News
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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.
News
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Feb 24, 2026
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4 min read
Sanlam's First VC Bet: Is HAVAIC Fund 3 a Tipping Point for SA Tech?
HAVAIC Fund 3 has crossed $30 (R481) million with backing from Sanlam Multi-Manager and Allan Gray's E Squared. The fund's close matters less than what it signals: institutional South African capital is entering local tech VC for the first time. Here's what the portfolio reveals and what questions remain.
News
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Feb 23, 2026
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4 min read
What Is Takealot Building on WhatsApp?
SA’s biggest online retailer seems to be building something new on WhatsApp. There’s no press release or announcements yet, just an opt-in screen shared on LinkedIn by a local founder who knows their way around WhatsApp. Here's what we know, what we don't and why it matters.
