News
+3
Apr 14, 2026
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8 min read
200 SA Startups Raised Funding in Covid: Where Are They Now?
Between 2020 and 2021, over 200 South African startups raised funding in what became the biggest deal period in SA startup history. The total capital deployed ran into the billions of rands. Five years on, the clearest verdict from the data is this: the companies that built infrastructure for businesses survived and scaled, and the companies that bet on permanent shifts in consumer behaviour mostly didn't.
News
+1
Apr 8, 2026
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7 min read
One SA Founder Builds a New AI Agent Every Day – Here Are Five Using AI in Ways You Didn't Expect
The global AI conversation is dominated by billion-dollar labs. But some of the most creative applications right now are coming from South African founders who aren't trying to build the next foundation model. They're playing, experimenting, shipping, and in at least one case, measuring their entire company's output in tokens. Here are five worth watching.
News
+4
Apr 8, 2026
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8 min read
96% of Africa's Mobile Money Fraud Is Caught by Customer Complaints, Not Systems – FinTech Needs to Fix That
South Africa lost R2.7 billion to banking fraud in 2024 as digital fraud attempts nearly doubled year-on-year. And across the continent, the GSMA reports that the vast majority of mobile money fraud is still detected because a customer picks up the phone, not because a system flags it. Orca Fraud, a Cape Town startup monitoring $5 billion in monthly transactions, argues the fix isn't better tools at individual companies. It's shared intelligence between them.
News
+1
Mar 27, 2026
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5 min read
LIV Golf South Africa Generated R800M+ in Four Days – Here's What That Means for SA
More than 100,000 fans. Over R800 million in estimated economic impact. The biggest professional golf tournament in South African history. And before the final putt dropped, organisers confirmed they'd be back in 2027.
News
+1
Mar 25, 2026
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4 min read
Littlefish Got All Three of SA's Biggest Banks on Its Platform: Now It Just Raised $9.5M
Johannesburg-based littlefish has raised a $9.5 million Series A funding, led by Partech to scale its merchant operating system across Africa. Standard Bank, FNB, and Absa (all three of South Africa's Tier 1 banks) are already clients. Monthly recurring revenue has grown 30x since the seed round.
News
+1
Mar 24, 2026
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4 min read
Happy Pay Raises $5M – Its Model: Advertising Pays for Your Credit, Not You
Cape Town-based Happy Pay has closed a $5 million (R84M) seed round led by Partech, the global VC firm with over $2.5 billion under management. The round brings Happy Pay's total funding to approximately $7.5 million. The company charges consumers zero interest, zero fees and zero deposit. Instead, an advertising network subsidises the cost of credit.
News
+2
Mar 20, 2026
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5 min read
The R30 Billion Pivot: How Three South Africans Built BVNK and Sold It to Mastercard
The BVNK Mastercard acquisition for R30 billion, roughly $1.8 billion, is a massive moment for South African entrepreneurship. It isn’t just about the money; it’s about three South Africans building a company in just five years and selling it to one of the biggest financial names on the planet. This deal is officially the largest stablecoin acquisition ever, even beating out Stripe’s billion-dollar purchase of Bridge.
News
+1
Mar 18, 2026
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4 min read
Skynamo Acquisition: The Stellenbosch Field Sales Platform Processing $70M a Month Just Got Acquired by ERP Giant Klipboard
Klipboard, a UK-headquartered ERP and business management software group with 55,000 customers in 74 countries, has acquired Skynamo, the Stellenbosch-built field sales platform used by nearly 1,000 manufacturers, wholesalers and distributors globally. The deal price was not disclosed. Founder Sam Clarke and the team stay on.
News
+2
Mar 16, 2026
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5 min read
It's Not Who You Are, It's Who You're Paying: How Discovery Bank Cut EFT Fraud by 80%
Discovery Bank has reduced EFT fraud by 80% since October 2025, using an AI system that monitors 9.5 million data events daily and does something most fraud tools don't: it analyses the beneficiary, not just the sender. If people like you don't normally pay that recipient, or if that recipient has been flagged across Discovery's client base, the system intervenes. Medium risk gets a warning. High risk gets blocked.
News
+1
Mar 16, 2026
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5 min read
Resolute Education Is Selling a Robotics Teaching Business in a Box: Here's What You'd Actually Be Buying
Looking for a business opportunity? You can now skip the years of building a STEM programme from scratch and open an after-school club or dedicated centre on a proven foundation. The SA coding and robotics provider behind 450+ schools and 200,000+ learners is now franchising. Resolute's "Business in a Box" gives you a CAPS-aligned curriculum, robotics kits, an LMS with 100+ hours of video content, and SACE-endorsed training. But what does the opportunity actually look like for an operator?
News
+1
Mar 12, 2026
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4 min read
Still Good Opens The Goods: A Short-Dated Marketplace to Clear Distressed Stock & Help Retailers Move Problem Goods
The Cape Town-based scale-up Still Good has launched an online clearinghouse for distressed and short-dated stock directly from manufacturers. By shifting from retail mystery bags to a transparent marketplace model, the company aims to intercept a portion of the 10 million tonnes of food wasted annually in South Africa before it ever reaches a supermarket shelf.
News
+1
Mar 11, 2026
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5 min read
Yazi Raises First Institutional Round at R30M Valuation With 80% of Its Leads Coming From AI Search
South African WhatsApp research platform Yazi has closed its first institutional funding round at a R30 million ($1.6M) pre-money valuation, led by 3 Capital Ventures, the early-stage fund spun out of Allan Gray. Revenue grew 2.5x last year, 65% of it is now foreign-denominated, and the client list includes Old Mutual, Discovery, Capitec, Pick n Pay, and Ipsos. But the detail that should make every founder pay attention: 80% of inbound leads now come through AI search, with ChatGPT and Gemini recommending Yazi to people looking for WhatsApp research tools.
News
+1
Mar 10, 2026
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6 min read
Orca Fraud Raises R38M to Stop Payment Fraud Across 70 Countries: Built by Two Former Stitch Engineers
Cape Town-based Orca Fraud has closed an oversubscribed $2.35 million (R38 million) seed round led by Norrsken22 to scale its real-time fraud intelligence platform. Founded 16 months ago by former Stitch engineers Thalia Pillay and Carla Wilby, the startup already monitors over $5 billion in monthly transaction volume across 70+ countries. The pitch: global fraud tools weren't built for mobile wallets, agent banking, and African payment rails. Orca was.
News
+1
Mar 10, 2026
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5 min read
Capitec Pulse: The AI Tool That Knows Why You're Calling Before You Say a Word
Capitec has launched an AI system called Pulse that analyses your payment data, app diagnostics, and risk signals in real time to tell the call centre agent what's wrong before you explain it. In a three-month pilot, it cut call handling times by 18% and lifted net agent efficiency by 26%. The bank claims it's a world first, though that claim deserves some scrutiny.
News
+1
Mar 9, 2026
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5 min read
NjiaPay Raises $2.1M to Fix Africa's Broken Payment Routing: Talk360's 25% Conversion Jump Shows Why
Cape Town and Amsterdam-based NjiaPay has closed a $2.1 million seed round led by European B2B SaaS investor Newion, roughly a year after an oversubscribed $1 million pre-seed. The startup builds a payment orchestration layer that sits on top of existing payment providers and routes transactions to whichever one performs best. After implementing it, international calling app Talk360 cut six PSP integrations to one and saw checkout conversions rise 25%.
News
+1
Mar 9, 2026
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5 min read
Fintura Closes Pre-Seed Round to Build an All-in-One AI Platform for SA Accountants
The Startup World Cup winner that went to Silicon Valley has now closed its pre-seed round, backed by former Kalon Venture Partners CEO Clive Butkow, Ridwaan Boda, and Jozi Angels. Fintura is building a single platform to replace the four to six disconnected tools most SA accounting firms use daily. The round size wasn't disclosed, but the investor names tell you the smart money thinks this vertical is real.
News
+1
Mar 4, 2026
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5 min read
Hlayisani Capital Raises R500 Million for Fund II: And the Backers Really Matter
One of South Africa's oldest venture capital firms has secured R500 million in first-close commitments for its second venture fund, backed by the Public Investment Corporation and the SA SME Fund. For a firm that traces its roots to some of the earliest angel investing on the continent, the real story isn't the fund size. It's who's writing the cheques and what that signals about institutional confidence in SA VC.
