So real {{ FIRSTNAME }}? If you also gawked at the way that IRON robot walks on a runway this weekend, allow us to show you that it looks like a Terminator underneath. You’re welcome. 🦿

In Today’s Open Letter

For SA businesses billing overseas, international payments are still a slog – but this startup’s nixing the time to get money in your account… 

Between bank delays and compliance, it’s not uncommon to wait 3–5 days for international bank payments to clear, while losing a bit of every invoice to foreign exchange markups and hidden in “indicative rates”.

The Financial Stability Board (FSB) has set a goal of making international payments faster and cheaper by 2027, but progress has been slow. And the only other option local companies have is alt payment platforms – but even the best of those can only deliver international payments in 1–2 business days.

The opportunity

That’s definitely not ideal: In SA, we have a lot of growing startups with treasury management needs and BPO companies (a R34bn industry Government’s working hard to expand) that have international clients.

These businesses trading across borders need faster settlement and honest pricing now, not in two or three years. Trust us: If you need to manage cash flow, staff and vendor payments locally, shaving days and percentage points off an international transfer can be make or break.

Which is why these guys are solving it…

The startup making money fly…

Unloc Money is a payments platform that uses stablecoins to help businesses make international payments cheaper and faster.

How? Unloc issues South African companies with USD and EUR receiving accounts. When clients abroad pay into them, Unloc routes the value through digital dollars (USDC/USDT), sells them locally, and pays out rand to the business’s SA bank account.

Yeah, but how fast? This is where it gets crazy: For safety’s sake, the promise is that transactions are processed in 24 hours or less, but Unloc can process payments within an hour.

(For those keeping score, that’s 72 times faster than the shortest possible bank route and 24 times faster than existing SA payments platforms.)

And users don’t have to know a thing about stablecoins. Unloc handles the tech under the hood. Users just get their money quicker and keep more of it.

But it’s at scale that things start getting very interesting.

More cash for way less

We caught up with Unloc Money Founder Marlowe Brett, who told us that one of Unloc’s first major SA clients used the platform to bring the capital they’d raised internationally into the country. 

And they save so much money on fees, they could use the savings to hire an extra team member. 😳

Cross-border payments might be slow to change, but with tools like this, it’s putting more international money right where it belongs, into SA businesses.

We’re watching this space…

Who still screenshots their Spotify playlist to share it on WhatsApp?

Spotify’s latest update makes it official — you can now share any song, playlist or podcast directly to your WhatsApp Status, complete with the track name, album art and a short audio preview your friends can tap to play instantly.

But here’s what’s really clever:

✅ Each share opens right in Spotify — no copy-pasting links
✅ New About the Song blurbs give quick insights
✅ Your Updates feed brings fresh drops and alerts

Spotify isn’t just a music app anymore — it’s turning WhatsApp into a discovery engine, letting your Status double as a mini radio for friends.

What would you build on WhatsApp today?

Your data problem isn't poor dashboards. It's invisible, scattered information.

Across your business, valuable data is often hidden in disconnected databases, folders, and systems. Some of it duplicated, some outdated, none reliable. Without knowing what data you have and where it lives, you're building on shaky ground.

Sidekick’s auto-discovery changes everything. It automatically finds, maps and organises your data, providing a solid foundation you can depend on. 

Why it matters:

✅ AI readiness: You can't leverage AI without knowing what data exists
✅ Instant answers: Ask questions and get reliable responses in seconds, not days.
✅ Trusted decisions: Clean, connected data gives you numbers you can truly rely on.
✅ Competitive edge: Gain real-time insights across finance, supply chain and operations.

Stop searching through spreadsheets and relying on ‘educated guesses.’ Start with discovery. When your data is organised and indexed from the ground up, you'll be building on solid reality.

Discovery leads. Everything else follows.

🌆 SA’s Urban Revival Boost. South Africa’s crumbling cities are getting a $925 million lifeline from the World Bank, with the loan aiming at an ambitious urban renewal program. Wow.

🧑‍💻 Hacking a Solution. More than 10’000 SA coders participated in FNB’s Hackathon to develop tech-driven solutions for African challenges, with teams who submitted a solution eligible to win Best Hackathon Solution at the upcoming FNB App of the Year Awards. Nice.

📚 Hat in Hand. Wikipedia is asking AI developers to use the site’s content responsibly by ensuring content is accessed through the (paid-for) Wikimedia Enterprise platform. They should rather train their mods to reply to edits with greater diplomacy…

🤏 Putting a Pin In It. With the implementation deadline of 1 December looming, SA’s AARTO Act has been placed on hold, with many municipalities not even ready for the incremental implementation. Ok, so no pesky penalties to dampen the festive season (but drive safe, y’all…)

✅ The Stack. Founders need reliable tools, so our Founder’s Stack gives you tech content marketing by Stream, tech, acceleration and funding with Octoco and loads more.

From 15 October 2025 to 15 November 2025, each friend you get to sign up to The Open Letter gets you one entry into a draw to win a brand new iPad Air!

Yesterday, we showed you how Bloo Money facilitates freelance supplier management and payments, asking how you chase invoices. It’s all too regular for most…

🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 💸 Every month, like clockwork (60%)

🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 📅 Once in a blue moon (10%)

🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🤐 I just suffer in silence (20%)

🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🪄 Never, my clients are angels (10%)

⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🧾 I’ve built a side hustle just from late fees (0)

Female founder? Aurora Tech Award by inDrive offers $85’000 for women-led tech startups. Apply by 12 Nov. Apply here.

Seed-stage founders: Pitch your startup on SA’s biggest stage at AfricArena Cape Town (2–3 Dec). Win bootcamp access, an Open Letter feature and your pitch in front of 50+ investors. Apply by 17 Nov. Enter here.

Deep tech founder? Hello Tomorrow Challenge offers €100k equity-free for startups in advanced computing & cybersecurity. Apply by 30 Nov. Apply here.

Biotech innovators: SA–Cuba Biotechnology Collaboration Call invites R&D partnerships on therapies for chronic and neurodegenerative diseases. Apply by 5 Dec. Details here.

Eco-entrepreneurs (16–28): Mercedes-Benz Fellowship funds 1'000 young innovators tackling environmental challenges. Apply by 12 Jan. Apply here.

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

🧠 Tool to Try: Notis is an AI intern that connects to over 800 apps (Notion, Slack, your CRM): Leave it a WhatsApp voice note and it’ll execute tasks for you.

🐘 That’s Interesting: The British used actual war elephants in World War II — not for combat, but still.

🦁 Next Level: This lioness hugs her human every time they meet.

🌶️ Hack: Made your food too spicy? Add some extra oil: Capsaicin dissolves in oil, taking the sting off a bit.

🔤 Wow Site: Acronymo lets you battle anonymously with others to come up with new phrases.

Vote in the poll, leave a quick comment, or hit reply — we read every single one.