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Truth is out there? Two men were arrested for tying LEDs to some pigeons and releasing them at night to look like fake drones in a small town in India. Why? Not sure, but some news reports accuse them of “spreading terror” and refer to them as a “gang”. So, don’t do that, we guess. 🕊️

In Today’s Open Letter

Celebrate local female founders with us – and get 10% off tickets to Digital Divas Summit…

30 years ago, it was almost unheard of for a female to start a business. Today, roughly 9.7% of working-age females in South Africa participate in early-stage entrepreneurial activity. Compared to men, at 12.7%, it is clear that women are serious about building businesses. 

August is Women’s Month, and in celebration of the long way we have come as a society, and in recognition of the work still needed to be done to make entrepreneurship more accessible to all, we are featuring five trailblazing female founders who are pitching at the Diva Pitch at Digital Divas Summit 2025, hosted by our friends at Innovation City.

A platform for managing care for the elderly

One of the major pains for young people abroad is making sure their parents and elderly loved ones are well cared for. Noli Jansson is the Co-Founder of DIZA, a digital-first platform helping families care for elderly loved ones from anywhere.

Empowering global personal fitness trainers

Since the COVID lockdowns, personal fitness trainers have become global brands. Building their communities online and engaging customers across the world. Emma Heap is the CEO & Co-Founder of Sudor, a global platform helping fitness creators scale their businesses digitally.

A lawyer in your pocket

A very popular use case among particularly smaller businesses for generative AI is the creation and/or review of legal documents. This is something Serisha Barrat, CEO of Lawyered Up, is building. Her mission? Help SA’s estimated 2.5 to 3.5 million SMEs get access to legal help they otherwise could not have afforded.

We’ve featured Serisha and Lawyered Up in a previous ed of The Open Letter.

Fighting the impact of inflammation

There are an estimated 65 million+ people globally suffering from long-COVID. A major challenge in healthcare is being able to diagnose long COVID, as the symptoms can differ.

Este Marié Burger is the CEO of Biocode, a healthtech startup developing advanced diagnostics for vascular damage and inflammation. The technology can help healthcare providers diagnose long-COVID, which can then lead to effective treatment.

Check out the feature we wrote on Este Marié and Biocode.

A package that disappears

More than 1 million tons of plastic end up in the ocean, and the most effective way to fight this is likely to have packaging that simply cannot end up in the ocean because it dissolves. That’s what Katie Borland, the Founder of noodees, is solving. It’s a powdered soap product packaged in fully dissolvable packaging.

Engage with other female founders

On Friday, 29 August, our friends at Innovation City Cape Town will host a full-day summit built for South African women who are building.

This year’s Digital Divas Summit theme is Becoming. Not in a vague, self-help kind of way, but in the real, practical sense: becoming visible, becoming bold, becoming backed.

With a power-packed schedule of panels, masterclasses, and honest conversations led by leading ladies in SA business and innovation. Plus, there’s lots of time to network throughout the day to make those all-important connections needed to build together.

Use OPENLETTERDIVA to get 10% off your tickets to the Digital Divas Summit 2025.

⚔️ Another One. South Africa's Reserve Bank has given interest rates another 25 basis points trim, pulling the repo rate to 7% due to cooling inflation at 3%. Hmmm, might just be the last one for 2025.

🚀 Money Moves. Local VC HAVAÍC announced a second close of its third $50 million fund, with new and follow-on investments in SAPay, Sportable, NjiaPay and SwiftVEE. We love to see it.

🤖Do The Robot. Barloworld's R34 million robot investment at the Barloworld Rebuild Centre looks to be all gain, no pain, with zero human jobs lost! This tech upgrade accelerates processes yet keeps humans at the helm. See, we CAN live in harmony with our new robot overlords.

👟A lil Sketchy. Sketchers has launched a new line of kids' shoes with AirTag slots, aiming to keep tabs on toddlers through Apple's Find My app. The new "Find My Sketchers" feature raises a few eyebrows about parental espionage but promises peace of mind at crowded events. Enjoy the borderline creepy launch vid…

😎 The Stack. Founders need reliable tools and suppliers. Check out our Founder’s Stack with cloud services and solutions for Azure, AWS, security and AI by Cloud on Demand, plus loads more vital startup tools & services.

Yesterday, we showed you how GovERP is working to fight “ghost worker” fraud in SA government, asking where you think “ghost salaries” are really going. And most say those millions are being pocketed somewhere along the way…

🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 🕵️ Into the pockets of sneaky insiders (72%)

🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🏝️ Funding someone’s “early retirement” (17%)

⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🌀 Lost in the black hole of bureaucracy (6%)

⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 💰 Probably just sitting in bank accounts, unused (2%)

⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🤷 Other (spill your theory!) (3%)

Your 2 cents…

Ja that’s a little sus eh, S? 🚘

Prolly, Thinus. It’s literally millions per year. 💰

We’d never even dream of thinking that, Candice. 😎

🎒 Growth Marketing Associate @ Bag Learning

🌮 Head of Sales @ The Awareness Company

👟 Head of Growth @ Superbalist

🎮 Lead Engineer @ Carry1st

⚡Front-end Developer @ Switch

🎧 Customer Support Coordinator @ Jem

Hiring? Get in touch, and we will feature it here.

Indian e-commerce platform Blinkit was known for delivering groceries, electronics, toys and more in under 10 minutes via a network of 1’000+ dark stores. Launched in 2013 as Grofers, they rebranded in 2021, before getting acquired by Zomato for $568 million in 2022.

In 2024, Blinkit noticed a spike in searches for “LEGO” and so added it to their catalogue. One year later, they became an official LEGO India partner, offering same-day delivery in 20+ cities.

Search data is often treated as a backend feature or UX detail. But when it’s tracked and acted on in real time, those queries become a direct line into customer intent, telling you what people want.

For local e-commerce players, there’s an opportunity here: use search trends not only to improve discovery, but to shape what you stock next.

That single LEGO spike didn’t just improve Blinkit’s relevance — it opened up an entirely new product category…smart!

🛠 Tool to Try: Keyword tracks people asking about your brand on ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, and more.

🧠 That’s Interesting: A retired couple legally exploited a math loophole and gamed the lottery for $7.75 million over 10 years.

🚀 Next Level: A light show featuring 11'787 drones just smashed the world record, forming massive images of city skylines, dolphins, even a giant waving girl.

💡 Hack: Want to get an “in” with a specific contact/client/investor? Ask for their advice — people feel valued when they’re helping.

🌐 Fun Site: PointerPointer will show you a photo of someone pointing at your cursor, no matter where you move it.

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