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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Reserve your seat now →

The Open Collab. Helping SA founders build better.

1. ROBODOC

How you like them apples?

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

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

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

2. GETTING IT DELIVERED

Feel the need… for speed…

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

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

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

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

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

3. POLISHING THAT JEM

A desk to build for the deskless?

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

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

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

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

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

4. GUARDIANS OF THE FOREST

The African teens cutting down deforestation

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

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

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

5. WASHING UP

The laundromat in your driveway

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

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

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

IN SHORT

Your shortcut to sounding switched on…

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

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

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

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

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

CHECK THIS OUT

Triple Your Startup’s Value?

Stability is way more attractive than unfettered growth

Still think rapid growth automatically translates to high business value?

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

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

Average Value By Growth Expectation

When you hit that 25%-35% sweet spot…

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

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

So, what’s the play?

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

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

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

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

Get started with a free express valuation →

DON’T MISS THIS

Coming Up in SA’s Most Vibrant Tech Founder Network

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

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

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

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

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

Join The Open Collab

JOBS IN TECH

Career glow-up, anyone?

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

🏗️ Product Owner @ SiiRA

🧭 Tech Lead @ Red Badger

🎨 Senior Product Designer @ Turn.io

🤳 Content and Social Media Executive @ One&Only Resorts

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

GAME TIME

Riddle us this…

Not pipes from a plant,

Not filters fresh off the shelf

But macadamia nut shells and grit

Clean the water itself.

We work where it's dry,

Where taps may run slow

From village to school,

Which local startup makes clean water go?

WHAT YOU SAID

Speak-a my language…

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

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

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

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

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

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

Your 2 cents…

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

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

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

HOW DID WE DO?

BEFORE YOU GO

Here are 3 Ways We Can Help You

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

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

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

Until next time,
Elvorne, Renier & Jason

Squad

Powered by beehiiv