🚀 SA's Brighter Fin Future...

Plus: SA’s China boost 🚗💨, AI for your TV, child maintenance tracking app & the trick to long-term startup success.

NEW
Newsletter
January 7, 2025

Healthier 2025? STEM researchers have been busy over the holidays, announcing some medical breakthroughs in blood-based implants that heal bone faster and even 3D-printed organs grown inside a human body for space-age healing like RoboCop. Aitsa.

In this Open Letter:

  • Smart investments: Helping more South Africans build wealth.

  • SA’s Chinese EV boost, AI for your TV & child maintenance tracking.

  • Cheat codes: How successful founders build businesses that last.

  • Which startup sectors will rule in 2025: The results are in.

  • Lonely building your startup? Join The Open Collab and get support.

Together with:

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A Startup Boosting More Young South Africans to “Wealthy” Status

South Africa has one of the lowest national savings rates (the amount of households, businesses, and governments that save money rather than spend everything) in the world. We save on average an abysmal 0.5% of income, well below that of places like Brazil (at 16.9%), the US (12.4%), and India (just under 11%).

At a household level, 76% of South Africans run out of money before month-end, with an average of 62% of their take-home pay going towards debt repayments.

Additionally, most people don’t start thinking about retirement or long-term saving until they’re 40+, with nearly 60% of South Africans believing that long-term & retirement savings and investments are unaffordable. 

And by the time we reach retirement age, only 6% of us are on track to retire comfortably.

It’s a major challenge not often spoken about, and today, we feature a local startup building to solve this. More on this later…

Why saving matters

As a country, individual savings are quite helpful for several reasons which include:

  • Lowers people’s over-indebtedness, which improves financial well-being and reduces risk in the financial system.

  • People who cannot afford to retire, cannot buy stuff and do not contribute to the economy, which holds back economic growth.

  • Without savings for retirement, more people will become dependent on SA’s already buckling grant system (28 million grant recipients vs 7.4 million income taxpayers).

Grandpa looking at all of those Christmas prezzies under the tree like… 

Untaxing the savers…

As a measure to try and encourage households to save more, the SA government introduced legislation for tax-free savings accounts (TFSAs) back in March 2015.

It’s worked well elsewhere. In 1999, the UK introduced a similar ax-exempt Individual Savings Account (ISA). Over the last twenty-odd years, 20 million Adult ISA accounts have been opened, and they now hold a combined market value of £620 billion

What benefit is there in a South African TFSA? Well, buying shares in listed companies requires tax returns for any returns those shares deliver. For example, when there is a dividend (you make some money), it's a taxation event (you get taxed on it and have to pay SARS some of your earnings if they go above the annual threshold… yes, it’s complicated).

Normally, this tax can range between 10% and 37%, so getting it tax-free annually, forever, is quite a saving.

Sounds like a great deal. Well, there is a slight catch:

  • You can only invest a total of R500k in your lifetime.

  • And you can only invest up to R36’000 per year (which means it will take you 14 odd years to max it out).

  • Finally, if you withdraw from it, you will not get your allocation back. If you cap it out at R500k and withdraw, say, R300k, you will not be allowed to add anything more to it — only that which is left will stay.

Off to a slow start…

Official stats on the uptake of TFSAs since 2015 are somewhat inconsistent, but some sectors of the industry have suggested it has been “sluggish.” 

The reasons for sluggish uptake aren’t clear, it is likely a combination of not having the funds to do it, not understanding the benefits of it or simply that most financial advisors are heavily incentivised to sell certain products, and with an R36k a year cap on your investment into TFSA, it’s not really a money spinner for them (remember, they work on commission for the products they sell – we wrote about it in this Open Letter from last year). 

The local startup making saving easy

If financial advisors aren’t going to make enough money to promote the product, a platform could be a game-changer, not only for the business but also for the good of SA consumers.

And that’s what the team at Fynbos Money is building. 

Fynbos Money is a local investment platform that wants to make it easy to just get going with long-term savings and investments. Their main objective is to get young South Africans into savings.

First, by helping you get an emergency savings account up (if you have one, you can skip theirs) and then get into a Tax-Free Savings Account. It’s all automated, your monthly debit order keeps your emergency savings topped up while also maximising your annual TFSA benefit. And as a customer, you can select funds from top-tier TFSA such as Allan Gray, FNB, Sygnia, 10x, 1nvest, and Satrix.

We spoke to Fynbos Money Founder Adrian Hope-Bailie recently, and they’ve got a big 2025 planned, including the launch of their paid “Protea” tier, which is a complete savings and investment portfolio management product in one place for a single monthly subscription. 

With more flat-fee and subscription-based financial service providers popping up to take on the old-school financial behemoths by offering transparent, simplistic financial products for a tech-savvy generation, we’re watching this space…

CHECK THIS OUT

Building a Business That Thrives Beyond the 5-Year Mark

In South Africa, research from the University of the Western Cape shows that 70% to 80% of small businesses don’t survive beyond five years.

The good news? Those who succeed often share a common trait — a strong grasp of their finances.

It’s not just about numbers. It’s about planning ahead, knowing when to push for growth, and preparing for the challenges that come with it.

Backing Yourself & Your Team

Whether it’s managing cash flow, securing funding, or staying on top of tax deadlines, having a clear financial strategy can make all the difference.

“As businesses grow, things naturally get more complicated,” says Etienne Raubenheimer, Head of CFO Services at Outsourced CFO. “The right financial guidance doesn’t just help you survive tough times — it helps you spot opportunities and grow smarter.”

That’s why all the most successful companies have top-tier CFOs.

CFO expertise is so sought-after, in fact, few startups can afford to employ one full-time… And that’s why there’s Outsourced CFO, a fractional CFO service that gives you a top-shelf CFO, as and when you need them, at a fraction of the cost.

Getting CFO insights as a startup is one of the best ways to ensure your business not only survives but thrives past the 5-year mark and beyond.

IN SHORT

Start the year a little smarter…

⚖️ Tipping the Scales. Local startup Social Justice has launched the “Coparent App” for separated parents with customisable contact schedules, instant messaging with a language filter, secure document storage, and monthly maintenance obligations tracker (housing, food, clothing, education and medical care). Probably going to save divorcees several awkward conversations.

📺 AI.TV. Samsung has launched an AI offering for its premium line of TVs. Called Vision AI, Samsung’s AI-powered screens can now search the internet for information on what's on the screen — like a specific actor, or product, as well as real-time translations and personalised background images. No more “what movie is that guy in again” convos.

📚 AI Africa Rising. The University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) has launched a new AI institute to focus on fundamental AI research that’ll drive scientific discoveries and grow Africa’s AI expertise called the Machine Intelligence and Neural Discovery (MIND) Institute. Nice to see SA pushing to lead in the AI conversation.

🚙 Powering SA’s EV Scene. SA’s automotive industry could see a boost in EV investment after President Ramaphosa signed a tax break into law recently. Three Chinese automakers are already in talks with SA’s Automotive Business Council to bring electric- and hydrogen-powered vehicle production to local shores. Seems like the stars are aligning for a big shift to EVs locally.

🤖 Going Big on Bots. Global leader in AI chip development, Nvidia, is apparently turning its attention to robotics as a future area of growth after seeing a flood of new competition in the once lucrative AI chip business. The intersection between AI and robotics will certainly give them an edge.

😎 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, all your accounting sorted with Xero and 12 more vital startup tools & services.

BUILDING TOGETHER

Happening over at The Open Collab

Well, most of us took a break over the holidays, but, you know, hustlers still be hustlin’ rain or shine…

  • Speculated on Tyme Group’s $250M raise to tackle the South-East Asian market — threatening to become a bigger banking story than Capitec 👀

  • Started the holidays strong with special startup book deliveries for new members.

  • Learnt we are getting our first live and in-person Masterclass session in February 🤯🤩🔥

  • Voted on whether we want normal online Office Hours this week — or in-person coffees together in JHB, Cape Town and Stellenbosch.

  • Celebrated The Open Letter’s 400%-plus growth in 2024 (hitting over 16k subs over the break) and looking forward to more awesomeness in 2025!

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 community.

HAPPENING SOON

Upcoming Events

17 January 2025 — Sales Masterclass — Online: Come learn and ask questions directly to pros — exclusive to members of The Open Collab community.

24 November 2025 — Offshoring Case Study — AMA: Get firsthand insights into what it takes to take your company global from SA — exclusive to members of The Open Collab community.

31 January 2025 — Fundraising 101 — AMA: We’ve invited founders and teams who’ve recently raised funding to give you the ins and outs of securing investment —exclusive to members of The Open Collab community.

View all our upcoming events here.

WHAT YOU SAID

Chasing the big payday…

We asked which startup sectors will drive the biggest exits in 2025, and many lean towards AI…

🟨🟨🟨🟨⬜️⬜️ 🌍 FinTech & Payments (17%)

🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 🤖 Gotta be AI & Analytics (23%)

⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 💼 Must be HR Tech & Workforce Tools (3%)

🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🌱 Climate & Sustainability (8%)

🟨🟨🟨🟨⬜️⬜️ 💊 HealthTech & Wellness (15%)

🟨🟨🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️ 📦 E-commerce & Logistics (12%)

⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🎮 Gaming & Entertainment (3%)

🟨🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🔐 Cybersecurity (9%)

🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🚗 Mobility & Transport (6%)

🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🎟️ Other – tell us what you think… (4%)

Your 2 cents…

Nice one, Mark! Did you see that time we looked at local startups using AI in the security industry? It’s an exciting space and there’s loads of room for innovation. 🦾

Ho ho, KNT, yeh that’s a big one. Just intelligence to impact the insurance money on cargo alone is probably already big business. 💡

💸 SA's Biggest Startup Exits of 2025

Incl: Almost R4.5 billion in exits 💡, the SA ticket platform worth buying & buying into your own success.

NEW
Newsletter
December 31, 2024

It’s New Year's Eve, and as we reflect on the year that was, we can’t help but feel excited for what’s to come in 2025.

SA’s business confidence reached the highest levels it’s been in 9 years, several local startups got sold for large sums (more on this later), and we learnt that there are way more South African people building awesome startups than we ever imagined! ICYMI, we covered over 100 SA startups this year, which you can read here.

To celebrate the year that was, we are reflecting on four major startup deals that happened in 2024.

Happy New Year everyone! 🎉

HR TECH GEARING FOR AN IPO

Payspace Sold in March 2024

In 2007, brothers Bruce, Clyde, Warren van Wyk, and George Karageorgiades started PaySpace, a cloud-based payroll platform that streamlined the laborious processes and systems involved in payroll. They had amazing success early on, expanding to 11 countries within the first three years. 

By 2022, this number reached 43, with more than 11’000 customers using its software. Unsurprisingly, they caught the attention of global HR software giant Deel. Deel is no small company, having organically grown to $500m in annual recurring revenue (outside of acquisitions) and aiming for a listing in 2025/2026. 

In March this year, Deel bought Payspace for an undisclosed amount – putting HR tech coming out of SA on the map for sure.

Payspace founders.

Some SA startups are also building world-class HR products. ICYMI We covered some of them this year:

  • Wamly, a candidate screening tool for hiring.
  • Jem, a comprehensive HR solution for deskless workforce.
  • Ollie, an AI mental health assistant for your workforce.

CONSOLIDATING THE SA PAYMENTS SPACE

Adumo Sold for R1.59bn in May 2024

There has been a lot of interest in SA payment companies in the last few years. Payfast (and consolidated group of companies) was acquired by Middle-Eastern bank, Network, for R3.5bn, and now, in October 2024, Adumo, SA’s largest independent payments platform, was acquired by local listed entity Lesaka Technologies for $85.9 million.

Adumo was founded in 2019. In that year, it merged several payment providers, including SureSwipe (founded in 2008 by Paul Kent), after receiving investment from Crossfin, among others.

Lesaka has made several powerful acquisitions in South Africa's payments space, including Kazang, one of the country’s largest spaza shop point of sale and payment solutions; EasyPay, the country’s largest bill payment platform; and now Adumo. These acquisitions have combined to give Lesaka more than 1.7 million customers annually and make it a major player to watch in this space in 2025.

Paul Kent, Founder of Adumo

ICYMI Fintech has always been a hot topic, and we have been covering a few of them this year…

  • Kazang, an innovative point of sale and payment solution for the informal market.
  • We had Anton Gaylard from Crossfin on our podcast.
  • Stokfella is a Lesaka-backed Stokvel management platform that we wrote about here.

EVENTS MAKING A COMEBACK

Quicket Sold to Ticketmaster in July 2024

Ticketmaster, a global event ticketing platform that generates ±$3 billion a year and operates in 35 countries worldwide, expanded to South Africa in 2022.

Since its launch in SA, Ticketmaster has sold tickets to various large events, but the one that caught our attention was a rugby test match between SA and NZ at Cape Town Stadium. Using big data processes, Ticketmaster secured interest for some 240,000 tickets. With only 60,000 tickets available, the price per ticket could be optimised to ensure a more lucrative return for the hosts—a process similar to how airline tickets change in price based on demand.

But Ticketmaster's big play in South Africa was acquiring Quicket, a local ticketing platform, in July. Quicket was founded in 2011 by James Tagg, Mike Kennedy, and James Hedley, receiving funding from Knife along the way. It has become the go-to platform for most events in South Africa. This deal will not only give Ticketmaster access to a larger events base in South Africa, but we have no doubt that Quicket will bring with it vast experience in the small- to medium-sized events space.

Quicket Founders

ICYMI Speaking SA startups in the events space, we covered one doing something interesting…

  • Ohkayi, a platform to host recordings of events and sell access to them digitally

A GLOBAL ANALYTICS PLAY FROM SA

Syft Sold to Xero for R1.3bn in September 2024

In 2016, Syft’s founders, Vangelis Kyriazis, Eleftherios Kyriazis, Duran Hamer, and Matt Stephanou, were creating custom reports for accounting practice clients. However, they soon realised that these reports could be replicated for different clients, and Syft was born.

Today, Syft Analytics is an AI-first financial reporting platform that consolidates data across multiple data tools (think accounting, CRM, transactions, and others) to provide a single view of everything in your data ecosystem. Their growth has been impressive, and they have truly become a global company that serves more than 50,000 customers across 50 countries.

One of the places where Syft gained major traction was on the Xero apps marketplace, where users discovered it and loved their treatment of data and dashboards, to the point where the product blew up within Xero’s own user base. Not one to let an opportunity go, Xero itself purchased Syft in September 2024 for a massive $70m.

ICYMI, We wrote about Syft Analytics earlier this year.

OVER TO YOU

Looking Ahead to 2025…

AI will undoubtedly feature in every category of product being built in 2025 and will also significantly impact the rate of product development, mostly by speeding up software development.

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🦸 Got Your 2025 Sidekick...?

Plus: Wall farmers 🌽, open houses & updating SA’s 180-year-old insurance game.

NEW
Newsletter
December 20, 2024

Somewhat spherical? A man wanted to settle the whole round Earth thing once and for all, so he flew a bunch of flat earthers to Antarctica. Based on some of the first videos, they are kinda looking at things and going, “Well, this planet is starting to look round-ish” 🤦🏽‍♂️

We are taking a break next week, so it’s the final Fast-Five-Friday of the year — five startups making waves worth noting. Let’s dive in…

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1. ON THE SIDE

Sidekicks for your side hustle (or anything else)…

Since most people had to set up a work-from-home office, we have entered the era of fractional resourcing. In Germany, part-time work has hit record highs in 2024, with as many as 39.1% of workers having a part-time job.

And the trend seems to be catching up here as well. You can get fractional CFOs, fractional CTOs, and fractional content writers. It makes sense then, that you can now get fractional personal assistants.

Enter Sidekick, a local solution to help you get extra hands on some of those tasks you’re just not getting to. You sign up for a plan (starting at R3’300 per month for 12 hours – or a custom plan if you need more), and get paired with a PA to handle the tasks that steal your time and energy.

Anything from personal errands to handling your inbox and calendar, your sidekick puts your work on steroids!

2. GROWTH PHASE

The farmer on the wall…

Getting fresh produce on your plate faces three challenges…

  1. Farmlands are shrinking (we’ve written about this before).

  2. It uses a heck of a lot of water to grow stuff.

  3. The distances it needs to travel after getting harvested add a substantial cost to the bottom line.

Arable is a local vertical farming startup that builds a farm-in-a-box solution. Currently, they supply local restaurants with fresh produce and equip others to do the same by developing the tech specifically for and accessible to the South African market.

They can grow produce all year round, using 100% fewer pesticides, 95% less land, and 90% less water. Moreover, putting up container farms closer to the point of consumption reduces many logistics costs (not to mention the fuel saved).

With urban areas becoming more crowded, demand for food going up and margins of farmers getting squeezed, they might just be onto something.

Check out this mini-documentary to learn more about what Arable does…

3. WALK THIS WAY

Virtual open houses…

Thanks to social distancing guidelines (and certain restrictions placed on movement, etc.) during COVID-19, virtual property tours became necessary for property practitioners to showcase properties. Given the recent emigration surge, they’re adding value to inter-provincial buyers. 

The tricky part is that a property practitioner has to hire a company or agency (oftentimes with production-level equipment) to film and package a virtual tour vid, which is not practical and too expensive.

But what if the agent can film an immersive 3d tour of the property themselves?

Truvu, the 2024 ConsumerTech Startup of the Year winner, allows property practitioners to turn any video filmed on their smartphone into a virtual tour. Truvu then adds the navigational components so clients can navigate the property.

About 50% of the 6.9 million residential properties in SA are priced above R600k, which means there is a sizable market for them here. But this kind of solution can easily be rolled out in other countries, and that’s exactly what the Truvu team is up to. We are watching with great interest.

4. SCALING ON UP

Getting to the root…

Insurance is a well-established industry in SA. Its estimated annual gross written premiums are around R1.1 trillion, with life insurance accounting for half of that number.

The size and robustness make sense, given that insurance in SA dates back to 1835 (Old Mutual was founded in 1845). Obviously, a lot has changed in 180 years, but nothing has quite disrupted insurance, such as the digital era.

Customers now expect to be met where they are with a streamlined process and minimal paperwork.

But just how do you streamline a highly regulated industry using tech?

Root is a South African InsurTech platform that enables businesses to design, launch, and manage digital insurance products easily. Root empowers companies to offer embedded (another company selling your insurance as a bolt-on to their product) or direct insurance products tailored to their specific needs. This enables brands such as Mr Price to offer a range of insurance products at till-point or in the process of online purchases.

Founded in 2016 by Louw Hopley and Malan Joubert (who also co-founded startups such as SnapScan and Offerzen), the company reached 1 million active policies on its platform in 2019. With international expansion in full swing, this is a SA startup to watch.

5. HOLIDAY EMERGENCIES, SORTED

A doctor in your pocket…

Most of us are planning to travel to some extent these holidays. And it doesn’t matter whether it’s a holiday or just a quick trip to the relatives, life still happens…

A flat tyre here, a sore throat, sunburn or upset tummy there. Thing is, when travelling, you can’t always reach your doctor.

That’s why we love Udok. It’s not only great for startups and busy founders the rest of the year – no bookings or waiting rooms, you just see a top doctor on your phone and get a sick note, referral or prescription sent straight to your nearest pharmacy – it’s also ideal for emergencies when travelling.

See a doctor from anywhere and get better. What’s more, you can use it for the whole family: one account gets everyone sorted. And you can pay with a card or medical aid (with no co-payments, nogal). Worth a looksie, just in case over the holidays.

Instagram post by @udokhealth

PS: Udok’s founder Piet is in the collab with us, and we all build and grow together. If you want to hang with and learn from founders like Piet and 80+ others, come join the Open Collab. It’s packed with value for SA founders, including:

  • Weekly work-together slots where we network, share ideas and collaborate.

  • Weekly online masterclasses, workshops and ask-me-anything sessions with SA industry experts.

  • Free access to all our in-person events.

  • Book 1-on-1 sessions with SA startup experts.

IN SHORT

Convo grease for Christmas Day lunch…

🤝 Kasi Expansion. Township e-commerce platform Yebo Fresh has been acquired by Smollan, a global retail solutions provider, to blend Yebo Fresh's cutting-edge digital innovations with Smollan's expansive operational network, retail insights, and merchandising expertise, to benefit brands, spaza shops, and small wholesalers nationwide.

🐁 Magic Mouse Reimagined. Apple is working on an updated version of its Magic Mouse. Apparently, this update might see its now infa-mouse charging port move from the base (so users can't use it while it’s charging) to literally anywhere else. It’s about time.

💰SMME Supply Chain Boost. Local FinTech Sourcefin has raised R150 million in funding from Futuregrowth Asset Management. Sourcefin provides access to finance and specialist supply chain support SMMEs and the funding will see it support more SMME growth in SA. Nice one.

🎅 Christmas Password Change. Cybersecurity company Intercede has warned against changing your online shopping passwords to any of the following top most breached Chrtismas-related passwords: snowball, christmas, snowman, snowflake, snowball1, christmas1, snowman1, Christmas, Snowball, and Santa, if you don't want your hard-earned Christmas bonus sto-ho-ho-len….

😎 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.

CHECK THIS OUT

Give your support team a boost

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JOBS IN TECH

Makin’ moves early in the New Year…

🎯 Product Manager (Remote) @ Calm

👨🏻‍💻 Chief Technology Officer @ Crayon

🎨 Senior User Experience Designer @ Foolproof

🤹🏻‍♀️ Head of Projects @ Digemy

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

GAME TIME

Riddle Me This

Who am I? I’m a bottle, made not from plastic's shell,

But from plant-based roots where sustainability dwells.

I hold your drink, but I won't stick around,

For nature reclaims me when I hit the ground.

Who am I?

🚗💨 3 Million's PrePaid Wheels...

Plus: Techy sangomas 🛖, SA’s highest-paid CEOs, local Amazon jobs & taking your startup global.

NEW
Newsletter
December 17, 2024

Fresh enough? While the US is losing its mind over astounding numbers of UFOs in New Jersey, calling a state of emergency over what’re clearly drones, a group of European scientists have found a way to measure water purity using cyborg clams and oysters. Fun times!

In this Open Letter:

  • Prepaid mobility: Getting 3 million South Africans some wheels.
  • Techy sangomas, SA’s highest-paid CEOs & Amazon’s local jobs.
  • Going global: How to take your SA startup up overseas.
  • Which SA startup is real? The people have spoken.
  • Short on ideas? Share this and get 100+ SA startup ideas.

Together with:

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Getting 3M South Africans Their Pre-Paid Wheels

Getting a new set of wheels in South Africa is painful…

Car prices have climbed faster than inflation in the last 30 years (some say over 744%!), with the average new car price now being R392’174.

The average salary in SA in 2023 was R31’300 before tax (and other deductions)...

And, once Uncle SARS has taken their slice of your salary pie, this comes to around R26k, making a R10k per month car repayment nearly 40% of your take-home. Eeeeeeek…

The motor industry has tried to make it “more affordable” to purchase a car, from balloon payments to payment holidays, and even stretching out the “normal” 5-year/60-month payment terms to 72 months and, more recently, 96 months

96 months' worth of car payments. Sheesh…

Not to mention, when someone wants to buy a car, they have to go through the painful process of applying for it, only to have around 70% of applications getting declined…

We work hard for our money.

For most of SA, owning a car is simply not on the table. But that doesn’t mean there aren’t times or extended seasons when you need a car and would happily pay. Think: 

  • A contract or work that requires more travelling
  • A period where you need a car before relocating
  • Extended work in a remote location
  • A company you work for provides you with a vehicle without wanting to buy it.

But there’s an interesting trend amongst South Africans. We flippen love prepaid… (thanks Vodacom for introducing the prepaid concept to the world back in 1996)…

The local prepaid wheels player

This is where local startup FlexClub might just be onto something. Founded in 2019, FlexClub initially helped Uber drivers become owners of the cars they drive. However, after learning from this experience, it now offers prepaid mobility to anyone who qualifies, effectively letting users subscribe to use a new car on a month-to-month basis.

FlexClub lets you build a pay-as-you-go car plan: Pick a date of when you want to collect your car, how long you wanna keep it (how many months), choose your car (you’ve got options between R5’600 and R30’900 per month) and how much mileage you intend to put on the car (3’000kms is the standard). And Bob’s your uncle…

Avis supplies their cars, so you know they’re legit, and you have a whole fleet to fall back on.

Ok, but what about services, insurance, and other maintenance work?

Every car in the network is new, so you won’t get one older than 1 year (or with more than 36,000 km on the clock). If your car needs service, simply return it to Avis and swap it out for another one…

What about the excess? 

Don’t worry. Avis fleet insurance covers cars; you're only liable for the excess.

We chatted with FlexClub founder Tinashe Ruzane recently, and they’re seeing an interesting trend where around 20% of their subscribers already have vehicle financing and are using FlexClub’s prepaid subscription model to get a second car for their spouse or a child.

But there’s a little something extra to FlexClub: In addition to their own public-facing brand, FlexClub also offers the solutions as a platform for other businesses called Reflex. This allows other brands (think large insurer, Telco or bank) to launch their own branded pre-paid mobility offering using the same tech that is powering FlexClub.

With car prices soaring, finance terms stretching, and new car features shooting for the moon, could FlexClub change the way we get mobile in South Africa? We’re watching this space.

IN SHORT

A little something for the braai…

🤖 Take a Look Around. Local e-health startup Envisionit Deep AI is collaborating with German multinational pharmaceutical and biotechnology company Bayer to further advance the future of AI-driven medical imaging diagnostics. Nice to see SA startups making strides in biotech.

🦄 We have a unicorn! Tyme Group, owners of Tyme Bank in South Africa and operations in the Philippines, raised US$250 million, the largest fintech raise this year in South-East Asia, valuing the business at US$1.5 billion and giving it a unicorn status. The money will be used to further expand, specifically into Vietnam and Indonesia.

💼 Jobs Jungle. The jobs market is a jungle out there, but Amazon is currently hiring for 93 roles in SA, the bulk of which are in tech-related fields: 30 in Operations, IT, and support, 18 in Software Development, and 2 each in Machine Learning Science, Technical Project/Program/Product Management, and Systems, Quality, and Security Engineering.

🪶 Tradition goes Tech. SA’s traditional healers are using the Ngoma app to deliver services to their clients digitally. The app allows users to book virtual sessions and buy products from vetted traditional healers, allowing more people to access this ancient practice.

🎩 Like a Boss. The CEOs of SA’s top 200 JSE-listed companies have pulled in an average of R250k every day in 2024, according to PwC’s 2024 Directors’ Remuneration and Trends Report. Bob van Dijk, (former Naspers CEO) topped the tables at R330 million for the year, while the lowest-paid CEO struggled to make ends meet at R22.5 million.

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

BUILDER’S CORNER

Setting Up Offshore from South Africa

In collaboration with Dommisse Attorneys Inc.

Expanding offshore can feel overwhelming, but with the right approach, it opens up exciting opportunities for your business. We teamed up with the experts at Dommisse Attorneys Inc. to outline the four critical steps to getting it right.

Step 1: Clarify Your Offshore Goals

Offshoring isn’t just about earning foreign currency — it comes with legal and tax implications, including South Africa’s exchange control regulations. Offshore entities must meet requirements like having a “place of effective management” and a “foreign business establishment.” Translation: your offshore company needs real operations and decision-makers to comply and avoid hefty tax consequences.

Be aware of exchange control rules: for instance, licensing intellectual property (IP) to a related offshore entity requires approval, and selling the IP outright is prohibited. While offshoring IP is possible, following the correct steps is essential.

Step 2: Pick the Right Structure

How you structure your offshore entity matters. Here are the two main options:

  • Mirror Structure
    OffshoreCo mirrors SACo’s (your South African company’s) shareholding, creating a parallel group structure. A stapling agreement links the entities, ensuring any share movements in SACo are mirrored in OffshoreCo. Investors buy equal shares in both companies and benefit from their respective growth.
  • Holding Company Structure
    OffshoreCo becomes SACo’s parent company. Global investors often prefer this structure for its simplicity and familiarity, but it creates a loop structure that demands strict compliance and additional reporting obligations.

Your choice impacts everything from taxes to investor relations. Factors like shareholder numbers or high valuations might make a mirror structure more practical, while others may favour the streamlined benefits of a holding company.

Step 3: Choose the Right Jurisdiction

The location of your offshore company is crucial. Your choice should align with your goals, target markets, and investor expectations.

Popular destinations offer tax efficiency, business-friendly environments, and less red tape. But don’t stop there — some jurisdictions provide specific grants, tax incentives, or strategic benefits tailored to your industry. Consider long-term advantages, compliance costs, and potential risks before settling on a destination.

Step 4: Assemble the Right Team

Success in offshoring depends on your team. Experienced legal and financial advisors are non-negotiable. They’ll guide you through the complexities of compliance, exchange controls, transfer pricing, and ongoing obligations, helping you stay ahead at every step.

If global expansion is on your horizon, reach out to Dommisse Attorneys Inc.

BUILDING TOGETHER

Happening over at The Open Collab

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

  • Celebrated Carlin and Nathasha becoming the go-to guys for startup info at work!
  • Got the inside track on B2B sales from the pros.
  • Celebrated Tim’s “paying it forward” programme for NGOs.
  • Welcomed a host of new members — so many 🔥 local builders in here.
  • Celebrated Elijah and Danei’s road trip to deliver Finmaster orders.
  • Did the “who’s on holiday yet” roundup and got some lekker watering-hole leads.
  • Celebrated The Open Letter’s 275% growth in 2024 — with a promise of a masterclass coming soon.

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 community.

Join The Open Collab

HAPPENING SOON

Upcoming Events

17 January 2025 — Sales Masterclass — Online: Come learn and ask questions directly to pros — Exclusive to members of The Open Collab community.

24 November 2025 — Offshoring Case Study — AMA: Get firsthand insights into what it takes to take your company global from SA — Exclusive to members of The Open Collab community.

31 January 2025 — Fundraising 101 — AMA: We’ve invited founders and teams who’ve recently raised funding to give you the ins and outs of securing investment —Exclusive to members of The Open Collab community.

View all our upcoming events here.

WHAT YOU SAID

AI for robots…

Last Friday, we asked if you could spot the real SA startup, and a good few recognised Stellenbosch AI traffic management system Quebit by Bytefuse

🟨🟨🟨🟨🟨⬜️ 🦓 The first drone delivery service for wildlife medicine was piloted by a Cape Town-based startup. (26%)

🟨🟨🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🤑 A local fintech app is South Africa’s biggest export by revenue. (18%)

🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩⬜️ 🚦 An AI system to optimise a robot’s timing, reduce congestion, and improve traffic management. (26%)

🟨🟨🟨🟨🟨🟨 🚀 A Johannesburg-based company built the first reusable rocket to rival SpaceX. (30%)

Your 2 cents…

Great question, William! Ha ha, yeh apart from managing traffic, the system’s meant to allow authorities to do remote maintenance. So guessing they’re banking on it never going down…? 🤷

Psst, head down to Stellenbosch, Keegan. They are running a pilot, and the numbers look promising. 🏁


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🎄 The Rarest Thing this Holiday...

Plus: A fixer upper 🚗💨, shopping local & SA startup’s best-kept secret.

NEW
Newsletter
December 13, 2024

Enough worth? Elon Musk’s been benefiting from Trump’s US win — the former boy from Pretoria now has a net worth that eclipses South Africa’s GDP by almost R600bn, sheez!

Anyway, forget Friday the 13th, it’s Fast-Five-Friday and we have a list of awesome startups doing great things — let’s go…

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1. ANOTHER BRICK IN THE WALL

Underneath the Christmas tree…

Named the world’s most valuable toy brand for the 10th year in a row, LEGO is beloved by kids, parents and adult collectors alike. Chances are there’s a LEGO set or two on Santa’s letter this year.

However, some brand-new sets can also have a pretty heavy price tag (like this Star Wars Millennium Falcon, which costs a cool R16199). Not unlike everything else, LEGO can't escape price increases due to inflation, with an average increase of around 5%.

Enter BLOCK Shop, an online LEGO store started by Anton de Kock and his family during COVID Lockdown. They sell pre-loved, rare, and retired LEGO sets, Minifigures, individual bricks, and other LEGO pieces. 

So, whether you’re keen building a set from scratch or need some individual pieces to create something from your imagination, BLOCK Shop might just be the right place to look…

Lego Wolverine…we didn’t know it existed

2. RUNNING REPAIRS

Mobile mechanics at your service…

In last week’s Fast Five Friday, we had a car maintenance riddle for you. While the answer we were looking for was Michanic, our friend DJ put us onto another startup in the space, making some moves called Fixxr. It’s a mobile mechanic platform that services cars at your home or office (or wherever you are, really). 

There’s probably a good reason why startups like these are finding customers. Over the last 5 years, roughly 2.4 million new cars were sold, totalling an estimated 13.1 million cars on the road. That means that more than 80% of the cars on the road in SA are older than 5 years and likely out of service plans.

Also, if you stick to guidelines, cars need to be serviced annually, meaning there are over 10 million services up for grabs.

Narrowing it down even further, an estimated 54% of workers still work hybrid, meaning servicing a car at home while you work from home could be very convenient. Assuming that all of the people who work hybrid have cars (and that they own all the new cars), that means that roughly 1.25 million of the car services out there per year could likely be interested in a home-based car service. At R1000 a service, that’s R1.25 billion market.

Talk about a perfect storm of conditions to make a business viable…

3. KEEP AN EYE ON THESE

Housing SA’s Class of 2025…

In 2023, over 2.5 million students enrolled across all of SA’s tertiary institutions. Which is great. But for a significant chunk of these students, trying to find student accommodation is a real headache – in fact, there’s only accommodation for about 20% of those who enrolled in universities (never mind those at other tertiary places of study)… 

Founded back in 2018, DigsConnect is Africa's largest student accommodation marketplace. It connects landlords, estate agents, and property managers with students searching for housing, making the process of finding and offering student accommodation simple and seamless.

They’ve already connected 161,000+ landlords and tenants across Cape Town, Pretoria, and Jozi, so if someone you know is heading to university in February 2025 and still looking for a place to stay, check them out.

4. FROM THE OPEN COLLAB COMMUNITY

Locals supporting locals…

We’ve written about SA’s semigration trend before (mid-2023 to be exact). Big city slickers finding the allure of small-town living enough to move their whole family to coastal areas and small towns across SA.

While things like Fibre Internet or Herotel have made it possible for people to work from anywhere, big-city comforts like MrD, Uber Eats, and even grocery delivery are in short supply in smaller towns (if any).

New local player, Bzaar is making it easier to buy from local shops, artisans, restaurants and other services in your local community and get it delivered to your doorstep. It’s big city convenience with a small town touch.

And we think Gustav and Elouise might be on to something… just check how something similar played out in the USA into a $20m a year business.

Instagram post by @bzaarza

Want to build with founders like Bzaar’s Gustav and Elouise? Come join SA’s premium community for tech startup and scale-up founders.

5. A TEAM OF ENGINEERS TO HELP YOU BUILD

Build with the leaders

The more complex the problems you solve, the higher the likelihood of great margins. And with margins on SaaS businesses under pressure due to AI making it easier than ever to code, many are shifting their attention to hardware.

But hardware’s a different ball game, an engineer’s game, in fact…

And most SA founders don’t have direct access to that level of hardcore engineering talent. It’s normally reserved for the big guns developing aerospace or deep tech in Stellenbosch.

Until now, that is…

The venture engineers (so-called because, well, they are all actual engineers) at Octoco, whose outsourced CTO work normally only aligns with big players that want to build serious new tech, have just launched Yenza, a new venture studio that helps founders with a vision go from zero to the stratosphere in record time.

Octoco team in Stellenbosch

It’s like having a team of hardcore engineers join your team, so it's a definite must for founders with SpaceX-level dreams to get going.

We’d try to get in early because people are going to be clamouring to get accepted – apply here.

IN SHORT

Something juicy for the road…

🌿 Green Tech Gear Up. Local hardware tech incubator Savant has just launched the 3rd Cohort for its Build Programme, a 6-month accelerator aimed at early-stage startups solving complex green economy challenges through science and engineering-based technology. Apply now.

🤖 Google’s 2nd Gemini. Google has released a new version of its AI model: Gemini 2.0. It’s said to be twice as fast as its predecessor, will power virtual agents and can generate images and audio across languages. Google also launched “Deep Research” which allows users to use Gemini to dive into topics with detailed reports.

🔎 What We Searched For. SA’s Year In Search 2024 was released and showed the stuff nearest to our hearts, and Google Search trends. From “Dricus du Plessis” in Athletes to “Baby Reinder” and “Inside Out 2” in TV and Movies, South Africans liked to stay in the know, keeping their finger on the pulse of events like both SA & US Elections, the peanut butter recall, the ANC coalition and the two pot system.

💻 DStv Byting Back. MultiChoice revealed some DStv Stream data from the last year, with users streaming over 560 petabytes of content. The recent Bok game against Scotland was the most-streamed live sports event, “Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom” the most-watched movie, and “Yellowstone” and “My Brother’s Keeper” the most streamed international and local series respectively.

🏗️ CAT’s out the Bag. SA construction equipment company Barloworld has received a R22.8 billion offer from Saudi Arabian heavy machinery group Zahid Group and its local partners. Barloworld is the official Caterpillar dealer in several African nations including Zambia, the DRC, Malawi, Angola and South Africa.

🎯 The Stack. Founders need tools and suppliers they can trust. Check out our Founder’s Stack with the best in business strategy with Metavolve, investment, offshoring and startup legal insights with Dommisse Attorneys and 12 more vital startup tools & services.

JOBS IN TECH

We know it’s Friday the 13th, but do ya feel lucky?

🧱 Senior Product Manager — Ecommerce @ Yoco

👨‍💻 Solutions Architect @ FlySafair

🤝 Co-Founder @ Veevo

⚡️Product Engineer, Technical Procurement Agent and Hardware Engineer @ Plentify * who we featured in the newsletter on Tuesday)

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

GAME TIME

3 Lies and a Truth

💡 Taking the Price Fight to Eskom

Plus: Artsy Grok 🎨, legal bots, a job at Home Affairs & higher quality business leads.

NEW
Newsletter
December 10, 2024

Tired of phone scammers? Stick a granny on them… Virgin Media O2 has launched the ultimate anti-phone fraud weapon: an AI granny to talk scammers’ ears off. She wastes their time and, in doing so, reduces the chance of them getting to you.

In this Open Letter:

  • Smart moves: New energy tech to take the price fight to Eskom.

  • Grok gets artsy, gaming gets going & Home Affairs’ big career move.

  • Dream come true: The truth about getting high-quality inbound leads.

  • The startup that sends a mechanic to your door: See who got it right.

  • Lonely building your startup? Join The Open Collab and get support.

Together with:

Did someone forward you this email? Join {{active_subscriber_count}} South Africans reading The Open Letter by signing up here.

Taking the Tariff Fight to Eskom

Remember loadshedding? 

What started way back in 2007, came and went in ebbs and flows before peaking in 2023 with nearly 7’000 pretty dark hours throughout the year (almost 3x the amount of loadshedding than the previous year). We all hated the dark, but in the macro picture, it led to the birth of an entirely new industry.

Here Comes the Boom

In 2023, South Africa experienced a solar boom, with a record-breaking R17.5 billion worth of solar panel imports (3x what it did in 2022). 

Interestingly, these solar panels have a combined nominal capacity of around 5’000 MW, more than both Eskom’s largest coal-fired power stations, Medupi and Kusile, which have a nominal capacity of 4,800 MW each.

But suddenly, out of the blue, loadshedding was suspended on 26 March 2024… 

And despite many people around the country thinking SA would get plunged into Stage 8 darkness sometime after the last votes got counted after election day (29 May 2024), it remains suspended to this day (259 days and counting)...

All is not lost…

For consumers, the name of the game went from keeping the lights on during bouts of loadshedding to trying to maximise your solar savings by minimising your reliance on the grid.

And now that loadshedding might not really be a thing anymore, solar owners might be left wondering what to do with the R60k to R250k white elephant sitting on their roof.

Eskom has been increasing its prices steadily, with Eskom’s tariff hikes staying below inflation until about 2008 when it started to climb sharply. 

Between 2007 & 2022, inflation in SA was 129%; Eskom’s tariffs, on the other hand, increased 5x the rate of inflation: a staggering 653%.

And in 2023 and 2024, Eskom hit consumers with another 18% and 13% respectively. 

And there’s another multi-year increase on the cards:

  • 36.15% from 1 April 2025

  • 11.81% from 1 April 2026

  • and 9.10% from 1 April 2027

Like some sort of sick multi-year April Fool’s joke if you ask us… 

The cost-benefit of using as little as possible electricity from Eskom is becoming substantial.

The local player helping SA get more bang for their electricity bucks…

Plentify is a home energy management platform that provides intelligent ways to optimise consumers’ home energy and load management. For starters, by looking at that energy-guzzling geyser – chowing between 40% & 60% of your electricity usage.

Plentify’s HotBot controller is a smart device that helps reduce your geyser’s energy usage. But the real magic happens when you have solar installed: Plentify’s SolarBot device helps your solar system optimally utilise generated electricity (when it’s free during the day, of course) by analysing weather patterns, human behavioural data (i.e. when and how you use electricity) not to mention loadshedding schedules when that was still a thing…

And with 8 years' worth of insights from tens of thousands of installed smart devices, Plentify knows what they’re talking about, allowing them to back it up with a solid software offering: 

  • App: How you control your energy usage by getting real-time insights to optimise your home’s energy usage and save up to 30% of your water heating costs.

  • Platform: Using data and insights to minimise your electricity usage over time.

And it’s the platform’s intelligence that gives it an edge. For example, Instead of programming a geyser timer, just tell it when you want hot water (say 6 AM or whatever), and it’ll do the calculations to make it so every time.

They also have big future plans for smarter energy usage: Plentify founder, Jon Kornik told us about “shiftable appliances” – i.e. one you can connect and decouple depending on its electricity needs at different times. Think geezers, pool pumps etc. 

And it’s this way of thinking that’s core to their business. 

With tech platforms like Plentify enabling more people to use their energy more optimally, we’re watching this space.

IN SHORT

Some lekke facts to gooi around the watercooler…

🎮 Gaming Africa. Local indie gaming studio Yellow Lab Games has just been acquired by ReForged Studios. This is ReForged’s third acquisition in the last few months after it acquired Ground Shatter and Extra Mile Studios both from the UK. We recently discovered the SA game studio space is quite big, with more than 60 active studios, nice.

👔 Legal Bot. African law firm Bowmans has become the first in Africa to integrate Generative AI platform ‘Harvey’ into its operations. ‘Harvey’ uses advanced AI algorithms to assist lawyers in efficiently and accurately reviewing contracts, summarising and translating documents, and performing redline reviews. If it’s as quirky as Harvey Specter, we might actually want to use it for something else…

🎨 Grok’s Artistic Side. xAI has just gotten its own AI image generator called ‘Aurora’. While it’s still unclear if ‘Aurora’ was trained by xAI, built on top of existing image generators, or built in collaboration with a 3rd party, Elon Musk has alluded to it having its own ‘image generation system’. It’s still in beta, but some of the initial images we’ve seen look pretty cool. Time will tell.

🎥 Speaking of AI creations. OpenAI released its video creation capability called Sora yesterday. Available everywhere, except, of course, Europe. The first videos look pretty slick, and if you have a ChatGPT subscription, you can go make some videos.

💼 Government Gigs. Fancy a job at Home Affairs? Well, the Department of Home Affairs (DHA) has launched an eRecruitment platform that allows prospective job applicants to view and apply for all departmental vacancies online without the hassle of paperwork. Say what you will, but HA is making big strides in adopting digital solutions, we just wonder if it also takes a 2-hour lunch break…

😎 The Stack. Founders need tools and suppliers they can trust. Check out our Founder’s Stack with your own fractional CFO for less with OCFO, the easiest way to manage your finances with Xero and 12 more vital startup tools & services.

CHECK THIS OUT

How to Get Better Quality Business Leads

When it comes to lead quality, nothing beats a solid inbound lead. Zendesk found that 59% of marketing professionals believe inbound strategies deliver the highest-quality leads, while only 16% think the same about outbound.

And let’s be honest – it makes sense. If someone’s actively looking for what you offer, they’re already halfway to buying.

But here’s the catch: How do you ensure those buyers find you first? The answer lies in three key areas: Presence, Awareness and Nurture.

Presence: Can They Find You?

This one’s simple – if they search for your solution, do you show up? Your SEO game needs to be on point. But it doesn’t stop there…

Does your website have enough substance to guide their decision? When they check your company’s socials or even the founder’s LinkedIn profile, does it look like things are happening? 

Your online presence is your credibility, so make sure it says, “We’re the ones you’ve been looking for.”

Awareness: Are You the First Name They Think Of?

When their problem becomes urgent, are you the first to come to mind? You need to be visible – everywhere they are.

Are you sharing insights that resonate? Are you showing up on social, not just as a business, but as a founder who’s passionate about solving their challenges? Consistency builds familiarity, and familiarity keeps you top of mind.

Nurture: Build Trust That Lasts

Even the best leads need a little guidance. Does your content help them understand their challenges better? And, more importantly, does it tie their solution back to you?

This is where things like blog posts, guides and case studies shine. Drip campaigns can keep potential customers engaged, and a newsletter can keep your brand relevant. 

The goal is to create trust – trust that your solution isn’t just a fix but the fix.

The problem is most scaling B2B brands do one of the above, but it’s really when you do all three that the inbound magic happens. 

But “it’s a lot of content to create”, I hear you say… that’s why there’s Stream, your unlimited content generation subscription service delivered by the team behind The Open Letter.

Want to get yourself set up for inbound leads in 2025? 

Book a FREE content strategy session with us before 17 January 2025.

BUILDING TOGETHER

Happening over at The Open Collab

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

  • Discussed some of the most outrageous HR practices.

  • Voted on where to get out free coffee — hmmmmm… 😊☕

  • Connected Elijah to a potential partner/collaborator.

  • Helped Sebastian with some fire website payment options.

  • Got our first glimpse of OpenAI’s Sora — now available!

  • Ordered some beautifully marbled wagyu steaks via Christiaan’s new online portal.

  • Had fun playing Laurie’s word game, Kwartel.

  • Discussed YC’s move out of Africa and the Western Cape’s GDP potential.

  • Welcome so many new members! (The consensus being that The Open Letter and Open Collab offer such a fresh local perspective as opposed to all the normal US-based startup fare.)

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.

  • All for only R500 a month!

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

HAPPENING SOON

Upcoming Events

11 December 2024 — Year-End Reflection Workshop — Online: Our friends at Metavolve are teaching founders their super-strategic ideal way for startups to end off the year (to enable them to dominate in Jan) — register for free here.

13 December 2024 — Sales Masterclass — Online: Part 3: Keep your B2B sales pipeline filled with this Masterclass session with sales expert, Sebastian Chapman — Join The Open Collab community to attend for free.

View all our upcoming events here.

WHAT YOU SAID

The wheel deal…

We asked a vehicle startup-based riddle in the last Fast Five Friday, and not a lot knew that Michanic services your car at your house…

🟨🟨🟨🟨🟨🟨 🛠️ WeFixCars: 38% 

🟩🟩🟩🟩⬜️⬜️ 🛻 Michanic: 25% 

🟨🟨🟨🟨⬜️⬜️ 🩺 CarDok: 31% 

🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🧘 RideGuru: 6%

Your 2 cents…

Solid bet, William. Not this time, though, right answer is Michanic. 🚨

Thanks for the intro, DJ, we gonna go check out Fixxr. 👀

✈︎ Your Holiday Bags, Sorted

Plus: 12 Years to launch 🚀, tech jobs, 5 startups, bakkies on call & back the Bokke.

NEW
Newsletter
December 6, 2024

Long drive? Car manufacturers have been building so many luxury features into cars that more drivers are getting sleepy behind the wheel. The solution? Dash cam-style AI’s to detect and wake up drowsy drivers.

Happy Fast-Five-Friday! 5 startups, local, all doing big things. Let’s go…

Together with

1. EARLY DAYS

Letting the Cat Out of the Bag…

The average visitor spent just over 2.5 days in Cape Town between January and June this year. And this festive season, expect Cape Town to be heaving with 27 airlines flying folks to and from 31 global destinations, not to mention the nearly 200k passengers and crew pulling into Western Cape ports.

With most accommodation check-outs happening mid-morning, visitors may have some time on their hands before leaving, so a quick trip to Table Mountain, Kirstenbosch, Robben Island etc. could be on the cards. But nobody wants to schlep their luggage around (least on a ferry). 

That’s why we think local luggage and logistics company Bag Drop is on to a cool idea. Simply book a time for your luggage to be collected, Bag Drop securely stores your luggage and then drops it off whenever you need it (more than likely at the airport), all the while letting you track your bag, and see the live driver location.

Don’t be that weirdo that rocks up at Cafe Caprice with your suitcase

2. A WORLD LEADER

12 Years till Launch

Over 12 years ago, South African Guy van der Walt and a team from UCT set out to create the world’s most medically accurate and ethically developed 3D anatomy models.

The team at Atomedge dedicated over a decade to this project due to the immense complexity of precisely mapping every component of the human body — 206 bones, 100,000 km of arteries, and millions of nerves. Creating a model of this calibre required an extraordinary amount of time, effort, and resources — talk about a competitive edge!

Accurate arteries

This model captures every detail of the human body, from muscles and nerves to bones and arteries. And recently they started selling it to academic institutions, researchers, and organizations worldwide, changing the way anatomy studies and medical education is performed.

They recently won the Xero South Africa Beautiful Business Award, and the money is going to go a long way in getting the word out.

3. WATCH THIS SPACE

Leading the Charge!

The local EV scene is hotting up. Strangely, it has nothing (or very little) to do with that oke from Pretoria who also wants to send humans to Mars. This year alone we’ve seen the launch of SA’s first electric minibus taxi, a couple of international brands dropping their electric trucks on local shores, not to mention SA’s first solar EV charging station in the North West province…   

We recently caught up with Zimi CEO Michael Maas to hear about what’s next for the Zimi Team. And it’s also been a bumper year for the turnkey EV charging platform, from closing their pre-seed funding round with Anza Capital, their Startup of the Year nomination for mobility from Startup Club ZA, not to mention the imminent launch of Zimi Pay to EV users back on the road.

Instagram post by @theopenletterza

4. FROM THE OPEN COLLAB COMMUNITY

Data – Awareness – Action

Sustainability is tough, especially for large, multi-location companies with thousands of employees and countless data sources. But by centralising that data into an easy-to-understand format, you can drive awareness, cut costs, and benefit both the planet and your bottom line.

HYDRA, a software solution built by The Awareness Company, turns complex data into clear insights to drive sustainability. It collects and organises data from sensors, cameras, and systems, to improve efficiency, predict problems, and boost collaboration (so that everyone in the org understands its data).

Oh ja. The Awareness Company was the Climate/Sustainability Tech winner at last week’s Startup Club ZA’s South African Startup Awards.

PS. Two of the co-founders of The Awareness Company, Priaash & Shazia is part of The Open Collab community. Come join them in SA’s founder community for startup and scale-up founders.

5. ON THE POD

Building Ventures Ground Up

This Global Startup Studio Report claims that startups developed within venture studios tend to outperform those following traditional paths. They have a 30% higher success rate, with 84% securing seed funding. Of these, 72% progress to Series A funding, compared to 42% of traditional startups.

Venture studio startups also reach Series A in about 25.2 months, significantly faster than the 56 months typical for traditional startups. Additionally, they achieve an average internal rate of return of 53%, surpassing the 21.3% average for traditional startups.

That’s likely why the teams at Next176 and ByteOrbit have teamed up to form NextOrbit, a venture studio that combines the best venture-building capabilities from both entities.

We had Nonjabulo Zondi from Next176 and Liz Ras from ByteOrbit on the podcast this week to share the reasoning behind this venture as well as talk about some of the challenges that Venture Studios faces.

IN SHORT

How’s this for a Conversation Starter…

🇿🇦 Really back the Bokke. A consortium of Altvest Capital, RainFin, 27four and EasyEquities put forward a proposal to SA Rugby to create the means for the public to own up to 40% of the Springbok commercial rights. Now that’s an idea we’d throw some money behind even if it’s just for “gees”.

❤️ In the REd. The Good People Data Company has secured a major investment from REdimension Capital, to fuel its fuel growth, innovation, and expansion across Africa, as the continent navigates the challenges of a digital-first world. Lekker to see some deals flowing to close off the year.

🤖 And then there were 5. At AWS re:Invent, Amazon revealed new AI models for automation, content creation, and multimedia tasks, alongside plans for a massive AI compute cluster. And the real big news is that these models are up to 75% cheaper than competitors. As these costs come down, highly doubt we will see AI categories at startup competitions as all startups will eventually incorporate it.

🚙 Uber Bakkie. Uber announced that South Africans can now start requesting “Bakkies” for loads up to 1 ton. Now you can go crazy in your neighbourhood WhatsApp buy and sell group.

🏦 Neo Bank Returns. Those who participated in European bank Revolut’s crowdfunding round in 2016 at $2.14 a share can now sell their shares at a whopping $865.42 per share in a secondary offering leading up to their upcoming IPO. Nothing like a sweet 400x return in 8 years.

😎 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, all your accounting sorted with Xero and 12 more vital startup tools & services.

END-YEAR POWER

The Right Way to End Off 2024

(and supercharge your 2025 at the same time…)

Year-end is always a little bitter-sweet for startups and founders — you did a lot in 2024, but there’s so much more still to be done… so you fall into the “can’t switch off” trap and one of two things happen:

  • You either refuse to admit you’re burned out and try power through the holidays, never resting and potentially crippling your business for 2025.

  • Or January 2025 conversations keep creeping into your year-end meetings and work, muddying your end-of-year and leaving everyone frazzled.

The problem with those is both will stop you from hitting the ground running in Jan.

The solution: Business strategy consultants Metavolve have developed a tailormade Year-End Reflection toolkit, and you and your team can log in on 11 December at 12:00 for a free 2-hour workshop on how to end this year off right.

The aim is to teach you the most business-savvy and psychologically advanced way to close off 2024 so that you’re on fire again in 2025.

It’s free — register for the LinkedIn Live event here.

JOBS IN TECH

A Change is as Good as a Holiday…

🧱 Product Owner @ Deel

👨‍💻 Senior Full Stack Engineer @ MoonPay

🎨 Creative Leader @ Mr Price

🤳 FinTech Operations Manager @ SnapScan

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

LET’S PLAY A LITTLE GAME

Riddle Me this, Batman…

I fix your ride without the stress,

A motor guru in your pocket, no less.

No need for calls, or waiting in line,

I send a mechanic right on time.

Who am I?

🇿🇦 A New Model for Advice

This startup is restoring financial advisors’ reputations. Plus: 🐔 VATless proteins, Musk's major lawsuit and founder focus.

NEW
Newsletter
December 3, 2024

Less noise? The UK’s University of Birmingham has unveiled a new design of urban wind turbine that produces energy 7 times more efficiently than any current model and revealed it was designed by AI.

In this Open Letter:

  • New Types of Advice: Get advice without the hidden commissions.
  • SA’s biggest back is in black, drop the VAT on the protein, pain from two pots.
  • All the Finance Help: Fraction of the cost.
  • Fake startup book: The results are in.
  • Last chance for 40% off.  Join The Open Collab today.

Together with:

Putting the Trust Back in Your Fin Advice

SA has a financial literacy rate of only 42%... 

When compared to the UK’s 67%, Australia’s 64%, Canada’s 68%, and Denmark’s 71%, it would make sense that many in SA would need help navigating our finances, especially when it comes to risk and retirement. 

This lack of financial literacy gave rise to an entire industry of financial advisors. 

In fact, in SA there are roughly 3,500 practising Certified Financial Planner (CFP®) professionals whose mandate is to advise on products their clients can buy from registered Financial Service Providers (FSPs).

The same goes for the nearly 200k reps we have working for the 11’750 of SA’s FSPs. All out there to sell you products…

Now, while there are certainly good financial planners who help people, a challenge with the industry is that the incentives are often misaligned. Financial advisors are often rewarded with large commissions for selling certain products over others and it’s hard to think that such an advisor might sell a product that offers less commission. 

And the problem for many investors is that there is no transparency into exactly how much commission or kickback such an advisor will get when selling said product. And some of these commissions can range between 3 and 8.5% of the total cost of the product - upfront!

(Never mind the ongoing payments and performance-based bonuses, alongside perks like trips and professional development…)

But what this commissions-based model does is create an obligation towards the financial institution - i.e. the organisation helping the advisor put food on the table. In other words, not necessarily you and I…

It’s so bad it makes you want to avoid Christmas lunch

One can imagine that quite a few people have been tricked into buying products they don't actually need simply because their cousin Jimmy started a new job as a CFP and needs money for the December holidays.

This begs the question: When you go see a financial advisor, how do you know anything they try to “sell” is really right for you?

The local player swimming upstream

Doshguide is a local platform looking to bring credibility back to the financial advice game by changing how advisors earn a living: Instead of commission on financial products you don’t need (or aren’t suited to your financial situation), Doshguide connects consumers with advisors for flat-fee, 100% unbiased, personal finance and investment advice.  

How it works is:

You book an initial 20-minute consult with Doshguide’s founder Rory Brachner (he’s been burnt by a financial advisor before, so you just know he’s gonna connect you with the right person…).

You then get matched with one of the advisors on Doshguide’s panel for between R450 and R6’000 per month, depending on the complexity of your finances.

And because the advisors work on a flat-fee basis (this is where your month-to-month sub comes in) - they’re not here to sell you any product. They help you find something that’s the right fit for you and your financial situation. There is no commission on products sold, just 100% unbiased advice.

They’re also able to work with all the major financial institutions as well for those products that need a financial advisor attached to them - they simply zero out the commission.

SA sorely needs more high-net-worth and money-savvy citizens. And platforms like Doshguide that enable 100% unbiased financial advice might just convince more South Africans that it’s worthwhile speaking to an advisor again. We’re watching this space…

CHECK THIS OUT

Close the Year Strong with Smarter Financial Planning

A 2024 report by Xero revealed that 24% of small businesses in South Africa face cash flow challenges, with 72% of them resorting to personal funds to sustain operations. Additionally, 46% of business owners spend one to two months chasing late payments, further highlighting the extent of the problem.

For many founders, these challenges are at their worst in December. Fewer workdays mean less income, and in many sectors, December feels like a standstill. It’s often the time when founders dip into personal funds to keep their businesses afloat—bye-bye holiday plans.

But it doesn’t have to be this way.

With the right planning during busier months, you can ease the stress and build reserves to confidently navigate the holiday slowdown. And let’s face it—strategic financial planning isn’t as simple as “just make more money in the good months.”

That’s where a CFO can make a world of difference. A seasoned CFO doesn’t just look at the numbers—they help you make the right strategic decisions to keep your business resilient, ensuring you can enjoy the holidays instead of stressing over cash flow.

Here’s the best part: You don’t need a full-time CFO.

With fractional CFO services, you can access world-class financial expertise without breaking the bank. Whether it’s maximising profits in busy periods, building reserves, or setting realistic strategies, a fractional CFO can help you navigate the complexities of financial management while keeping costs low.

Contact OCFO today to learn how their services can help you finish the year strong (or make sure next year is a strong one) and spend your holidays the right way.

Contact OCFO now

IN SHORT

Some lekke facts to gooi around the watercooler…

🍯 Two-Pot Pain. JSE-listed financial services group Alexforbes has seen an increase in operating costs since the implementation of SA’s Two-Pot retirement system, with withdrawals seeing the company’s tech costs (two-pot system implementation, software and licensing costs, and an increase in outsourced services) increase by 13% Y-o-Y, and personnel expenses up by 12% to handle increased claims volumes.

🧱 BRICS Brickwall? SA’s Department of International Relations and Cooperation (DIRCO) has said there are no plans to create a “BRICS currency” in response to incoming US President Trump’s tariff threat to impose 100% tariffs on BRICS nations that support the creation of an alternative currency to the US dollar.

🍗 VAT-Free Chicken. SAs might feel the pinch of rising food costs lessen if a proposal to remove VAT from frozen bone-in chickens & portions, and fresh and frozen chicken offal, is successful. The proposal, submitted on behalf of the South African Poultry Association (SAPA) and the Association of Meat Importers and Exporters (AMIE), aims to expand the basket of essential foods free from VAT, and those that would benefit poorer households.

👆Back in Black. Naspers-owned Prosus has announced half-year profits with group adjusted earnings (before interest and taxes) hitting US$60 million. This comes off the back of the group selling stakes in Trip.com in China, food delivery company Tazz in Romania, and Superbalist back home in SA.

⚔️ Musk v OpenAI. Attorneys representing Elon Musk and his AI startup xAI have filed for a preliminary injunction against OpenAI to prevent it from converting into a fully for-profit business. Musk’s legal team is arguing that OpenAI should be prohibited from “benefitting from wrongfully obtained competitively sensitive information or coordination via the Microsoft-OpenAI board interlocks.”

🎯 Founder Focus. Every year, more than half of entrepreneurs put their company’s future at risk by failing to take a proper break over the holidays. Our friends at Metavolve are hosting a free, game-changing, hands-on 2-hour workshop on 11 December with practical steps to end off 2024 in a way that allows you to take a good break this Christmas so that you can come back on fire and ready to dominate again in January – register here for free.

BUILDING TOGETHER

Happening over at The Open Collab

Our community of SA founders have been buzzing…

  • We welcome 12 new members who made most of our schweet Black Friday 40% off.
  • Helped Pieter find the best international SMS provider.
  • Coordinated to meet at AfricArena this coming week.
  • Discussed the current trends of ghost engineers and heard some horror stories.
  • Had a great time in chat roulette brainstorming how to overcome challenges together.
  • 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 community. 40% off the annual plan until midnight!

Join The Open Collab

HAPPENING SOON

Upcoming Events

4 December 2024 - In Stellenbosch? We are partnering with the Stellenbosch Network for a business speed networking event. It's going to be a great deal of fun, and there are only a few tickets left; come join in!

6 December 2024 — AMA with Alan Knott-Craig: After our LinkedIn Live with Allan, you voted to an Ask Me Anything session — Join The Open Collab community to attend for free.

13 December 2024 — Sales Masterclass — Online: Part 3: Keep your B2B sales pipeline filled with this Masterclass session with sales expert, Sebastian Chapman — Join The Open Collab community to attend for free.

View all our upcoming events here.

FRIDAY’S GAME RESULTS

The Books That Founders Need

We asked which book is NOT a SA startup/business book, and you almost got it… 

🟥⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ Stalking Giants

🟥🟥🟥🟥🟥⬜️ Life Lessons 

🟥🟥🟥🟥🟥🟥 Upstart 

🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩⬜️ Township Tech 

⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ The First Kudu 

Correct answer: Township Tech… man, we wish it was real though.

The others are all real:

  • Stalking Giants is also new: A look at how Capitec managed to take on the Big Four Banks.
  • Life Lessons is the new book by Alan Knott-Craig, known for CellFind, iBurst, Mxit, Herotel and now fibertime.
  • Upstart is a book by the then-25-year-old founder of DigsConnect.
  • The First Kudu is the remarkable story of SA’s first would-be unicorn, HouseME.

And you should totally get yourself a copy – all great stories!

Your 2 cents…

You nailed it, Karabo! 💡 It’s actually not a book — well spotted! 🎯

Us too, Nashe! 🙌


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😎 Tech to Break the Fashion Game

Plus: SA’s TV museum, local news, vine connections, Afro AIs & 40% off SA’s only dedicated founder collab.

NEW
Newsletter
November 29, 2024

Sparkling health? A group of scientists found a gold-derived medication slows cancer tumour growth by 82% — way more effective than chemo. If this goes mainstream, who knows what will happen to the price of gold; might be a good time to go buy some TroyGold.

If you missed last week Friday, welcome to Fast-Five-Fridays. 5 startups, mostly local, all doing big things. Let’s go.

PS: Happy Black Friday — we got a special deal on The Open Collab membership. Get 40% off and 3 top SA startup books! Join now.

1. JUST LAUNCHED

New Life for Old Clothes

Fashion is cool. Until it’s not. Humans produce 100 billion garments a year (13 pieces of clothing for each of us on planet Earth). And 70% of it ends up in landfills.

Local re-commerce platform Thrif wants to help online shoppers think “buy secondhand first” by bringing quality-checked, affordably-priced (50—70% off), sustainable secondhand clothing (including a bunch of major brands) right to your phone — no need for dodgy Facebook Marketplace meets.

It’s early days for them, but they are making great progress and you can already pick up some great bargains here.

Check out Thrif’s elevator pitch…

Instagram post by @theopenletterza

PS: Thrif Founders Micaela and Nick are part of The Open Collab along with 68 other SA founders – keep reading for more on this community.

2. AN INTERESTING STARTUP NOT FROM SA

No More Weird Voiceover Sitcoms

If you’ve ever watched Money Heist on Netflix, (which you should btw), you would’ve noticed that it wasn’t originally filmed in English. Yep, this hit show that’s been one of the streaming giants’ biggest shows of all time with 3 of its Parts (seasons) in the Top 10 Most Popular Non-English TV shows, was originally filmed in Spanish.

Case in point to prove that there is money to be made in repurposing localised content for other audiences. Enter Flawless AI, which has built a tool to translate videos in a way that makes the lips of actors sync better with the sound.

And with Netflix (and others) continuing to invest in the development of localised content, this could be the kind of tool that makes it even more viable!

And with Netflix (and others) continuing to invest in the development of localised content, this could be the kind of tool that makes it even more viable!

3. REACHING FOR SCALE

Empowering the Peeps that Help You Succeed

By the end of 2026, corporates around the world are set to spend nearly $100 billion on corporate wellness solutions to boost productivity, reduce absenteeism, lower healthcare costs, and create a healthier, happier, and more engaged workforce.

Locally, Strove an employee well-being and engagement platform is building a solution that offers employers the ability to provide health and well-being support for their employees including 

  • physical activity tracking

  • mental well-being resources

  • nutritional health support

  • health reports and insights

And those participating can claim employee rewards from 4’000+ rewards partners.

It’s a positive-behaviour-reinforcement platform and Startup Club ZA’s 2024 Startup of the Year HealthTech winner.

4. WHERE ARE THEY NOW

The ZA Stablecoin

A year ago we shared the story of the riches in stablecoins and how local startup ZARP is trying to capitalise on the rise of these tokens.

Stablecoins that work are big businesses: USDT’s market cap is $133bn, making $1.3bn quarterly profit (Q2 2024) with only 100-odd employees.

The concept is pretty straightforward. For various reasons, people doing trading and other activities on blockchains want to be able to swap in a “stable currency” such as the US Dollar without having to exit the ecosystem. So in comes USDT, a crypto token that is pegged to the US Dollar.

How is it made? Well, people deposit real US Dollars in exchange for tokens and Tether (the company behind USDT) then uses the real US Dollar to buy US government bonds that give yields of a few %.

Owners of USDT can at any point exchange their USDT for real US dollars, but here is the thing… no one really does. Leaving USDT with $118m+ in reserves just sitting there earning interest on those US government bonds.

Local stablecoin ZARP is still going strong and has seen usage of their token increase, and so has the total amount of ZARP created. Should there be mainstream adoption of a ZAR-backed stable coin, these guys will be ready.

5. ON THE PODCAST

Free Wifi on the Way to Work

SA’s 15 million daily minibus taxi commuters spend on average 126 minutes travelling to work, school and such daily – that’s nearly 16 million hours per day!

Imagine if we could get them all free internet while they travel. Yeah, we could fund it through brands paying to tap directly into an audience in a host of different ways, rewarding them for reading the news, playing a game, or even completing a survey… 

Well, that’s what the team at Sebenza is building: An intuitive, gamified platform that brings content, brands, products, and connectivity together in a single digital ecosystem that connects and rewards commuters in over 8’000 taxis across SA.

We had Sebenza co-founders, Wesley Dorning and Calvin Le Mottee, on the latest episode of the pod (yes, it’s back after a short hiatus!). See how they’re building it, the unique challenges they had to overcome and get some powerful insights into building in this exciting space…

BLACK FRIDAY!

Get 68+ Founders to Help You Build

Startup can become a lonely game and it’s easy to get stuck…

But when you surround yourself with others who’re also building businesses, you unlock a certain kind of magic you can’t get anywhere else… insights, ideas, honest people to bounce off of, trustworthy pilot testers, valuable connections, key introductions and maybe even a partner or two.

We know, that’s why we started The Open Collab (TOC) a few months ago to give founders a space to support each other.

And does it work? Dunno, you tell us…

Magic for founders, just another average Tuesday at the Collab…

And we’d love for you to join in, so we’re doing that Black Friday thang and giving you 40% off a year’s subscription, plus the first 10 signups get a bonus gift of 3 of the most must-read SA startup books right now.

That’s right, Stalking Giants, Life Lessons and The First Kudu absolutely free for the first ten people to take up the offer — they’re all must-reads for any SA founder and just in time for December.

IN SHORT

Well, well, lookie here…

📰 Funding Local News. A new R114 million fund to support the digital transformation of small, independent SA news publishers is in the works. The Digital News Transformation Fund (DNT Fund) is a partnership between The Association of Independent Publishers (AIP) and Google and will be administered independently by Tshikululu Social Investments.

🌿 Vine Connections. On Wednesday 4 December, The Stellenbosch Network and The Open Letter are hosting a business speed networking jam with lekker snacks and drinks at the University’s Botanical Gardens to help startups connect more with people in other business sectors and vice versa – B2B networking with established players, anyone?

📺 Memory Lane. SA’s first TV museum, the Tevolution Museum, was just launched in Cape Town by Hisense SA, The Western Cape Department of Cultural Affairs and Sport, and the SA Sendinggestig Museum. Visitors can see everything from a nostalgia-giving wooden box TV, right the way through to the R400k Hisense 110-inch UX TV built at its Atlantis factory.

🌍 African AI. OpenAI, Meta, and French telecom Orange are working on a collaborative project that’ll see them training AI programs on thousands of African dialects spoken on the continent to address the shortage of African language models. The project will kick off in the first half of next year, focusing on two West African languages, Wolof and Pulaar.

🇿🇦 Flying High. SA’s state airline South African Airways is showing signs of a turnaround with its recent announcement of profits to the tune of R252 million for the first time since 2012. And it seems like some of the banks are taking notice, with some already approaching the SOE to fund its route expansion plans.

🎯 Founder Focus. Every year, more than half of entrepreneurs put their company’s future at risk by failing to take a proper break over the holidays. Our friends at Metavolve are hosting a free, hands-on 2-hour workshop on 11 December with practical steps to end off 2024 in a way that allows you to recharge over Christmas so that you can come back on fire and ready to dominate again in January – register here.

JOBS IN TECH

Makin’ Moves O’Clock?

Retail Product Manager at Superbalist

Senior Dev (2x roles) at KHULA!

UI/UX Manager at Derivco

Talent Advisor at OfferZen

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

GAME TIME

Been paying attention??

We love the South African non-fiction category, particularly books about startups. So it's quiz time…Pick the correct answer, and you could win a copy of Alan Knott-Craig’s book!

WHAT YOU SAID

Time applies…

We asked what’s worth the effort of a credit application, and it’s just the big stuff…

🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 🏡 Property and cars only. (57%)

🟨🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 📱 Maybe the odd credit card or phone contract. (20%)

⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🛍️ Everything! Clothing accounts, furniture – never pay cash for anything. (3%)

🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🧔 Nothing, I will remain credit-free, forever! (9%)

🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🦄 Mainly lines of credit for my business – gotta keep growing. (11%)

In case you missed it, on Tuesday, we took a deep dive into startups democratising your financial data.

💪 Giving Startups Bank-Level Fin Insights

Plus: Innovating Jozi 🌇, AI Pokémon trainers, Africa’s cybercrime conundrum & 90% off startup accounting.

NEW
Newsletter
November 26, 2024

Time to optimise? BMW released another video of ChatGPT partner Figure 2’s robot army working in their factory. Apparently, the bots have boosted their efficiency by 400% in just 3 months.

And if you wanna laugh at some silly humans, the Reddit comment thread on this video is quite fun too.

In this Open Letter:

  • Democratising data: Giving everyone bank-level financial insights.
  • Innovating Jozi, AI Pokémon trainers & Africa’s cybercrime conundrum.
  • Finances sorted: Get 90% off your business accounting right here.
  • Fake startups and learnership impact: The results are in.
  • Lonely building your startup? Join The Open Collab and get support.

Together with:

Did someone forward you this email? Join {{active_subscriber_count}} South Africans reading The Open Letter by signing up here.

Democratising 40+ Million’s Financial Data

If you’ve ever tried applying for any credit, you’d know it needs A LOT of paperwork… 

Payslips, addresses, bank statements, and all that budgeting and expenditure info — you know the drill. Then you apply to two providers for the same product, and guess what? You have to do it all over again. Yep, that same handwritten budgeting sheet… twice.

In fact, given that the number of overall credit originations (how many new accounts opened) increased by 15.2% in Q2 of this year alone, it’s likely that this process happens countless times per year. And this doesn't even include the two-thirds of applications declined by the banks themselves.

Yet, all of this financial data has given banks a bit of an unfair upper hand: SA banks have managed to capture the business of 50% of credit products in SA. 

They know exactly what people need, what they can afford, and they control most of the key credit-related communication channels. It’s basically a law-backed moat — hard to break into, even if someone else comes along with a better product.

It cost me R5k in ink and patience to fill in these forms for a R5k credit facility.

But whose data is it anyway?

With AI making data more valuable than ever, it begs the question: who really owns it?

A solid case can be made that data belongs to the person who creates it. Now in banking, that’s not the bank — it’s the person making the transaction and generating the data point in the first place.

Open banking is a step towards giving customers more control over how their financial data is accessed and shared. While it doesn’t necessarily mean you legally “own” your data, it shifts the power back to you, letting you decide who gets access and why. 

And that’s a big deal.

Open banking essentially allows API access to bank accounts that could allow third parties to get deep insights into your transaction data.

Why is this a good idea, you might ask?

Well if they have the same level of detail your bank does, they can offer you competitive or even outright better products than your bank, making it a big win for consumers.

So, how does it all come together seamlessly? Let’s be real — integrating with an Open Banking API isn’t exactly simple. Getting every credit provider on board and pulling meaningful insights from it? That’s a huge ask.

That’s where local startup truID comes in.

Democratising SA consumers’ financial data…

truID is on a mission to democratise consumers’ financial data, enabling them to share their financial information to get better financial services securely.

It works by letting providers securely link a consenting applicant’s account with truID, which fetches financial data from SA’s Big 6 Banks, validates it, and enriches it into detailed insights. Basically, it gives a FinTech the same transparency and quality data that a bank would have.

It even levels the playing field for non-bank providers, enabling them to achieve the same operational efficiencies as banks and FinTechs, improving credit origination from hours or days to just 3 minutes.

And financial enablement for every South African is something truID co-founder Paris Valakelis feels very strongly about: “Access to financial services should not depend on outdated methods of assessment,” he explains. “By using transaction data, we’re not just improving efficiencies for credit providers – we’re empowering millions of South Africans to take control of their financial futures.”

Great for the current 22 million credit-active South Africans, but the real game-changer is what this could mean for the 20 million financially invisible ones.

We’re watching this space…

CHECK THIS OUT

Free Sanction Screening (KYC) for 2025

In the mission to get SA of the FATF greylist, stricter anti-money laundering (AML) regulations now apply for businesses that deal with individuals where the movement of an asset is involved — think investments, sales of property or sales of any other assets.

Central to this AML process is checking whether individuals appear on international sanction lists — even better is ongoing monitoring to see whether any of your customers appear on these lists in the future.

That’s where local startup ZenDetect sorts you out. They onboarded Pioneer Finance within 2 weeks and helped them reduce their KYC overhead by more than 50%.

Whadda Deal

And to make it really easy for you to get going, they are offering FREE sanction list screening for a year for anyone onboarding sanction list screening before 15 February 2025.

All you have to do is book yours by 15 December, and BOOM, you got 1 year’s worth of savings to outprice your competitors with for Mahala.

Get Free Screening for a Year

IN SHORT

A couple o’ fast facts for your water cooler chats…

💡Innovate Jozi. Jozi gets a new hub to stimulate innovation and support SMMEs thanks to networking & security technology company Cisco, and business incubation hub Forge X.

🗺️ Pokémon No. Niantic the company that developed Pokémon Go is building a new “Large Geospatial Model” (LGM) using millions of scans from the smartphones of Pokémon Go players.

🕵️‍♀️ Cybercrime Hotspot. Africa’s growing digital infrastructure is providing fertile ground for cybercriminals with African organisations suffering 3’370 attacks per week, 2x that of their global counterparts.

🥊 Punching Up. Pick n Pay is set to list Boxer on the JSE after raising an R8.5 billion IPO with 157.4 million shares allocated to qualifying investors at R54 per share.

🎯 Black Friday. Xero is offering 90% off the first 6 months of their packages. That’s right, get the world’s leading cloud accounting software starting at just R45 per month. Offer expires this Friday, so hurry!

BUILDING TOGETHER

Happening over at The Open Collab

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

  • Learnt about a whole whack of awesome business/startup games to play together…
  • Gave Joel some veteran insights into the LinkedIn ads network.
  • Celebrated Laurie’s computer vision project with Skeg.
  • Adored Jo’s new comms agency website 🤩.
  • Helped proofread Danei and Elijah’s fin board game rules — it’s almost time!
  • Were the first in SA to learn of an exciting new partnership that might just shake up the local e-delivery bike game.
  • Organising comp tickets to a Stellenbosch event for Elijah.

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 community.

Join The Open Collab

HAPPENING SOON

Upcoming Events

29 November 2024 — Chat Roulette — Online: Voted as one of the best-loved founder community exercises of 2024, The Open Collab community gets together to connect, work together and help each other succeed — Join The Open Collab community to attend for free.

4 December 2024, 17:30 — 20:00: We are partnering up with The Stellenbosch Network to host a speed networking event. This is going to be an awesome opportunity to meet some local Stellenbosch startups. Come join in!

6 December 2024 — AMA with Alan Knott-Craig: After our LinkedIn Live with Allan, you voted to an Ask Me Anything session — Join The Open Collab community to attend for free.

13 December 2024 — Sales Masterclass — Online: Part 3: Keep your B2B sales pipeline filled with this Masterclass session with sales expert, Sebastian Chapman — Join The Open Collab community to attend for free.

View all our upcoming events here.

WHAT YOU SAID

Spot the fake…

On Friday, we ran a special startup trivia in our first Fast Five Friday edition, and it was quite stellar: Spot the fake startup (or Boulderdash — startup edition)

🟨🟨🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️ Rent-A-Chicken: A service that lets you rent egg-laying hens and coops for a farm-to-table experience. (25%)

🟨🟨🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️ Ship Your Enemies Glitter: A company that anonymously mails glitter-filled envelopes to your foes. (20%)

🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 Plant Therapist: AI-based “therapy” sessions for your plants to “understand their emotional needs” and ensure optimal growth. (40%)

🟨🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ I Do, Now I Don’t: An online marketplace for selling and buying second-hand engagement rings. (15%)

Wanna know which one was the right answer? Go to Friday’s letter and vote to unmask the fake startup.

Prepping the next generation…

Then, last Tuesday, we asked about your experience with learnerships, and most don’t want the bureaucracy…

🟨🟨🟨🟨⬜️⬜️ 🎓 I’ve completed one myself. (17%)

🟨🟨🟨🟨🟨⬜️ 😉 We regularly use them to get new employees. (21%)

🟨🟨🟨🟨⬜️⬜️ 🍎 Well, now I’m strongly considering offering one. (17%)

🟨🟨🟨🟨🟨⬜️ 🙌 We tried it once with interesting results. (21%)

🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 ⛔ Nope. Too much red tape. (24%)

Your 2 cents…

Such an inspiring story, Mike! 🙌 Kudos to you for making such a lasting impact!

Great perspective, Rudolph! 😊 It’s fantastic when programs align to give a win-win all around!

Ha ha, not everyone’s journey is the same, hey Chris? But, ja, the couple of success stories shine. 🎉


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🤩 This Your 1st Fast Five Friday...?

Today: Back on the bike 🚵‍♂️, flawless AI waves, in-house learning & an SA recruitment engine. Plus: Self-destructing GP number plates and more.

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Newsletter
November 22, 2024

Coca-Cola dropped their annual Christmas ad, a remake of its 1995 classic. It was well received until people saw it was made by AI, with one TikTokker saying “Coke ruined Christmas”. Annnd of course, someone posted their unhinged version to Reddit

In this Open Letter, we’re trying something a lil different on Fridays by featuring Five startups that you need to keep your eyes on — we call it Fast-Five-Friday… and it includes an all-new Jobs In Tech section and a new game, so be sure to keep scrolling!

Once done reading, hit reply and tell us what you think (even if you don’t like it).

1. EARLIER DAYS

Training That’s Actually Fun

Keeping your employees at the top of their game is crucial, but in many cases, traditional training methods that are slow and expensive just don’t cut it. Besides, modern ways of learning on mobile phones have proven to be very effective.

Take Duolingo, the world’s favourite language app, studies show that their learners can achieve similar levels of proficiency to students who have done four semesters of university in half the time.

So what if we take the power of mobile-first, reinforced earning and bring it to the workplace? That’s exactly what local startup Beeline does.

Beeline enables companies to create — or collaborate with their team to develop — fun, Duolingo-style training programs tailored to their needs. The result? Staff who not only complete training but actually enjoy it. Say goodbye to boring workshops and hello to the future of workplace learning.

2. GROWING NICELY

Mountain Bikes are Expensive, Insure it!

There are anywhere between 500k and 800k+ mountain bikers in SA. And it’s quite the money spinner, globally, bringing in a tidy $101 billion in 2023. With the average cost of a bike knocking you back R55’000 and a handful of change, it makes sense that these bikes need insurance… 

Enter Two Three Bird, a bicycle insurer with operations in the UK, South Africa, Australia, and the US. They recently acquired Project 529, a comprehensive registration and bicycle recovery service with more than 3 million searchable bikes on its database.

With the industry set to more than double to $228.90 billion by 2030, we think Two Three Bird might be onto something…

3. THE TIME IS NOW

Connect the World

When it comes to internet connectivity, South Africa is still very much unequal.

Leafy suburbs typically have access to fibre lines that cost anything from R350 to R1000 per month, and looking at household fibre data usage in Australia, it’s likely that South African households consume between 350 and 500 GB of data per month. That makes it less than R1 per GB.

Now, take mobile network data prices, which are the only option for many South Africans living in townships; we are talking about R40 - R100 a GB. That is 40-100x more expensive.

But fibertime is changing that. They install fibre infrastructure in townships and then sell daily uncapped vouchers for as little as R5. Depending on usage, the price per GB could be under R1.

With an estimated 11.6 million people living in townships in SA, this is a massive market. So, it is not only a lucrative business opportunity but a great way to provide more affordable access to all South Africans.

We had the founder of Fibertime, Alan Knott-Craig, on our podcast, How Would You Build It, recently. He shared stories of their failure at Mxit, success at Herotel, fibertime, and lessons they learned along the way. Listen here:

4. FROM THE OPEN COLLAB COMMUNITY

Grad Recruitment Sorted

Roughly 200k-300k university graduates hit the South African job market every year, and top companies scramble to find the best candidates. You have to market to various campuses, filter through hundreds of applications and under immense time pressure (the best candidates find jobs quickly).

Local scale-up Leaply tackles this HR pain head-on.

It offers built-in psychometrically pre-assesses and vets and recommends top graduate talent instantly and on-demand – simplifying the grad recruitment process into a simplified platform. What’s more, once you are registered as a grad on the platform, future jobs that appear that match your profile can also be sent your way.

Think of it as a lifetime recruitment friend — but not the annoying LinkedIn recruiter who slides into your DMs every six months asking if you’re “open to new opportunities”.

Find grad jobs faster than you can order a Sixty60

Wanna build with founders like Tiaan from Leaply? Come Join The Open Collab.

5. SUPPORT YOU NEED*

Now Anyone Can Sanction List Screen

In a mission to get SA of the FATF greylist, stricter anti-money laundering (AML) regulations now apply for businesses that deal with individuals where the movement of an asset is involved — think investments, sales of property or sales of any other assets.

Central to this AML process is checking whether individuals appear on international sanction lists — even better is ongoing monitoring to see whether any of your customers appear on these lists in the future.

That’s where local startup ZenDetect sorts you out. They onboarded Pioneer Finance within 2 weeks and helped them reduce their KYC overhead by more than 50%.

And to make it really easy for you to get going, they are offering FREE sanction list screening for a year for anyone onboarding sanction list screening before 15 February 2025.

All you have to do is book yours by 15 December, and BOOM, you got 1 year’s worth of savings to outprice your competitors with for Mahala.

Get the Deal Now

IN SHORT

Some SA tech gossip for the braai…

⛰️ No Sloane Down. Africa’s largest startup campus and entrepreneurship hub, 22 On Sloane, has just opened its second local hub in Cape Town (Jozi has the first one). With co-working spaces, innovation spaces, a Game development studio, ecosystem events and networking opportunities, the hub is set to support Africa’s growing startup ecosystem.

🙅‍♀️ Anti-Spam. WhatsApp is testing new ways to let users provide feedback about whether or not they wish to receive marketing messages from WhatsApp Business accounts using ‘Interested’/’Not Interested’ for 4 specific categories of messages: marketing, utilities (order and account related), authentication (OTPs), and service (customer service).

🪙 Crypto House Hunting. In a first for the local property market, South Africans can now buy property using crypto thanks to a solution built by Broll Auctions and Sales, Schindlers Attorneys and Schindlers Digital Assets.

🇿🇦 Mission Impossible? Gauteng is getting new aluminium license number plates that can self-destruct when tampered with in a bid to clamp down on criminals making fakes. These new vehicle plates require an SABS certification mark, the SA flag, ZA, and a 1cm by 1cm security feature (a barcode) that will self-destruct if someone attempts to remove it.

😎 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, all your accounting sorted with Xero and 12 more vital startup tools & services.

STARTUP JOBS FOR DAYS

Got an itch for that switch?

Hiring a Tech/Startup role? Reply to this email, and we will feature it here.

*Zendetect has a paid partnership with The Open Letter


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💰 Unlocking R15bn+ in SA Learnership Budgets...

Plus: SA’s young science guns 🔬, GitHub’s billion dev plan & a new secret weapon for SA founders.

NEW
Newsletter
November 19, 2024

Shop like an astronaut? China has unveiled Haolong, its new unmanned reusable space shuttle which some say looks like a knock-off of NASA’s retired one 🤭. We can only imagine that’s what happens when you buy a spaceship from Temu.

In this Open Letter:

  • The local play: How to unlock R15bn+ in SA learnership budgets.
  • SA’s young science guns, GitHub’s billion dev plan & Naspers’ earnings.
  • Founder’s secret weapon: From MVP to massive scale in 5 months.
  • How good SA is at growing food: The results are in.
  • Short on ideas? Share this and get 100+ SA startup ideas.

Together with:

Did someone forward you this email? Join {{active_subscriber_count}} South Africans reading The Open Letter by signing up here.

Solving SA’s Jobs Crisis with 4.8 Million Subsidised Employees

The youth in SA are up against it…

Youth unemployment is at 45.5% – nearly 5 million of SA’s youth (between the ages of 15 and 34) are sitting at home. And while some of them may be hustling it out, they’re not part of the formal economy.

Concerningly, nearly 1 million of them have given up hope of ever finding a job, with unemployment introducing a whole host of other social challenges. 

A solution right in front of us…

Many matriculants aren’t able to study at a university. But when they hit the job market, they’re asked what experience they have – which is obviously none.

I mean, if you say so, Thor…

So they’re caught between a rock and a hard place – which is where learnerships come into play. Together with the qualification component, they can also gain meaningful work experience. 

The government actually has a plan for that

In SA, we have a Skills Development Levy imposed on companies with a salary bill of more than R500k per annum – worked out at 1% of the total amount paid in salaries. This SDL is meant to develop and improve employee skills.

80% of this SDL levy is disbursed via the various Skills Education Training Authorities – SETA’s. 

There are more than 20 SETA’s, each with its own sectors and sub-sectors and comprising a variety of economic activities that are related. So you’d have the BANKSETA for the Banking Sector, the MICTSETA for the Information and Communications Technology sector, the TetaSETA for the Transport sector, and so on…

But here’s the thing…

There’s a nice incentive for employers running learnerships in the form of an annual allowance and a once-off completion allowance, once the learner has completed their learnership.

Depending on the NQF (National Qualification Framework) level of the learnership (matric is level 4, BTW), employers can claim between R40k and R80k per learner per year, and as much as R120k for disabled learners.

That’s between R3’333 and R10’000 per month per learner – not bad for someone who’s getting a qualification and some on-the-job training – not to mention the extra set of hands your company has to get the job done…

What’s more, companies that run learnership programmes can get 6 points towards the 20-point skills development component of their BEE scorecard…

With between 2.4 and 3.5 million small and medium enterprises (SMEs) operating in South Africa, imagine what SA’s youth unemployment rate would look like if each SME took on just one job seeker…

The local player bringing learners, trainers, employers and more together…

But with government processes comes admin and know-how. That’s where the local training management system Inala comes in. They built a platform for connecting and enabling this ecosystem of government programs and the private sector (both training programs and employers):

  • The Learner: an unemployed youth from a previously disadvantaged background
  • The Host Employer: hosts the learner in the workplace.
  • A Training Provider: the organisation that will provide the training.
  • The Facilitator: to conduct the training.
  • The Workplace Mentor: offers guidance and support in the workplace.
  • The Assessor/Moderator: ensures that the learners are actually growing their skills.
  • The Funder: funding these learning projects.
  • And lastly the Skills Development governing bodies: SETA/QCTO.

The platform has a whole host of features including: 

  • The ability to build out your programmes, and track learner attendance, progress and competency to identify learners at risk of dropping off.
  • Manage programme facilitators and training scheduling. 
  • Manage a digital portfolio of evidence submissions in a paperless environment (good for the actual environment).
  • Advanced customised dashboards for reporting and compliance.

We recently chatted to Inala Co-Founder Jason Schwegmann and only 52% of SA’s SMEs are actively claiming back their SDL contributions, leaving billions in unclaimed funds on the table each year. Unreal…

With platforms like Inala, stakeholders in the training industry can scale operations, train more learners, and reduce dropout rates through a centralised platform, bringing key role players together to boost employment opportunities for SA’s youth.

We’re watching this space…

CHECK THIS OUT

From MVP to Scale in 5 Months

Remember in June this year when we told you about LeaseSurance, the startup that’s making rental deposits a thing of the past

They’re now an SA Startup of the Year finalist.

But here’s the part you didn’t know: Just a few months before we wrote about them, the product was basically still an MVP – good enough to get some initial validation, but nowhere near ready for scale.

And scale is what they needed… in PropTech, margins are low, so you need high volume and fast, but you also need to trim admin and operational costs down to the bone.

So founder Paul Schaefer did something not every SA founder knows about…

The new way to build in SA

Instead of doing the obvious: Getting a dev agency on board or (eek!) trying to build a team internally, Paul opted to get a crew of engineering devs on the job…

He went to Octoco (which stands for outsourced CTO) and, as the name suggests, it’s your next step up from your average developers – a distinction we don’t make readily enough here in SA, but Paul knew that if he wanted to build an actual business fast, engineers were the way to go.

From March to July this year, Octoco rebuilt LeaseSurance from the ground up, enabling real-time data integration, streamlined claims automation, and seamless user and transaction management – see the full details of the project here.

The special forces of SA Tech

Within 5 months, LeaseSurance was streamlined, operations optimised enough that Paul could see a route to profitability and – most importantly – it was set up so that Paul and his team could focus on one thing: scaling.

“The results are immediately visible,” Paul explains. “We’re servicing existing clients faster and onboarding new ones with ease. Our ability to handle client portfolio growth has significantly improved, all while maintaining financial viability.”

Serious about ensuring your greatest chance of success?

Get Octoco in your corner

IN SHORT

Some tech titbits to enjoy…

🇿🇦 Young Science Guns. Two Grade 11 South African scientists will fly the flag at this year’s İzmir International Innovation Science Energy Engineering Fair (IISEEF) taking place in Turkey from the 30th of November to the 3rd of December. The two projects they’ll be showcasing set out to enhance our understanding of exercise physiology and present a viable alternative for sealing wounds respectively.

🛒 Soaring e-commerce. The tide is turning for ecommerce in SA according to new data from Absa. The average value of e-commerce transactions has increased from R350 to R430 from the start of 2023 to Q3 in 2024, while the average value of physical store transactions has dropped from R350 to R340 over the same period.

🤖 DevBots. GitHub’s CEO Thomas Dohmke has shared that the integration of AI tools into the collaborative development platforms toolset will help it grow its user base from 100 million to a billion (human) software developers over the next 10 years.

💸 MVC. SA’s most valuable company, Naspers, is expecting strong results for the 1st half of the 2025 financial year. The expected strong headline earnings per share jump of between 87.2% and 84% is attributed to the growth and enhanced profitability of its e-commerce operations and equity-accounted investments, especially Tencent.

🎯 The Stack. Founders need tools and suppliers they can trust. Check out our Founder’s Stack with easy-apply R5M business funding from Lula, next-level authority building with Stream and loads more vital startup tools & services.

BUILDING TOGETHER

Happening over at The Open Collab

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

  • Discussed the Checkers Sixty60 driver controversy and speculated about SA’s true unemployment levels.
  • Discovered that HubSpot offers significant discounts to startups 😮.
  • Shared a list of 26 startups that YC thinks the world really needs right now.
  • Delved at tech to solve government efficiency concerns VS long pay cycles in that space.
  • Got our invites for Friday’s product masterclass 🚀.
  • Discussed Norway’s questionable startup taxes and how this can dampen innovation.
  • Helped Enrco find a solution for blocking unwanted WhatsApp calls.

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 community.

Join The Open Collab

HAPPENING SOON

Upcoming Events

22 November 2024 — Product Masterclass — Online: Part 3: The tools, frameworks and habits of exceptional product teams with SA product legend Roger Norton — join The Open Collab community to attend for free.

29 November 2024 — Sales Masterclass — Online: Part 3: Keep your B2B sales pipeline filled with this Masterclass session with sales expert, Sebastian Chapman — join The Open Collab community to attend for free.

6 December 2024 — AMA with Alan Knott-Craig: After our LinkedIn Live with Alan, you voted to an Ask Me Anything session — join The Open Collab community to attend for free.

View all our upcoming events here.

WHAT YOU SAID

Home-grown greens…

We asked if you had ever tried growing your own veggies, and at least we all tried…

🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 😅 Yeh, no that didn’t go so well. (47%)

🟨🟨🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🍅 Of course, you should see my 2-pound tomatoes! (25%)

🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🥗 Why on Earth would I? The Spar is like, right there. (10%)

🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🍃 Oh I’ve grown a LOT – just not the edible kind. (12%)

⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 😮 Oops, just remembered I forgot to water mine, since Covid! (6%)

Your 2 cents…

That’s awesome, Jason! 🌱 Even tiny pepper plants are a win. Replanting can be tricky — maybe AgriLogiq needs to expand into backyard SOS kits! 🚜

Wow, you’re doing great, Sakhile! 🌿

Thanks so much, Lara! That’s high praise, and we’re honoured to make the cut. 😊


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🌽 Increasing Yields by 50%+

Plus: Jozi’s R90M space dome 🌌, OpenAI’s helper bot, SA’s Google Boost & win a year’s free KYC.

NEW
Newsletter
November 15, 2024

Money sense? Yes, Donald Trump named Elon Musk part of his administration. Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy are going to head up the new US department of DOGE (Department Of Government Efficiency), and they have one goal: to reduce wasteful government spending.

Lucky Americans; just imagine if we could get that in SA… 🇿🇦

In this Open Letter:

  • Fertile soil: New SA tech helps farmers increase crop yield by 50%+.
  • Jozi’s R90M space dome, OpenAI’s helper bot & SA’s Google Boost.
  • Early Black Friday: Win a year’s worth of free KYC for your startup.
  • What needs real-time data visualisation: The results are in.
  • Short on ideas? Share this and get 100+ SA startup ideas.

Together with:

Did someone forward you this email? Join {{active_subscriber_count}} South Africans reading The Open Letter by signing up here.

Helping Farmers Put 50% More on Your Plate

Since that one guy decided enough with the hunting and the gathering, and started farming 12’000 years ago, it’s been a tough gig…

At the mercy of drought on the one end of the weather, and flooding, hail and frost on the other, weather patterns have always played a significant part in the success, or failure, of a farm.

In recent years, however, there has been more extreme weather, more frequently, and with more intensity.

In just 5 years Farmer Josh has seen it all…

How we gonna feed all these people?

There are nearly 8.2 billion of us on planet Earth (including the 10 astronauts in space right now), and we’re set to add just under 2 billion people by 2050, requiring a 60% increase in food production

But that’s not all. The world’s arable farmland is decreasing with at least 100 million hectares of healthy and productive land lost each year to urbanisation, degrading soil and soil erosion, pollution, deforestation, and desertification to name but a few.

Some areas are already experiencing food insecurity with nearly 240 million people in 48 countries experiencing high levels of acute food insecurity.

In essence, our food requirement is up (and rising), and arable land is down, meaning farmers need to produce double the amount of food with half the land…

And while we’re not at post-apocalyptic levels (just yet), it’s important to figure out some innovative solutions to help farms offset the effects of extreme weather, and maximise their crop yields…

Helping farmers produce more with less…

Local AgriTech AgriLogiq focuses on smart farming solutions for protected cultivation that reduce resource needs and increase crop yield. 

Protected cultivation offers ways for farmers to control the impact of the weather on crops growing under anything from shade netting to polytunnels, and inside warehouses. This allows for protection against fungal growth, plant diseases, and pests and an increase in yield by as much as 50%.

But the thing with this is it changes the environment under the covers, introducing a whole host of new variables the farmer has to cater for – it needs to be constantly managed. Temperature and humidity changes, light is impacted, and air and soil composition changes. 

That’s where AgriLogiq’s solution, which comprises hardware and software, offers: 

  • Automation controllers for precise climate control
  • Agricultural sensors to pick up rainfall, Co2 levels, soil probes and more
  • Data analytics to provide farmers with data to help create optimal growing environments, improve plant health, and enable data-driven decision-making
  • Automated irrigation, mechanical drive, and greenhouse automation components
  • All accessible remotely, so farmers can monitor and control their systems from anywhere in the world. 

More green for your capital

AgriLogiq is helping its customers reduce their capital expenditure by 52% and save as much as 86% on operating expenses.

In one instance, AgriLogiq was able to turn a Green Pepper farm in Mpumalanga from a 35% YoY crop loss to a zero loss and a 50% increase in crop yield.  

But what’s really interesting is that AgriLogiq is allowing farmers to farm produce in regions they previously weren't able to be farmed. 

Building solutions to help farmers maximise their crop yield, making a play for sustainable farming solutions, and helping secure food for our people; we can't help but watch this space…

CHECK THIS OUT

Save R100k+ in Anti-Fraud Monitoring

One of the most insidious risks FinTechs, PropTechs, Marketplaces, FreightTech, LegalTech and a whole host of GamingTech ventures face is money laundering- and terrorism fraud…

Because South Africa is a major target – we lose over R1.1 trillion in illicit financial flows every year and hundreds of illegal millions more is estimated to flow through SA, which is exactly why SA is on the greylist (remember that?).

We’ve warned about this before – last year one of our most-read posts was on the risk this poses to both corporate SA and new ventures.

It’s important to protect your company. To recap:

  • You need to do sanction list screening as part of your KYC on every potential new client BEFORE entering into a business relationship with them.
  • The penalties are severe: This year, the SARB fined Grindrod Bank R10M for non-compliance.

And you can bet they’re going to be doubly attentive now that SA’s Jan 2025 greylist deadline is approaching.

Get 1 year of free sanction screening this Black Friday*

Local sanction screening provider ZenDetect knows how painful it is for a new or scaling venture to take on additional KYC costs…

That’s why they’re giving away 1 year of continuous sanction screening (monitoring) worth over R100k+ (depending on your database size) for free, gratis and mahala this Black Friday, so you can stay compliant AND keep your pricing competitive.

To qualify, simply hit the button below and engage ZenDetect sanction screening and monitoring right now…

Save R100k+ Zendetect

IN SHORT

Some lekke facts to gooi around the watercooler…

🇿🇦 Google Boost. Google has announced the 2024 cohort of SA startups to participate in the Google for Start-ups Accelerator Africa: Black Founders programme. They include online marketplace Aveade, on-demand delivery platform Breaze Delivery, Mapha Logistics a BusOps digital tools provider, Swagshack an online street fashion service, e-commerce and fintech platform Vuleka, and Wisi-Oi a video-based resell fashion reselling platform.

📽️ Dome mind if I do. The Johannesburg Planetarium has received a facelift to the tune of a R90 million ‘digital dome’ thanks to The University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) and Anglo American. The largest of its kind in the Southern Hemisphere - the dome will offer a 360° immersive experience via its state-of-the-art- projection system.

🤖 Helper Bot. OpenAi is getting ready to launch ‘Operator’ in January. ‘Operator’ is OpenAi’s latest AI that can use your computer to perform certain tasks on your behalf like booking travel tickets or writing code. Hmmm. What could go wrong?

👷‍♂️ Big Data. Big Expansion. SA’s largest data centre operator Teraco has received R8 million in funding to build a new data centre. The 40MW critical power load expansion will be completed in 2026, bringing the company’s Islando Campus in Ekurhuleni’s total critical power load capacity to 110MW.

😎 Domain Plays. Local e-commerce player Bash was quick to pounce on the exit of Zando and snapped up the Zando domains. Old Zando customers (and those heading to the site) will now instead be redirected to Bash.

🎯 The Stack. Founders need tools and suppliers they can trust. Check out our Founder’s Stack with the best in business strategy with Metavolve, investment, offshoring and startup legal insights with Dommisse Attorneys and 12 more vital startup tools & services.

BUILDING TOGETHER

Happening over at The Open Collab

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

  • Made sure that Jesse and Jo had a lot of friends and support at last night’s startup mixer.
  • Celebrated with Richard as he secured funding, found a niche to exploit and changed the game in 3 (tough but oh-so-worth-it) weeks.
  • Got Bobby a potential local client, wink wink.
  • Gawked at Tyler’s legal-docs assistant proto — and waiting eagerly to test it out… 🤩.
  • Sourced Gustav about 3’500 Mailchimp alternative options.
  • Learnt what’s in Danei’s “secret pink juice” and got her and Elijah to commit to driving across the country for a happy sale.
  • Locked in loads of Startup of the Year votes for our fam.

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 community.

Join The Open Collab

HAPPENING SOON

Upcoming Events

Join us this Friday for the second in a 3-part series with The Open Collab exclusive on B2B Sales Series. Want to learn what it’s about? Watch the video on IG below…

Instagram post by @theopenletterza

22 November 2024 — Product Masterclass — Online: Part 3: The tools, frameworks and habits of exceptional product teams — join The Open Collab community to attend for free.

29 November 2024 — Sales Masterclass — Online: Part 3: Keep your B2B sales pipeline filled with this Masterclass session with sales expert, Sebastian Chapman — Join The Open Collab community to attend for free.

6 December 2024 — AMA with Alan Knott-Craig: After our LinkedIn Live with Allan, you voted to an Ask Me Anything session — Join The Open Collab community to attend for free.

View all our upcoming events here.

WHAT YOU SAID

Food for thought…

We asked what you need real-time report visualisations on, and investments need more eyes…

🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🍽️ What’s in my fridge at home. (14%)

🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ ❤️ My spouse's mood levels so I know when to wash dishes or take them for dinner. (17%)

🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🎮 My ‘Diablo 4’ player rank in relation to Elon. (9%)

🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 📈 When to buy/sell my stocks/currencies/crypto of choice. (51%)

🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🛒 The value of specific Checkers Mini Shop collectables to lock in the best swaps. (9%)

Your 2 cents…

Ha, K, now that's some real-time reporting we could use too! 🥶📊

Love that, Nollie! Adapting old-school ways to modern tools is where the magic happens. 🚀📈


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🔥 Behind SA's Latest R1bn+ Exit

Plus: SA startup awards 🚀, 5M Mzansi hotspots & your 2025 B2B sales pipeline, sorted.

NEW
Newsletter
November 12, 2024

Best in SA? Startup Club has made its 44 finalists public for SA Startup of the Year. There are quite a few Open Letter family members there. You can now vote for your friends and favouritesvoting is open until Friday.

In this Open Letter:

  • SA’s latest R1bn exit: The startup that makes businesses smarter.
  • 5M Mzansi hotspots, Woolies’ Dash(ing) results & SA slacking off.
  • Go with a bang: Fill your B2B sales pipeline for 2025.
  • Which games you like to play: The results are in.
  • Lonely building your startup? Join The Open Collab and get support.

Together with:

Did someone forward you this email? Join {{active_subscriber_count}} South Africans reading The Open Letter by signing up here.

Helping Business Make Better Decisions (Faster)

— Insights from the startup that lead to SA’s latest R1bn+ exit

Having your finger on the pulse of what’s going on in your business is mega important…

For many businesses, keeping finances up to date is mostly a compliance thing. But what if your financials could empower you to make better business decisions quickly?

A major pain for many founders is that management accounts normally only tell part of the story, and what’s more, not everyone in leadership has a background in finance. 

🤷♂️ Can’t see the trainwreck if your head’s in the sand…

The data guiding your business's decisions…

Companies have anywhere between 5 and 20+ data sources meant to inform decisions, dictate next steps, and determine if business objectives have been met…

Pretty simple, right?

Not so much.

Seems like in this rich world of data at every turn, businesses have developed a brand new thing to be worried about: data fatigue…

And it’s a real thing. 

Data fatigue occurs when a business or individual has too much data or doesn't know what to focus on and is overwhelmed by the complexity or sheer volume of data a business collects, processes, analyses, or reports on.

And when the data quality is poor it has all sorts of ramifications on decision-making, reputational risk, and missed opportunity – not to mention the 10 to 30% of revenue spent on handling data quality issues.

Eina…

What’s more, in a recent survey of 1’300 finance and accounting C-suite and senior leaders across North America, Europe, Aus, and Singapore, 40% of CFOs reported they do not completely trust their organisation’s financial data. And ONLY 2% expressed complete confidence… 

Simply put, we have too much data that makes us go, “So what?”

The local player turning your financial data into pretty pictures (and actionable insights)

When Vangelis Kyriazis was building his accounting firm in JHB back in 2016, he wanted to offer his clients reports that made sense rather than reports showing profits and loss and a balance sheet.

To do this, they went to great lengths to build their clients’ very time-consuming Excel documents with rich graphs and insights. Clients loved it, but it wasn’t scaling well.

But turns out this was the start of Syft Analytics, an interactive & collaborative financial reporting tool providing businesses with insights into their accounting data to help them make better decisions.

Yeh that’s pretty much the way

8 years after launch, and this isn’t just a local business anymore. Syft has managed to sign up more than 100’000 businesses from more than 80 countries and that’s when Xero took note and purchased Syft for a whopping $70 million in September this year. 

What’s it do?

Syft integrates with Xero and others to extract data and make it simpler for a non-accountant business owner to understand using visualisations and summaries which can be presented in either pre-built report templates or fully customisable reports that provide real-time financial analysis catered to your specific business needs.

And if we consider that the human brain processes images 60’000 times faster than text, generating business reports and insights into cool-looking, insightful visuals is a no-brainer…

But the product really flexes when it provides businesses with forward-looking projections & forecasts, combining data from other 3rd party non-financial data sources like your CRM, and Google Analytics, etc.

As with most SaaS products these days, AI gave it a real boost. Users can ask AI how to improve certain things, and because Syft has access to more data like the underlying transactional data and data from other sources it helps the AI better answer those questions.

Syft’s Assist AI coming in clutch with business insights to turn the dial…

And Syft’s comprehensive visual dashboards are live and fully interactive, so even Beryll in HR can take a look without messing anything up – no offence, Beryll…

Businesses aren't going anywhere soon and reporting and visualisation tools will become ever more important in staying competitive. But if anything, the team at Syft have proven once again that SA can build tech that scales well across the world.

We’re watching this space.

CHECK THIS OUT

Start Building Your B2B Sales Pipeline for 2025

The key to closing more B2B sales is building authority and trust.

When Forrester Research found earlier in 2024 that B2B buyers are twice as likely to recommend companies they trust, their chief analyst Ian Bruce said it’s because they’re buying on behalf of the organisation, so they want to be double and triple sure you can deliver.

The New York Times goes a step further to say that Edelman and LinkedIn data shows that 54% of companies make purchasing decisions based on your thought leadership content.

Why?

  • When you reach out, it helps if they already know you (ice cold sucks).
  • It reinforces their trust and belief that you have authority in the space.

And, of course, it’s not easy: It takes time, dedication and consistency to build, but here’s how you can start…

Step 1: Establish trust & authority with content creation

Develop a content engine of consistent, rapidly written, high-quality content that’s on-brand, positions your product and speaks to customers’ pain points.

Step 2: Disseminate content online

Through social media with highly authoritative, efficient and automated ghostwriting for founders and execs.

Step 3: Engage in targeted outreach

Using tools like Apollo, reach out strategically to engaged targets who’ve come to know you already through your content and build high-quality leads for your funnel.

Stream has launched a 6-month, fully automated authority and trust pipeline for B2B SaaS founders and executives who know they have a product-market fit and are looking to solidify their positions in their space.

Get My Automated Pipeline Now

IN SHORT

The latest SA and tech gossip…

🤳 Connecting Mzansi. A local consortium of Internet Service Providers called JUMP launched its WayaMore WiFi network which is on a mission to build 5 million hotspots around SA and have a fully operational network by 2030.

🌍 Funding Africa. Visa is investing in 4 African Startups that graduated from its Africa Fintech Accelerator programme. The startups include: Oze, a business banking platform from Ghana, Orda, a restaurant technology startup from Nigeria, WorkPay, an HR and payroll management firm, and OkHi an AI-powered address verification service, both from Kenya.

🏖️ World Champion Slackers? Turns out we’re not such hard workers after all… According to data from the International Labour Organisation, SA ranked 79th in terms of average weekly hours (42.6 hours), percentage of the population working excessive hours (17%), and only produces 21 International dollars (Int$) per hour, 7 times lower than winners Luxembourg.

🛵 Dashing Results. Woolworths has seen some great performances across various business divisions for the 18-week period ending on 3 November 2024 with a 54.4% sales growth for its Woolies Dash on-demand food delivery service leading the charge.

😎 The Stack. Founders need tools and suppliers they can trust. Check out our Founder’s Stack with next-level lead finding with Apollo, your own CTO for remarkable tech builds with Octoco and 12 more vital startup tools & services.

BUILDING TOGETHER

Happening over at The Open Collab

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

  • Discussed how to get going with a SaaS product with zero funding.
  • Attended another stellar product masterclass with Roger Norton.
  • Supported each other in the SA Startup Awards.
  • Celebrated BTC all-time highs 🤑.
  • Celebrated some success after the sales masterclass.
  • Helped Sebastian find an online payment solution.
  • Delved into WhatsApp-based commerce solutions for SA.

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 community.

Join The Open Collab

HAPPENING SOON

Upcoming Events

14 November 2024 — TechSafari is coming to Cape Town! Join Caleb and team for a memorable night at Yoco to talk all things Tech and Startup in Africa. Get tickets here. Use OL20% code to get a sweet 20% off!

14 November 2024 — OCFO is hosting their 2024 Founder’s Conference with over 200 entrepreneurs and investors present. Get your tickets here.

12-14 November 2024 — Cape Town: Africa Tech Festival: Including AI Summit and so many tech must-sees — remember you can get a limited free pass, or get access to everything by applying for a startup pass early.

15 November 2024 — Sales Masterclass: Part 2: How to spot opportunities to increase conversion rates — Join The Open Collab community to attend for free.

6 December 2024 — AMA with Alan Knott-Craig: After our LinkedIn Live with Allan, you voted to an Ask Me Anything session — Join The Open Collab community to attend for free.

View all our upcoming events here.

WHAT YOU SAID

Game on…

We asked about your go-to game, and, as expected, SA’s not that into mobile gaming…

🟨🟨🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🧱 Puzzle games (30%)

🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🎰 Casino games (10%)

⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🏌️‍♂️ Sports games (3%)

⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🔫 Battle Royale games like PUBG and Fortnite (5%)

🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 🙅‍♀️ I don't play mobile games (52%)

Your 2 cents…

Classic, DJK. Nothing like getting into desktop games 🎮.

Smart move, M. All the fun, none of the risk 🃏.


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🕹️ The Data to Keep You Playing

Plus: Home Affairs goes Premium 👑, wooden spaceships, new all-in-one IDs & getting your growth funding.

NEW
Newsletter
November 8, 2024

Clean air? When a group of Norwegians built a reactor to soak up CO2 from the air, a US startup’s Estonian deep-tech founder answered with these weird light towers that do the same thing plus then convert the CO2 into fuel. Great to see the green race going.

In this Open Letter:

  • Game on: Enabling new ways to build in this $300bn industry.
  • Home Affairs Premium, Wooden Spaceships & chuck all your cards.
  • Growth unlocked: How they funded their next expansion phase.
  • The future of last-mile deliveries in SA: The results are in.
  • Lonely building your startup? Join SA’s only tech founder community.

Together with:

Did someone forward you this email? Join South Africans reading The Open Letter by signing up here.

Bringing Data-Driven Decisions to Your Gaming

Mobile gaming is a big deal.

Around the world, there are more than 3 billion mobile gamers, with mobile games contributing about half of the $300 billion total gaming market size – more than consoles & PC games combined.

And they’re not just playing free games…

Player spending hit $41.2 billion in the 1st half of 2022, with massive mobile games like Diablo Immortal and Pokémon GO pulling in $100 million each in just 8 weeks and 2 weeks respectively.

At this point, it seems like everyone is pulling a pro-gamer move…

Whilst it is a big industry, games are mostly B2C, which means lots of work and money to get the word out there. And it’s expensive…

Building in Hard Mode

The thing about gaming is it’s infinitely harder to create a profitable game with a lifespan anywhere near as long as most other tech products – ask any founder why they’d switch from B2C to B2B any day.

Why? Modern games are mostly online, and a large amount of people expect them to be free. So, to make the game successful, you need a large number of players (online games only work well when enough people are playing), but you also need to make money, which most games do by offering in-app purchases. Finally, you have to balance the game to make sure the free players are still enjoying it. It’s complicated.

And the complexity is taking its toll. 2023 was a blood bath for the gaming industry, as shown in the mobile gaming platform SuperScale’s white paper:

  • 32% of mobile game studios had major layoffs in 2023
  • 27% permanently downsized
  • 24% almost shut down
  • 29% had to cut their user acquisition budget
  • Some sectors report 62% job losses
  • And 40% started outsourcing development and publishing

  Why?

  • 83% of games die within 3 years
  • 47% of games die within the first year
  • 17% die in 6 months, while 76% of games hit peak revenue in 1 year (and then it’s downhill from there).

Remember that the next time you complain about how hard it is to monetise your 1 tech product – building SaaS software is a bit less complicated…

The cost and complexities

But it’s not only in game design and development where things are complex. The fact is, it often takes an enormous amount of money to have a chance at success with a game. How much? Well, at one point, Candy Crush was spending $1M per day on marketing.

Keeping track of the return on investment (ROI) can get very complicated, especially when you are dealing with freemium games that have in-app purchases.

  • Gamers from certain demographics (or cohorts) spend more on in-app purchases than others, leading to higher revenue.
  • The cost to market to different cohorts varies.
  • It changes over time (some cohorts play the game longer and spend more, others spend more over shorter periods, etc.).

The challenge? Constantly iterate to ensure the margin is as high as possible by adjusting where you spend your marketing money based on evidence from previous campaigns and some predictive analytics.

The local team revealing the map…

A cohort-based forecasting toolKohort, helps game studios forecast future events or trends with a much higher degree of accuracy, optimising and balancing marketing spending to help the specific game get better ROI on spend.

It works by categorising users by segment (sharing common characteristics like gender, country, age, platform, etc.) and cohort (a group of players who installed the game on the same day) to give game developers a more accurate view of players’ behaviour in the game. Basically, it tracks and reports if a specific ad results in a player with a specific demographic spending more or less than their average gamer on in-app purchasable content.

Then Kohort uses Machine Learning to produce extremely accurate forecasts should the current targeting and campaigns continue.

Before in-app purchases became popular, this problem didn’t exist, and we love how South Africans are pouncing on this opportunity. We’re watching this space…

CHECK THIS OUT

Enabling Growth: It’s the Little Things that Make or Break You

When Capetonian co-founders Theresa Ward and Edwina Butterworth set out to make their mark on the security systems industry, they thought their biggest battle would be against gender norms in this male-dominated space.

They were wrong…

The good news is their play worked and they grew their company Manyene Holdings from just 2 people in 2018 to 50 by 2024.

The bad news is the cost of such rapid growth depleted their cash flow and Theresa and Edwina battled to get financing with any of the traditional banks.

It’s an all-too-common story in South Africa, where 62% of SMEs struggle to access funding – making it the No. 1 barrier to growth in SA.

Fortunately, Theresa and Edwina found a lifeline…

With Lula, they got their approval within 24 hours or less.

Yet it is that easy, get access to a capital facility or capital advance of up to R5m from Lula.

Come Get Your Lula On

IN SHORT

Some titbits to drop at the braai tonight…

🌍 African Tech Fund. A new $250 million startup fund specifically for African tech companies is in the works. Tech accelerator Startupbootcamp, British-East African business tycoon Ashish Thakkar’s Mara Group and Blend Financial Services will target startup hubs in South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya, Ivory Coast and Egypt.

🪵 You wooden believe it. Japan’s Kyoto University and Sumitomo Forestry, have launched a new CubeSat made primarily from wood. Named after the Latin for “wood”, LignoSat consists of the scientific internals encased in a wooden box, with solar panels on the outside, and caught a ride on SpaceX’s latest Falcon 9 launch.

🧙 One ID to rule them all. South Africans could be getting a single digital identity that can be used to consolidate everything from your ID number, tax number, and medical aid number. This as Home Affairs is considering Home Affairs Plus — an expedited document processing and home delivery service for your NB Home Affairs docs. *Not really called Home Affairs Plus. Yet…

⚡️Instant Cross-Border Money. FNB has partnered with BankservAfrica to enable immediate processing of low-value payments within the Common Monetary Area of SA, Namibia, Lesotho and eSwatini.

😎 The Stack. Founders need tools and suppliers they can trust. Check out our Founder’s Stack with your own fractional CFO for less with OCFO, the easiest way to manage your finances with Xero and 12 more vital startup tools & services.

BUILDING TOGETHER

Happening over at The Open Collab

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

  • Met for our first LIVE (in-person) Office Hours with good coffee in two locations: Stellenbosch and Cape Town. ☕
  • Supported and celebrated our EdTech members making big plays at Injini EdTech this week.
  • Ran into a whole bunch of familiar faces at Innovation City's startup speed dating — The Open Collab peeps are everywhere these days!
  • Helped Gustav find the IoT dev connection he needed for his next steps.
  • Started looking for a unique WhatsApp solution for Corne — this could be big.
  • Getting ready for the next Product Masterclass with Roger Norton today.

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 community.

Join The Open Collab

HAPPENING SOON

Upcoming Events

Join us today (Friday 8 Nov) at 12:00 for the second in a 3-part series with The Open Collab exclusive Product Series. Want to learn what it’s about? Watch the video on IG below…

Instagram post by @theopenletterza

8 November 2024 — Product Masterclass: Part 2: How to keep shipping truly great products, fast — Join The Open Collab community to attend for free.

14 November 2024 — TechSafari is coming to Cape Town! Join Caleb and team for a memorable night at Yoco to talk all things Tech and Startup in Africa. Get tickets here. Use OL20% code to get a sweet 20% off!

12-14 November 2024 — Cape Town: Africa Tech Festival: Including AI Summit and so many tech must-sees — remember you can get a limited free pass, or get access to everything by applying for a startup pass early.

15 November 2024 — Sales Masterclass: Part 2: How to spot opportunities to increase conversion rates — Join The Open Collab community to attend for free.

6 December 2024 — AMA with Alan Knott-Craig: After our LinkedIn Live with Allan, you voted to an Ask Me Anything session — Join The Open Collab community to attend for free.

View all our upcoming events here.

WHAT YOU SAID

Special delivery…

We asked about the future of last-mile, and drones are the way…

🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 🕹️ Drones. (40%)

🟨🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🤖 Autonomous Robots. (16%)

🟨🟨🟨🟨🟨⬜️ 👩‍🌾 Trading with others once we’re living in post-apocalyptic, self-sufficient compounds brought about by today’s US election. (37%)

⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🖨️ 3D printing what you need. (3%)

⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🚀 Supplies every 6 months to Elon’s Colony. (3%)

⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 💡 No, wait, I have a better idea... (3%)

Your 2 cents…

Haha, Barry – ja it could feel a bit like trading in the Wild West. 🎩

Good point, Henry! Airspace security qualms keep us grounded (literally). 🚀

Ah, welcome home, sir! 😂


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🧩 The Missing Piece of SA E-commerce

Plus: Finding co-founders 🎯, SearchGPT, business owners with funding & how to spot founder burnout.

NEW
Newsletter
November 5, 2024

Time to play? If you ever wished you could just prompt an AI: “Make me a game like Minecraft…” we’re almost there. In fact, you can test-play this AI-generated Minecraft game right now.

Tip: Drop some fences and then turn around… it’s freaky…

In this Open Letter:

  • Next level: The missing piece of e-commerce in SA.
  • Finding co-founders, SearchGPT & business owners with funding.
  • Game changer: How to spot founder burnout (and counter it fast).
  • How to prevent employee burnout: The results are in.
  • Lonely building your startup? Join The Open Collab and get support.

Together with:

💡In Cape Town 14 November? We are going to Tech Safari’s Mixer event. Come join us. Use the code OL20% to get 20% off your ticket!

Did someone forward you this email? Join 15,085 South Africans reading The Open Letter by signing up here.

TRENDING NOW

The Missing Piece of SA E-commerce

E-commerce in South Africa is slowly becoming big business…

In 2023, SA’s online retail market hit R70 billion and is expected to reach a cool R100 billion in the next 2 years. Noice!

And, of course, Covid helped (or rather forced) it along as locals like Takealot, Checkers and Massmart doubled down – the space attracting international players like Shein, Temu and Amazon.

But it’s not all smooth cruising…

The Complexity in Delivery

Geographically South Africa is much more disbursed than some of the large metros of the developed world.

Just compare population densities:

In fact, our richest and most populous province, Gauteng, only has 831 people per square kilometre. With only about 49 people per km2 in South Africa, to serve 1’000 customers, the average distance to travel is around 142.86 km versus just 7km in Paris or New York.

That’s likely why e-commerce historically had a slower uptake in SA than in many developed countries. In SA, e-commerce accounts for only 6% of retail, whereas in places like the US, it’s 16% and in the UK as much as 30%.

But where there is a problem, there is an opportunity…

Can someone take this ring off my hands please?

Delivering on your promises…

If you can’t deliver in key areas, well you can’t really sell online in SA (at least not well).

But having a delivery vehicle active in an area with unpredictable order volumes simply doesn’t make business sense.

So what if you could pay for a delivery on demand? Such a provider could aggregate a host of deliveries for that area, schedule them one after the other and in doing so provide the e-commerce a way to deliver there, whilst still making a schweet margin.

It’s the last mile as a service.

Getting the order was the easy part…

Hyper-local delivery drivers on call

Depending on how you look at it, local last-mile delivery provider Picup, is either a tech-based logistics company or a logistics-powered tech company.

Picup offers adaptable delivery options to suit various business needs. For example, it allows for both multi-collection routes, which is ideal for sequential deliveries, as well as on-demand, single-stop routes within short distances.

Imagine you own an artisanal soap-making business… Picup’s system can receive orders, generate optimised routes, and allocate drivers based on location and driver preferences. If you have a larger service area, Picup integrates with third-party couriers to expand your delivery reach even further.

Getting the scope and scale right

Picup has a flexible driver network of around 4’000 active drivers weekly using anything from motorbikes to large vans (and everything in between). And, as these drivers are independent contractors, it helps keep overheads (and by extension delivery costs) down.

With an impressive list of clients like Ucook, Dischem, Pick n Pay ASAP, iStore, Nando’s, McDonald's, Clicks, OneCart, and Waltons, Picup is expecting to hit 950’000 orders over this year’s Black Friday (a key date in Picup’s history), with order numbers set to continue into the new year.

Picup’s services include:

  • field service (collections & deliveries)
  • on-demand delivery
  • third-party solutions (giving clients a white-label delivery solution to utilise within their existing applications)
  • TMA (Transport Management as a Service)
  • all packaged in a Delivery-as-a-Service (DaaS) model and SaaS platform with a bunch of powerful features to support end-to-end logistics.

With companies like Picup taking a tech-forward approach, it allows their clients to focus on scaling their business, rather than scaling their logistics. And is yet another key piece in the SA e-commerce puzzle.

We’re watching this space…

IN SHORT

Start a tech conversation…

📱 Business WhatsApp. Local startup Tetafi is leveraging AI to build a financial management platform that lets informal businesses, startups and entrepreneurs track their daily business transactions via WhatsApp. The platform also helps connect business owners to loans and buy-now-pay-later (BNPL) services.

🌍 African Connection. The Paratus Group has just completed its new East-West terrestrial fibre route running from the east coast of Africa in Maputo, through Johannesburg and across Botswana, to the west coast of Africa at the Cable Landing Station in Swakopmund, Namibia.

🤝 Co-Founder Connect. An app to connect cofounders called CoffeeSpace exhibited at the Startup Battlefield 200 at last week’s TechCrunch Disrupt 2024. The app’s algorithm aims to connect founders in a way that goes beyond the traditional CV, by presenting a sneak peek at their personalities and working styles, to help best-matched co-founders connect.

💸 Long after loadshedding. SARS is feeling the pinch due to Eskom’s decreased diesel usage as a result of more South Africans’ switch to rooftop solar. This R8.4 billion shortfall for SARS from the fuel levy is part of the total R22.3 billion shortfall SARS is expecting.

🔍 SearchGPT. Last week OpenAI announced its search model, available for paid users, (at least for now), with the ability to search the web for answers and provide links to the sources it comes back with. ChatGPT will reportedly use AI to decide when your query requires a search based on your request.

😎 The Stack. Founders need tools and suppliers they can trust. Check out our Founder’s Stack with easy-apply R5M business funding from Lula, next-level authority building with Stream and loads more vital startup tools & services.

BUILDER’S CORNER

How to Spot the Signs of Founder Burnout

And then treat it effectively…

Written in conjunction with organisational psychologist and Metavolve co-founder Cam Coutts.

It shouldn’t be a surprise that entrepreneurs are quite prone to burnout.

Building a new business creates the perfect environment for it: Long hours, high uncertainty, lots of moving parts, complex problems to solve with minimal resources…

Only founders know…

That’s why news sources report that:

  • 54% of founders are very stressed about their businesses
  • 81% try to hide their stress, fears and challenges
  • And 77% are reluctant to seek qualified professional help.

“What many of us entrepreneurs don’t know, though,” says organisational psychologist and Metavolve co-founder Cam Coutts, “is that we have access to a unique burnout ‘cure’ that doesn’t work in most any other industry…”

But to understand how it works, you need to know how to spot burnout…

The Symptoms of Burnout in Startup

1. Emotional Exhaustion

Unlike physical exhaustion, you end the day feeling completely drained and almost unable to cope with any of your normal night-time routines.

Or if you normally work till 6, but the last while you’re “done” by 3 and just want to “lie on the floor” in an attempt to force yourself to take a break.

And it kicks off a vicious cycle by triggering the next symptom…

2. De-Personalisation & Cynicism

“Your brain's internal self-defence mechanism to emotional exhaustion is, in lieu of being able to take a real break, to try and separate your empathy centres from your reality. I.e. make you care less,” Cam explains.

This plays out as, when you’re focused on a specific task, and an employee comes to you with an issue or you hear about a new customer query, you try to turn it away by saying “I don’t care” or “I don't have time for this now”.

You basically start ignoring personal and relational concerns, or fobbing them off as unimportant (when we all know they’re the real things that create flywheels in this game), leading you to make poor decisions and sometimes ruin relationships.

3. A Lack of Personal Accomplishment

The third symptom of founder burnout is when you are so overwhelmed by all the things that need doing, you don’t feel like you are getting anywhere.

Even if you are hitting major victories, they’re downplayed by the fact that there’s “so much more that still needs to be done”.

Basically, you are so exhausted that you don’t recognise small victories anymore. And you know you need to take a break, but you feel so much shame/guilt about it, that you can’t rest, so you end up going on holiday and coming back in an even worse state than before.

“Burnout is a syndrome (not an illness), that eventually becomes an actual illness,” Cam explains. “Left unchecked, burnout eventually leads to depression, anxiety, panic attacks and even physical illness – like when you suddenly get an extremely severe flu, that’s your body giving you a warning.”

The Founder-Only Burnout Cure

In most other professions, the treatment for burnout is reducing workload and taking a break. When doctors or nurses experience burnout, all they usually need is a holiday and time to recharge.

That doesn’t always work for founders, though – see, a doctor doesn’t need to care about the running of the entire hospital, but we founders do, so just going on holiday could actually stress you out even more when you can’t switch off.

The ideal treatment for a founder is to start with strategy. See those 3 burnout symptoms are a vicious cycle of one reinforcing the other, so the first step should be stopping the cycle – and out of all of them, number 3 is virtually the only one you can directly influence for immediate impact.

If you can win back your sense of personal accomplishment by clearing some of the chaos and giving yourself a measurable way to track that you’re improving by 1% every day, you break the burnout cycle. This should enable you to switch off a little over the holidays (i.e. tackle the first symptom), getting you fresh for the new year.

“We touched on this in a recent webinar,” says Cam, “and anyone can view it. Plus, I’m an organisational psychologist by training, so I am personally and professionally extremely passionate about helping founders deal with things like burnout.”

“All Open Letter readers are welcome to contact me if they have any questions or want to talk about burnout.”

You can reach Cam on LinkedIn here and connect with the rockstars at Metavolve here.

BUILDING TOGETHER

Happening over at The Open Collab

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

  • Learned to keep the customer pipeline filled in Friday’s sales masterclass.
  • Sorted out who’s going to Stellies and who’s in Green Point for our first LIVE office hours this Wednesday.
  • Got a sneak preview of Friday’s upcoming product masterclass on why product-led companies win out, with Roger Norton.
  • Started the week with a Tesla Beetle beating a Porsche on the quarter mile 🏎️.
  • Got intro-ed to a good-looking new virtual assistant to try out.

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 community.

Join The Open Collab

HAPPENING SOON

Upcoming Events

Join us this Friday for the second in a 3-part series with The Open Collab exclusive Product Series. Want to learn what it’s about? Watch the video on IG below…

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  • 7 November 2024 — JHB: TechSafari is hosting its first JHB mixer. Get tickets here and use OL20% code to get a sweet 20% off!
  • 8 November 2024 — Product Masterclass: Part 2: How to keep shipping truly great products, fast — Join The Open Collab community to attend for free.
  • 14 November 2024 — TechSafari is coming to Cape Town! Join Caleb and team for a memorable night at Yoco to talk all things Tech and Startup in Africa. Get tickets here. Use OL20% code to get a sweet 20% off!

View all our upcoming events here.

WHAT YOU SAID

Good for people…

We asked about preventing employee burnout, and you know best…

🟨🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🍕 Pizza parties (15%)

⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🏓 Foosball/Table Tennis/Air Hockey leagues (4%)

🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 💆‍♀️ Office massages (5%)

🟨🟨🟨🟨🟨⬜️ 🏖️ “Unlimited” leave days (31%)

🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🪂 Team-building exercises (9%)

🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 🔥 Hmm, no I have a better idea… (36%)

Your 2 cents…

“My partner has just experienced a burn out at the company we both work for. What I have learnt from it is that companies need to listen to their employees more, take note of behavior changes and have open discussions around ways to make jobs easy and more efficient. Check in with staff on a monthly basis and even offer an industrial psychologist to those that are struggling.”

Michelle

Completely agree, Michelle! Recognising changes early and supporting staff with open conversations is the kind of proactive care that can really make a difference. 🙌

“It could be all of the above but the fact is you need to match it to the need of the individual. We all have different ways to re-centre, ask employees what they need.”

Freda

Exactly, Freda — meeting individual needs is so key! 😊

“Treat them like the adults they are. Give people a sense of purpose, let the output they receive more or less match the input they give. Might be idealistic, but I don't think burnout has to do with what you put in. But rather what you get out, or in this case don't get out, for what you put in.”

Andersen

Absolutely, Andersen! Purpose and fair recognition for input are such powerful antidotes to burnout. It’s not idealistic at all — just real talk on what makes work meaningful. 🔍

“Relaxed working hours...i currently have an intern work half day. No problems”

Private

Nice, a flexible approach can make all the difference! 👍

“Set clear expectations – Ensure everyone knows their role and goals to reduce ambiguity and boost confidence. Poor job clarity is shown to be a massive contributor to stress. Encourage open communication – Create a safe space for team members to discuss workloads and any stress points. Support work-life balance – Offer flexible hours or remote work options to help balance personal and professional lives. Schedule regular check-ins – Managers should touch base frequently to spot and address stress before it builds. Celebrate wins – Recognise achievements to keep motivation high and everyone feeling appreciated. Involve employees in decisions – Allow team members to help shape their work environment, building ownership.”

Jo

Great breakdown, Jo! Addressing stress and job clarity can prevent so much burnout — and celebrating wins keeps motivation strong. Spot on! 🎉

“Above the basic leave allocations, assign leave by interview. Let employees make their case based on their productivity, their value added tasks and their personal growth markers. Award the best employees with better leave opportunities - autonomy to decide when to go, vouchers for spa days/getaways/tanks of petrol. Instead of burning out those who are the backbone of the company, give them a little more stretching room to value them”

David

Such a thoughtful idea, David. Rewarding employees with meaningful leave options could be a game changer in making people feel valued. 🎁

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William
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