one of our guests at our upcoming event in Jozi)’s company, Melio AI, is hiring for various roles in AI. You can have a look here.

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

GAME TIME

Riddle us this…

I start with an “M,” but I’m no map,

Helping you sell with just a quick tap.

Inventory, orders, I handle them all,

Restaurants and cafes, big or small.

WHAT YOU SAID

Fashion police…

In Tuesday’s FARO piece, we asked how you buy your clothing, and surprisingly most of us wait for the Birthday/Christmas haul to sort us out… 🤷

🟨🟨🟨🟨🟨⬜️ 🐊 I’ve got a brand, and I stick with it. (26%)

🟨🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ ☑️ I walk into the first shop, buy the first thing, done. (12%)

🟨🟨🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️ 😎 Someone with better fashion sense shops for me. (15%)

🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 🎁 I wait for my Birthday/Christmas to sort me out for the year. (29%)

🟨🟨🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🛍️ I might have a problem… (18%)

‍

Your 2 cents…

Hey, yes give it a go and let us know how you find them, Isaac 💪.

Lol, Pdjan. Please, please tell us you’re wearing the same one right now 🤣.

Sweet, let us know when you do… 🛍️

Nice one, Mervyn. Ja, people often discount the value of trust. Big mistake, trust is everything 👔.

Seems like most people here are on board with that, Madelein 🧢.

BEFORE YOU GO

Here are 3 Ways We Can Help You

Advertise or Partners — Engage 21 000 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 90+ 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

...

HEAR FROM OTHER READERS

Realistic and insightful insights into businesses, mainly startups. Has helped me understanding business a lot better

Martin

The Open Letter is a great way for me to get out of the day to day of my work and see what else is happening out there. It helps me add value to my portfolio companies.

Brandon

Different type of business news and views of the future.

Morne

Best newsletter for quick trends in the technology and startup space, with many quirky jokes, and an easy to read and follow model

Ludwig

I enjoy the concise round-up of latest tech/startup news and the relevance to South Africa

David

An informative newsletter that gives insight into sectors in the economy I don't have exposure to. I always click through a number of the articles and topics they reference. It's worth the time it takes me to read it!

Veda

It’s great that there’s one place to get all the latest information in tech/startups to stay up to date!

Renda

The Open Letter is great space to get informed of relevant trends. Whether you are an entrepreneur or futuristic leader, this one's for you!

Interesting and quirky tech news and items often about things I didn't know or wasn't aware of. I also benefit from many of the Start-up items and information, thanks.

Chris

I look forward to Tuesdays and (now) Fridays because of this newsletter. I find it fascinating - a group of interesting South Africans exploring various industries and sharing local and global insights. Thank you!

Joseph

This is the best newsletter on Startups in SA and everything innovation related. Its a gem and a great asset that keeps me abreast of whats happening in tech locally and abroad.

Bulu

The Open Letter strikes the perfect balance between globally-relevant startup advice and trends specific to SA, all neatly wrapped up in a digestible (and kinda funny) morning read

Nicholas

Renier and team have successfully created an intellectual hub for SA's local tech insiders.

Dane

An interesting, well curated information about new technology and tipos and ideas for startups

William

I have never met Renier and the team from The Open Letter - in fact, the Capetonian Cool in me would probably walk straight past them in public! - but I never ignore a fresh newsletter in my inbox. It's possibly the best source for current and meaningful insights into the local innovation industry, and it's delivered in a way that always makes it stand out. Keep up the good work!

Dillon

The one newsletter, if you're building something, you shouldn't miss

Nicholas

Great place to get insight into the startup scene in South Africa.

Gerhard

Most informative and fun newsletter covering the start up landscape

HAns

This is a must-read local newsletter for business folk, techies and entrepreneurs alike.

Wesley

A great resource for entrepreneurs and tech enthusiasts who want to stay up to date, but don't have the time to scroll through the internet every day.

Pieter

This is the best newsletter in SA. A must read for all startup founders, people interested in business and tech and those who just want to stay up to date with trends in the industry in SA and globally.

John

Amazing curated nuggets on the tech industry at large with interesting analysis on market opportunities. Short and sweet, serious yet funny and easy to read. Love it

Sebastien

Awaiting the day the disc golf is featured. Then my testimony will be fabulous

Chris

If you're looking for a combination fun business news, practical start-up advice and the odd meme, The Open Letter is for you.

Carl

A great day to keep to start your day to inspire you and keep up to date on latest trends in the venture space

Paul

Fun and informative, great for anyone working in the startup space or thinking of moving into it.

Karel

The best and most applicable newsletter if you in the tech or startup space in SA!

Michael

THE OPEN LETTER NEWSLETTER

WHAT YOU MISSED

🌍 Address-ing Earth's Hidden 4 Billion

Hey Cape Town, Come Ask The Hard Questions

1. SUPPORT YOU NEED

Connecting the payment dots

2. WASTE NOT, WANT NOT

Something nice, at half the price

3. LACE UP

Wanna run into other founders?

4. FROM THE OPEN COLLAB COMMUNITY

Addressing the unaddressed…

5. INTERESTING STARTUP ABROAD

The canary in your kitchen

IN SHORT

Well-timed headlines to carry a whole convo…

CHECK THIS OUT

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

Here’s the game-changer:

So why should you make the switch?

A Smarter Way to Run Your Business

DON’T MISS THIS

Coming Up in SA’s Most Vibrant Tech Founder Network

JOBS IN TECH

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

GAME TIME

Three ZA startup lies and a truth

WHAT YOU SAID

Time to get paid…

HOW DID WE DO?

BEFORE YOU GO

Here are 3 Ways We Can Help You

🧠 Putting Local SMEs on The $4 Trillion AI Map

90% Off Your Accounting Fees for 6 Months!

TRENDING NOW

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

The challenges of adopting AI…

The AI tools they need

The local player getting the little guy into the AI game

CHECK THIS OUT

Is Your Business Global-Ready?

Our playbook to help SA founders remain global-ready

1. Protect your value early

2. Give investors what they need

3. Keep your growth gains

IN SHORT

Tech a few things with you…

FOUNDER’S CORNER

3 Tips for Business Builders

BUILDING TOGETHER

Happening over at The Open Collab

WHAT YOU SAID

Pumping iron…

HOW DID WE DO?

BEFORE YOU GO

Here are 3 Ways We Can Help You

👑 R26bn Up for Grabs

Last Chance for The Early Birds

1. EARLY DAYS

Keeping the rideshare wheels turning

2. GET IN THE GAME

Love me (a) tender

3. FROM THE OPEN COLLAB COMMUNITY

A warmer way to cold email?

4. GUESS WHO’S BACK (MAYBE)?

A salute to those gone before us

5. BUT IS IT REAL?

Superbike for the skies?

IN SHORT

Serve hot takes, without the homework….

CHECK THIS OUT

Dev hiring chaos = tech team death spiral

DON’T MISS THIS

Coming Up in SA’s Most Vibrant Tech Founder Network

JOBS IN TECH

Work that works for you.

Syneru_React_Developer_Job_Listing.pdf

GAME TIME

Find zen with today’s ZA startup haiku…

WHAT YOU SAID