Expensive wearables? No probs, scientists have found a way to monitor your heart using Wi-Fi signals. Wait, so Wi-Fi’s been penetrating our hearts all this time? ❤️🔥
In This Open Letter
Just Ask: Now SA parents have all the answers.
Local: Google’s 10 SA startups & authors win $1.5bn.
Global: Chrome browser goes quiet & DStv super app.
SA Businesses: SA founders help each other. You in?
Tech events: AI finance, women founders & more.
Accelerate your finance function using AI!
Forgot to send that invoice? Forgot to follow up on that payment? Forgot to check your business’s financial vitals?
It happens to most founders…but AI and automations can help.
Come learn how this coming Wednesday at 12 as we speak to Dana Pretorius, co-founder of Outsourced CFO, live on LinkedIn.
TRENDING NOW
Giving 1.1 Million+ New Moms (and Dads) Super Powers
SA sees 1.1 million new births a year, but less than 14% of new parents get proper antenatal training – this platform’s looking to bridge SA’s parent-knowledge gap…
South Africa’s parenting gap is more than financial: There’s a serious lack of fundamental support in raising SA’s future.
Only a third of children live with both their parents, while 43% live with single mothers or extended family, like Granny (nearly 20% of kids live with neither Mom nor Dad).
And the problem already starts in the womb: As few as 13.7% of women in SA receive any first-trimester antenatal care contact… Parents are just not able to make traditional antenatal classes and clinic visits.
The role of tech in childcare
It’s a delicate dance… Despite the rise in connectivity (72.6% of SA households access the internet), the net is a dangerous place filled with misinformation for new moms.
The time is right for a model that blends clinically credible content with everyday digital access.
The local startup supporting SA’s parents
Parent Sense provides clinically vetted, AI-powered parenting support for expecting and new parents from pregnancy through Baby’s first year.
Founded by occupational therapist and author Meg Faure in 2020, it’s already supported over 450’000 parents across its app and web platforms.
The platform helps nervous new parents get expert, real-time guidance across every part of early parenting, including:
Sleep: Smart tracking and daily routines that improve naps, nights and regressions.
Health: Tools to monitor weight, vaccinations and common issues like colic or teething.
Play: Timely tips and activities matched to each developmental leap.
Feeding: Track feeds, plan meals and access trusted recipes for every stage.
And it’s getting a whole new channel
A new partnership with Discovery Health gives members a free Parent Sense Premium subscription, delivering milestone tracking, feeding and sleep tools, over 50 specialist-developed courses and a 24/7 AI parenting coach chatbot trained on vetted medical content.
And they’re also running a large-scale rollout with Vodacom, meeting parents in lower-income segments through a web-first interface that bypasses app-download barriers to use SMS for onboarding.
Parent Sense has also signed a distributor agreement in the Middle East, testing its “plug-and-play” model for global scale.
If raising a child really does take a village, Parent Sense might just be the digital one South Africa has been missing.
We’re watching this space…
FROM OUR FRIENDS AT GOVCHAIN
The Fastest Way to Turn an Idea into a Business
Every founder knows the gap between idea and execution is where most dreams stall…
It’s not a lack of ambition — it’s friction. The paperwork, the planning, the uncertainty of what to do next.
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Because momentum matters. The faster you move from idea → name → plan → launch, the better your odds of building something real.
IN SHORT
While you were weekending…
🚀 Blast Off. Google's 2025 Accelerator Program has named the ten SA startups to participate in its 2025 cohort. Each startup receives mentorships, training and development, networking opportunities and R1 million in equity-free funding, as well as $350k in cloud credits. Nice.
🔇 Chrome Goes Quiet. Google's Chrome is rolling out a new feature that will automatically disable browser notifications for the websites you haven’t interacted with recently. It’s the digital version of the annoying salesperson following you around in the store.
📺 DStv’s Next Step. Big shifts are coming for DStv subscribers as French media giant Canal+ gobbles up MultiChoice. The goal? A "super app" merging DStv and Showmax to simplify content access for 14 million users. It’s a bold play against streaming titans like Netflix and Disney. We just wanna know how we can watch the Bok games…
📚 Authors Win Big. Prolific SA author Zakes Mda is part of a group of writers to have won a cool $1.5 billion after it was discovered artificial intelligence firm, Anthropic, used their works to train AI models without permission. Whoa.
✅ The Stack. Founders need reliable tools and suppliers. That’s why our Founder’s Stack gives you company setup and compliance in one place with Govchain, brand and communications that build trust with DoubleShift, and loads more vital startup tools & services.
LOVE IT?
BUILDING A BUSINESS IN SA
5 things we learnt in The Founder Collab
LinkedIn sells: We got the inside track on everything from setting up the ideal profile to building a sales pipeline on LinkedIn in a masterclass with Jason Luboyera.
PR is good for business: We celebrated with Danei and Elijah as Fintr got featured by IOL.
Unexplored territory: We checked, and no one in the Collab has registered a company in Norway yet. So we’re putting on Viking hats to go figure it out.
The Collab is handling retail CX: Since we’re chatting to the Takealot CEO quite a bit in preparation for our upcoming event, shoppers on LinkedIn are using us to negotiate better delivery terms. 🤷
There’s a painful truth about new clients: We learned from practical experience again that if a potential B2B client is difficult/unpleasant/stingy during initial discovery, that sets the tone for your entire relationship with them (i.e walk away).
Find your founder community. Join The Founder Collab, it’s where 100+ real SA founders help each other to build better, faster every day.
WHAT YOU SAID
To the future…
Last Friday, we told you about the R855bn ship cleaning robots opportunity, asking about the maritime tech you’d most like to see. Most fancy auto hull cleaning…
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 🧽 Hull-cleaning robots, yeh! (32%)
🟨🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🪶 Wind-assist sails/kites (12%)
🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🛰️ AI route + weather ops (8%)
🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🛥️ Autonomous tugs (8%)
🟨🟨🟨🟨⬜️⬜️ 🧪 Self-cleaning nano-coatings (24%)
🟨🟨🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🤿 I got a better idea… (16%)
Your 2 cents…
“Automated recycling boats that clean the ocean and produce raw materials for reuse in manufacturing.”
That’s the spirit, Ludwig. Big and world-changing. 🌍
“Remove the Min age limit on working, and we can get teenagers to clean it. They have a lot of energy, time and they'll learn a skill... It isn't just cause it is the holidays and there is only so many trips to the aquarium, park and being an unpaid Uber that one can do before going insane 😂.”
Sounds like a plan, Robert! (Wait, is this how those factories in China got started?) 🤭
“The main issue with hull cleaning is AFAIK it is not allowed in port... So there's your challenge!”
Excellent point, CN. It’s not disallowed; you just have to get a new permit for every vessel, it seems. So yeah, a bit of paperwork and red tape to solve. ✂️
LOOKING TO NETWORK?
Upcoming SA Tech Events
The Future of E-Commerce — CPT 30 Oct, 17:00 — Hear Takealot CEO Frederik Zietsman on scaling in SA’s ecom landscape. Get R100 off with an early bird ticket now. Book here.
Notion AI & Agents Intro — Online 28 Oct, 19:00 — Build a multi-profile agent inside Notion you can start using tomorrow. Register here.
AI in Digital Transformation — CPT 27 Oct, 17:30 — Panel + lightning talks on using AI in project & product orgs. Free hybrid event. Book here.
WWBA Founders Day — CPT 23 Oct — Apply now to join a curated day for high-growth women founders across Africa. Apply here.
AI in Finance Webinar — Online 15 Oct, 12:00 — Join OCFO's Dana Pretorius live on LinkedIn to explore how AI is transforming finance. Free. Register here.
Hosting a demo day, panel, founder meetup or tech event? Let us know, and we’ll feature it for FREE.
AROUND THE WEB
🛠️ Tool: PrompTessor analyses AI content and gives you the prompt that made it.
👰♀️ That’s Interesting: About 6% of divorced couples marry each other again.
⚙️ Next-Level: Behind the scenes: How the new Porsche 911 (2025) is made.
🧠 Hack: Here’s a cool guide to the elements of strategic thinking.
🍝 Wow Site: Dinner Decider settles what’s for dinner, tournament-style.
THANKS FOR READING
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