A hobby coder tried to control his vacuum with a PS5 controller and thousands of robot vacuums in 24 countries started responding.
Honestly? Same energy as this week in SA tech.
THE BIG SIGNAL
The R74 billion home finance play nobody saw coming
Of the 1.1 million domestic workers in South Africa, only 30% have formal employment agreements and 10% receive a payslip. It’s a R74.1-billion-a-year parallel wage economy lacking the financial identity needed to access credit, insurance, or savings products.
AskMandla is changing that with a WhatsApp-based HR platform that formalises domestic worker-employer relationships for R49/month.
DEEP DIVES
How to save half a million per employee
A single bad hire costs R573’384. LaunchPath’s AI-driven scenario assessments narrow hundreds of applicants to 5 matched candidates in 48 hours — with personal coaching calls for every rejected candidate.
🎯 TAM: A ~R30bn/year recruitment industry. 70–80% SME failure rates (hiring is a top contributor). Those who can’t afford agencies are a massive underserved market.
💡 Opportunity: With 43.8% youth unemployment, LaunchPath negates bad hires and gets young people in. A working model makes every corporate HR department a potential client.
📊 Progress: Early stage, live product, active Google Calendar integration. GetSmarter veteran founder. Watch for: Enterprise pilots & placement rate data in the next 6 months.
❓ Exec Question: When was the last time you calculated the actual cost of your worst hire? (Spoiler: it’s probably more than R573k.)
Say farewell to your company card
SA card fraud hit R1.466bn in 2025, with 35% of employees still paying for company expenses out of pocket, resenting the 30-day reimbursement. Paystashio issues instant virtual cards with granular spend controls.
🎯 TAM: SA’s business events sector is R121.8bn/year, corporate travel R47bn, catering R13.5bn, team-building R12.4bn. Employee spend is hundreds of billions in addressable flow.
💡 Opportunity: The shift to an accountability culture turns any company that spends on client entertainment into a prospect. Integrating accounting software would accelerate adoption.
📊 Progress: Pre-launch/pilot stage, pressure-testing real-world VAT demands. From the NextOrbit accelerator. Watch for: Pilot results & first enterprise sign-ups in Q2 2026.
❓ Exec Question: How much is your team spending right now that your finance team won’t see for 30 days?
The R300 trillion contractor chaos
78% of companies still manage freelancers with spreadsheets, hence 50% of B2B invoices are paid late. Petl Pay orchestrates contractor payments (time sheets, invoicing, payouts) into one project-based workflow.
🎯 TAM: $20 trillion globally. SA independent talent surged 53% in 2025, with 40% of workers now freelancing or contracting, despite a lack of financial management infrastructure.
💡 Opportunity: Starting in construction and professional services (complex, high-volume, milestone-based payments). Stablecoin wallets for cross-border payments to attract internationals.
📊 Progress: Early stage, two verticals in validation. Just accepted into the Visa Fintech Accelerator. Watch for: first enterprise construction client and Visa integration milestones.
❓ Exec Question: Are you ready for a new world of more contract-based work as AI enables us to achieve more in the allocated time?
SA’s R187 million life saver
The NSRI responds to 3 ocean emergencies every single day. Their highest expense is time spent searching at sea. SafeTrx turns any smartphone into a maritime black box: tracking location & heading, feeding exact GPS to rescue teams.
🎯 TAM: 3’000km of coastline, R187m/year operation. SA is a top-45 country for drownings. Maritime safety tech is niche but critical, with insurance and tourism adjacent.
💡 Opportunity: The tech pattern applies universally: Use the sensors people already carry to solve expensive problems. Location-based safety tool builders should study this model.
📊 Progress: Operational & proven. Multiple successful rescues. Free to download. Non-profit model. Watch for: Expansion to inland & commercial maritime partnerships.
❓ Exec Question: Location-based tech and broader connectivity unlock new ways to solve problems. With Starlink around the corner, expect even more opportunities to pop up.
R158 BILLION
That’s how much private power investment has now reached in SA. Nearly 600 new generation projects were registered with Nersa in 2025 alone, adding 7’464MW of capacity. 98% of it is wind or solar. The grid’s Plan B is becoming Plan A — and it’s attracting serious capital.
FIVE THINGS YOU MISSED THIS WEEK
💰 R1bn fintech deal. Araxi snapped up 80% of Pay@ to expand its enterprise payments. Read →
⏰ WhatsApp clock-in. Jem launched geo-verified time & attendance directly in WhatsApp. Read →
🏆 SA leads Africa AI adoption. New data puts South Africa ahead in the continent’s AI race. Read →
🐶 FIFA’s robot dogs. Four AI-powered K9X bots will patrol Mexican World Cup venues. Read →
⛵ Discovery’s dedicated UK visa centre. Vitality travellers can now apply at the Sandton HQ. Read →
AI & CRYPTO WATCH
👻 Meta’s resurrection AI. They patented tech that keeps posting and chatting after death. Read →
🤝 Agent marketplace goes live. Claw AI Market lets you post digital tasks that agents bid to complete. Read →
🏦 Absa pilots a gold-backed stablecoin. Part of a broader push into blockchain payments. Read →
💳 Crypto card usage jumped 5× last year. People aren’t just trading, they’re tapping to pay at shops. Read →
EXEC-ONLY SIGNAL
Three WhatsApp-native startups in one week
Something that didn’t make the daily: 3 of our 5 featured startups are WhatsApp-native. AskMandla runs domestic worker HR on WhatsApp. Jem’s new time & attendance feature lives in WhatsApp. Insurance Revolution moved its entire customer service to WhatsApp and saw message volumes jump 50×.
This is not a coincidence. It’s a platform shift.
In a country where WhatsApp penetration exceeds 95% among smartphone users, building on WhatsApp is an acquisition strategy.
The companies that figure out how to deliver complex workflows (HR, attendance, insurance, payments) inside a chat thread might own the next wave of SA tech.
We’re watching this theme closely. Expect more on this in the weeks ahead.
TOOL OF THE WEEK
Loot Drop — The startup graveyard with rebuild plans
A searchable archive of thousands of failed startups from the dotcom era to now, with deep analysis on why they died and (crucially) rebuild plans for anyone brave enough to try again. Perfect for founders doing competitive research or investors stress-testing a thesis. Your weekend rabbit hole awaits.
THE BRAAI DROP
During South Korea’s national college entrance exam, the entire country literally pauses: flights are grounded, construction stops, markets open late and military drills halt — all to reduce noise for students. The exam is one day. The whole nation holds its breath. 🇰🇷
DON’T MISS THIS
Open Letter JHB: AI x FinTech — 16 April. Paystack CEO Shola Akinlade + OpenAI Africa Lead + Araxi Head of AI. Early-bird tickets sold out last time. Don’t sleep on this. Details →
That’s your week. You’re caught up. Go be dangerous. 😎
— The Open Letter Team
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