Funny bots {{ FIRSTNAME | there }}? The founder of OpenClaw AI (formerly Moltbot, nay ClawdBot) created a social network for AIs called Moltbook, and within 48 hours, they created their own religion. "Crustafarianism” centres around crustacean/lobster puns. They even put up their own website for it. We wish we were joking, LOL. 🦀

In Today’s Open Letter

AI could be multiple times more powerful if it always had the necessary context – and this SA startup’s working on a way to deliver it…

If you’ve been trying out different AI tools (see what SA uses AI for here), chances are you might be irritated (and limited) when tools don’t have your context. If ChatGPT already knows what work you do, your goals and – probably most importantly – what you value, switching or trying out a new tool can be frustrating.

Why is this a problem? Well, it slows down the adoption of tools that could be really helpful, because it limits what outputs you can get (context is NB in conversation).

inside the context window problem

Now, imagine pre-screening for a job using an AI chat interface that asks you specific questions, learning about you and, in the process, creates a context window. That’s already quite useful, but imagine if the context could be even wider.

What if it understood your background, your previous work experience, qualifications, passions, hobbies and values? And then, from this, it can build further context and, within a minimum timeframe, discover if you’d enjoy a specific role and be good at it. 

As opposed to just having context of the one event (the chat between you and the chatbot), it understands the “state” of the person engaging with it. The applications of this would be endless.

This problem is known as the “context window problem”, and the missing ingredient within this is the human context.

SA might have the answer to this

Local human-centred AI venture studio, Ubundi, is launching tootoo, a product to help individuals build a personal codex (explicit, user-authored context) that can be reused across AI interactions to get outputs that align with the person.

Tootoo is not a static personality quiz or psychometric snapshot; it helps you develop and maintain an explicit representation of who you are (values, beliefs, preferences, boundaries). In building tootoo, they’ve also built an agent inside/alongside tootoo designed to:

But that’s not all. Ubundi is led by 4x founder Adii Pienaar (who will be speaking at our Stellenbosch event coming up on 5 March 2026). Adii’s passion and mission with Ubundi are two-fold:

Ubundi has already spun out their first venture, Kwanda.ai and is raising their Fund 1 to back South African founders and teams building in AI as they go global.

The AI community in SA is still small, but growing rapidly. So if you are building anything in this space, connect with them or come to our The Open Letter event on the 5th of March and meet Adii and his whole team in person.

We’re watching this space…

Who still thinks matric requires over-full classrooms?

SA startup Luma is flipping that idea completely by putting a CAPS-aligned, AI-powered tutor on WhatsApp, giving learners personalised support anytime, anywhere — no apps, no fancy hardware.

But here’s what’s really clever:

✅ Learners get 24/7 help from Grade 1 to 12 across all subjects
✅ Works in all 11 official SA languages, right inside WhatsApp
✅ Teachers can use it to assist with lesson planning and marking

In a country where most classrooms have 40+ learners and WhatsApp reaches nearly everyone online, Luma turns chat into a classroom for students, teachers and parents alike.

What would you build on WhatsApp today?

“When I first opened Attio, I instantly got the feeling this was the next generation of CRM.”
— Margaret Shen, Head of GTM at Modal

Attio is the AI-native CRM for modern teams. With automatic enrichment, call intelligence, AI agents, flexible workflows and more, Attio works for any business and only takes minutes to set up.

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🌍 Representing SA. Two local FinTechs, Orca and Petl Pay (spun out of Rafiki Works), have been invited into Visa’s latest Africa FinTech Accelerator programme. See what special access they get and why it’s a nod to SA’s deepening role in the payments boom.

🏗️ Build It Up. Government, in partnership with Microsoft SA and other private-sector partners, has just launched a newly refurbished digital lab at Phefeni Secondary School in Soweto. The initiative aims to provide learners, educators, and the broader Soweto community with digital skills and exposure to vital tools for participation in the digital economy. Love to see it.

🏅 Bringing Home The Gold. Four young SA scientists have won awards at the Initiative for Research and Innovation in STEM (IRIS) Global Symposium in India. Nkanteko Moyane (15) won a gold medal, Jivesh Ramnath (18) won silver, while Melokuhle Khuzwayo (17) and Simesihle Khuzwayo (17) won Participation Awards. Nicely done, Champions.

🚀 Grok in Space? Elon Musk has merged SpaceX and xAI (the biggest M&A deal of all time), some say, to prepare SpaceX for IPO, and discontinued Tesla’s flagship Model S and X vehicles to build more Optimus robots. Dunno ‘bout you, but we thinks he’s up to something big.

🌍 Talk To Me Africa. Google just launched WAXAL, a new open dataset for 21 African languages, to empower researchers and drive the development of inclusive technology across Africa. The dataset took more than three years to develop with the help of leading African organisations and contains over 11’000 hours of speech data from nearly 2 million individual recordings. Mega.

🏆 Engagement That Converts. Studio 88 used WhatsApp competitions to turn attention into action. Chat Inc drove 83% read rates, 23% button clicks and converted nearly 6% of clickers into competition entries. Want that kind of engagement?*

* From our partners. Find all the best service providers for your business in our Founder Stack.

Yesterday, we showed you Workspark’s new performance review tech for SA, asking what you think about performance appraisals. Most agree they gotta go…

🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 💀 Dead & needs to go (44%)

🟨🟨🟨🟨⬜️⬜️ 🩹 Broken, but fixable (34%)

⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ ✅ Working just fine for us (5%)

🟨🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🤦 It’s the only way to align peeps to KPIs/OKRs etc (17%)

Your 2 cents…

True dat, BillionBee. Pretty sure pasting an AI-written rap about how fly you are would be a better option. 🎤

Early-stage SA tech founders: Get R40k+ business-building tools, including data, cloud architecture support, legal and hiring vetting, 1-on-1 strategy and coaching sessions, plus free event tickets, Microsoft Marketplace access and more when you join The Founder Collab.

African startups: AfricaTech Award sends finalists to pitch at VivaTech Paris 2026 with global visibility. Apply by 16 Feb.

Biotech innovators: SA–Cuba Biotechnology Collaboration Call (TIA + BioCubaFarma) seeks partners for health R&D and tech transfer. Apply by 27 Feb.

Win $1m? Startup World Cup Johannesburg finale takes place 26 June — pitch your startup for a shot at the global finals. Applications open 13 Feb.

Cape Town youth (18–35): YouthStartCT Entrepreneurial Challenge supports ideas and small businesses creating jobs. Apply 24 Jan–24 Feb.

Blue economy startups: BlueInvest Africa 2026 lands in Cape Town — pitch to global ocean-impact investors. Apply by 13 Feb.

Want to promote your event/programme here? Let us know.

🎸 Tool to Try: TuningFork is a free online tuner for guitars, bass, violin and more.

📀 That’s Interesting: Seth McFarlane’s Family Guy was cancelled, but then it sold so many DVDs, they brought it back again.

⚽ Next Level: Watch some of the world’s best coaches flex their football skills.

🔍 Hack: A visual guide to properly researching any company.

🌐 Wow Site: World Monitor shows global news, markets, prediction bets and alerts on one live dashboard.