Can’t sleep? Last night, Korean YouTubers live-streamed themselves folding the new (25 July) Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 (thinnest foldable phone) 200’000 times. At 175k folds, the speaker broke. But in the grand finale video, the hinges and screen seem to have held up. We think. Our Korean’s a bit non-existent. 🤷‍♂️

In Today’s Open Letter

Agriculture adds 3% to SA’s GDP, accounts for 7% of formal employment and 10% of exports (around R245bn), but little innovation has happened in financing – this scale-up’s using data to change that…

Farmers are likely the most multi-skilled entrepreneurs of all. Every day, they have to manage a large workforce, machinery, find buyers at the right prices and run the farm – all under constant threat of weather, pests and SA’s rural crime.

But among the biggest of all these challenges is cash flow. 

If you don’t have the money to sustain wages and inputs until harvest comes, well, you can’t farm. 

The opportunity 

Less than 5% of commercial lending in Africa goes to agriculture, yet the sector employs more than two-thirds of the continent's nearly 600 million-strong labour force. This spells opportunity.

But just giving out loans and grants isn’t doing the trick. The sector faces major risks. And when it comes to commercial lending, risk models err on the side of caution, meaning loans carry a disproportionate risk premium. Resulting in them being too expensive or simply not being awarded at all.

Helping financiers better understand these risks leads to a more accurate assessment of risks, ultimately resulting in more affordable loans that closely resemble the underlying risk. A win all round.

Betting the farm on Africa’s Agri sector

Local scale-up Nile.ag started as a marketplace for fresh produce, where buyers and sellers meet, effectively cutting out the traditional government-managed fresh produce markets. 

This resulted in more efficient supply chains, where goods could go straight from farm to seller, resulting in higher quality goods (less time spent travelling), and better margins for farmers.

They then extended into selling inputs to farmers (you know, fertilisers and pesticides, etc.). Knowing how much they will be producing (from historical marketplace data), input providers can plan better and thus offer more affordable prices.

And then the final piece of the puzzle: Better risk models. Knowing how much a farm produced over a certain time, combined with the weather data and the inputs added to yield a harvest, gives you a lot of data points to make future risk assessments way more accurate.

The next frontier

Collecting this data means Nile can now offer farmers better financing solutions to help them keep cash flowing, so they can focus on keeping up farm production. Smart.

In this week’s edition of the How Would You Build it podcast, we caught up with Nile.ag founder Louis de Kock, who was raised on a farm before working at Amazon, where he learnt that the key to a marketplace is logistics, not necessarily matching.

He shares insights like those, along with nuggets like:

Check it

Tip: Enter your email directly on the podcast website, and you’ll be the first to know of new episodes.

Who wants to fill in paperwork for business funding?

Koola Capital is flipping that idea completely by building a full-on small business financing platform that lives entirely on WhatsApp.

In just one year, they’ve already reached over 200 township-based SMMEs across 7 townships with R2 million in working capital and asset financing, disbursing anything from R5’000 to R50’000, all via chat.

But here’s what’s really clever:

✅ Say “Hi, I’m Lerato and my ID number is 123” — you’ll never be asked for your ID again.

✅ Their AI remembers what you’ve already shared and shortens the process with every step.

✅ And repayments are designed around your life, from spaza shops to recurring payments via Capitec.

Koola’s not just using WhatsApp. They’re respecting the user’s time, building for trust and creating something no CRM or loan platform could offer before — a fast, frictionless and personal experience that feels made for you.

Because Koola knows that in the township economy, trust is infrastructure.

What would you build on WhatsApp today?

South African startups are building world-class tech, but many don’t realise their IP is stuck in a value-eroding system of exchange controls requiring SARB approval, formal audits and slow, uncertain processes most investors want to avoid.

But what if your idea is a global player?

Offshore IP (expanding your business operations while building your intellectual property outside of SA in markets investors love) changes everything. It gives global investors confidence, protects company value in hard currency, and enables cleaner exits when it counts. 

The thing is, most SA founders don’t pursue it, or start too late, because they think IP offshoring is too complex or overwhelming. Not anymore.

The game changer

Dommisse Attorneys worked with the SA SME Fund, SAVCA and Endeavor to create the IP Strategy Flow — an open-sourced framework for SA founders to establish their IP offshore and ensure they build a globally recognised business from day one. 

It’s legally sound, regulator-aligned, and designed to meet global investor expectations without relocating your team.

🚀 Cracking Coding Collab. WeThinkCode_ partners with South Cape TVET College, bringing top-notch software engineering education to 30 students at the Hessequa Campus. Here's a scalable model aiming to bridge tech opportunity gaps in rural SA. Love to see it.

🚨 Bug Bounty Bonanza. Google's AI, Big Sleep, has unearthed 20 security lapses in open-source software, including the likes of FFmpeg and ImageMagick. Scammers be watching…

🦾 RoboMeals. A major issue robots face is that their batteries need recharging. However, researchers are building systems that let robots “digest” metal or chemical fuels for energy. Slow yer roll there — surely having them run out of power is a pretty crucial failsafe...

✂️ Discount Demands. Ghana is laying down the law, demanding that MultiChoice slice DStv prices by 30% or risk losing its operating license. It's Ghana be interesting to watch this one.

✅ The Stack. Founders need tools and suppliers they can trust. Check out our Founder’s Stack with the best in IP offshoring and global market access with Finance Isle of Man, all your VC and startup legal sorted by Dommisse Attorneys, and loads more vital startup tools & services.

Yesterday, we asked about the wildest thing you’ve done to stretch the grocery budget, and driving to multiple stores after discounts is the way…

🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 🏃‍♂️ Hit five stores in one day chasing specials (11)

🟨🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🍜 Survived on Corn Flakes and 2-minute noodles like a broke student (for weeks) (4)

🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🍽️ "Forgot" lunch, so I could eat at work for free (2)

⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🌱 Regrew spring onions in a jar like a homegrown hero (1)

⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 💬 Got a crazier one? Lay it on us… (0)

ICYMI: We feature Pantryclub, a startup that’s found a unique way to bring cheaper grocery prices to South Africans.

Time to take your township businesses online? The Township Digital Market Access Programme 2025 helps Gauteng-based SMMEs get onto e-commerce platforms, grow digital sales and access key support services. Your chance to build a sustainable, tech-enabled business with real market access. Applications close 18 August: Apply now.

Ready to raise $50,000 and join Africa’s top founder network? The MEST Africa Challenge 2025 is a pitch competition for early-stage startups operating in FinTech and digital value chains — from agri-tech to credit innovation. Expect access to the MEST portfolio, commercial pilots with Absa, and full sponsorship to pitch live in Cape Town. Entries close 26 September: Enter here.

Got traction in health, FinTech or education? The MTN Cloud Accelerator 2025 is offering up to $66,000 (R1.1M) in grant funding plus access to MTN’s APIs, cloud credits and go-to-market support. It’s a 12-week scale-up programme for growth-stage African startups serving rural or underserved markets. Enter by 15 August: Apply here.

🛠 Tool to Try: Patio lets you borrow tools, take DIY courses and sell surplus gear — like Airbnb for home projects.

🤔 That’s Interesting: A 168 million email “Reply All” storm once crippled the UK healthcare system’s comms for hours.

🔥 Next Level: This is what happens when you skydive into a rain cloud.

🍔 Hack: Want to nail your first pull-up? This guide shows how, step-by-step, no injuries.

🌐 Wow Site: StrumTube gives you instant guitar chords for any song on YouTube.

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