Played open-water gaming {{ FIRSTNAME }}? If you ever wondered where PC gamers’ Steam bucks go, check out Valve co-founder Gabe Newell’s ridiculous R8.5bn new luxury yacht. It has a spa, two gyms (2?) and 15 top-end gaming PCs powered by a 5.5-megawatt-hour battery system. 😨

In Today’s Open Letter

SA’s industrial smart manufacturing market will double in the next 6 years (for interesting reasons) – and this local startup’s building world-class tools to help SA capitalise…

South Africa never fully developed its industrial sector. Manufacturing, for example, contributes only 12-13% of our GDP. Meagre compared to China’s 25% and Japan and Europe’s 20%, and a core reason for SA’s lacklustre economic growth and high unemployment.

Industrial economies generate much better growth indicators and far superior employment conditions than service-based ones (like SA currently has); that’s why China is rising as a global power and SA is not so much.

But all is not lost… Just like Africa leapfrogged landline telephones to mobile telephone networks, we have a narrow window to capitalise on a new wave of smart manufacturing…

A unique opportunity 

From an African perspective, 3D printing technology arguably never truly delivered on its promise to revolutionise the world of manufacturing (yet). Why? Africa needs more diverse machining capability than the West: Additive Manufacturing (AM), as it's properly known, is good at geometries, allowing fast prototyping and some applications, but it’s often still too slow and inaccurate for local top-tier applications like large-scale automotive, aerospace, medical, etc.

Which is why the next frontier is Hybrid Additive Manufacturing (HAM)... 

International initiatives have realised that if you combine traditional AM systems with extra tooling capability, you can get a much better system. The EU’s The Kraken Project, for example, built a wire-arc system that prints parts 20m long; Denmark’s ATLANT 3D prints with nano-scale accuracy; and Snapmaker combines AM with CNC (Computer Numerical Control) carving and laser engraving to give the machine more uses.

Those types of advances spur local demand: SA’s R216bn 3D printing market will more than double to R543bn by 2031. And now there is a smart SA startup doing some amazing things in that space…

The local startup creating the blueprint

Amnova designs and builds its own industrial-scale 3D printing systems right here in SA. And it’s already exporting them to the world. Check this out:

Their key differentiators are:

1) hybrid functionality, giving AM plus CNC machining, plasma and laser cutting (more value that’s much easier on African budgets) and

2) modular designs – they can come in and build custom systems for clients.

Founded in 2020 by Denislav Marinov, with a Master's in Materials Sciences from UCT, Amnova did not take the “raise lot’s of money to build route”, instead they operated as a service business to some 30 clients (according to their website), including UCT, AngloGold Ashanti and the US Air Force.

A wealth of experience, and potentially the right timing. Amnova might just be poised to ride a new wave of smart, localised, flexible production for small and medium manufacturers in Africa.

We’re watching this space…

Too many agents, zero oversight? Microsoft just launched Agent 365, an operating system for AI agents: discover shadow agents, control access and track usage org-wide in one place. See it here.

Want faster, smarter, more intuitive AI? Gemini 3 just dropped with remarkable reasoning, cleaner intent detection and full-stack agent tools inside Antigravity (it’s developer tool kit). Explore it here.

Need visuals that don’t look AI? Imagine Art generates photorealistic images with fine-tuned skin textures (down to every pore), lighting and reflections — studio quality, zero prompt drama. Check it out.

Algorithms optimise for numbers, not meaning. We've all fallen for it, confusing constant visibility with real value..

You see it in brands that chase trends: always busy, always buzzing, yet completely forgettable. Their content feels like it belongs to the platform, not to them. People sense when they're being performed to, rather than connected with.

Humans don't connect through perfectly timed posts or format tricks.

They connect with brands that stand for something they care about. Brands with a pulse like their own. A distinctive voice they recognise from their internal dialogue. A perspective that outlasts trends and mirrors their own taste.

A brand with identity

The algorithm does a great job at turning culture into data points, but for your brand to resonate, it needs to turn culture into trust and tribe.

Platforms change constantly. One algorithm update can make last week's winning content irrelevant. When the algorithm leads, you're in a race you can't win.

Always recalibrating. Rejigging just to fit in. Never really building.

The strongest brands remain anchored in clarity: Their identity doesn't depend on algorithmic approval. The algorithm helps them reach people, but it never defines who they are.

If you feel like the tail is wagging your dog…

📺 Just Press Play. YouTube and Vumatel are launching a connectivity pilot program in the Alexandra Township in Jozi to provide affordable, high-speed fibre connectivity and free Google TV streaming dongles to 2’000 fibre-connected households. Nice.

🥸 Update Yer Passwords. South Africa’s Top 20 most-used passwords have been revealed, and along with some super-specific ones, the usual suspects like “admin”, “123456” and “password” cracked the Top 3. Begs the question how these password companies can see what the popular passwords are?

🙅 Turning Down The AI. TikTok is launching a new feature that lets users pick how much AI-generated content they want to see on their “For You” feed, set to launch in the coming weeks. Interesting.

🧳 Securing The Bag. Airports Company SA is introducing real-time luggage tracking in its app, allowing passengers to see where their bags are from the moment they check them in. Not applicable to those taking their oversized bags as carry-on, though…

✅ 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.

Every time you share The Open Letter, the stars shine a little brighter (and we give you cool stuff, too.)

Yesterday, we showed you how Fresh Life Produce’s African Grower vertical garden tech, asking what you’d use the grower kit for. Most wanna feed the neighbourhood.

🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 🌱 Feeding the whole street — call me Farmer Flex (30%)

🟨🟨🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🥗 Finally growing lettuce that doesn’t cost R89 (16%)

🟨🟨🟨🟨⬜️⬜️ 🤔 I’ll try… but my plants usually file for divorce (20%)

🟨🟨🟨🟨⬜️⬜️ 🍅 Growing tomatoes so fresh Woolies would DM me (25%)

🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🚰 Using 10% of the water? Yes please, Eskom & friends have trained me well (9%)

Your 2 cents…

We know, right, Cands? 🌽

They’re for sale on the African Grower site, Jo. Try it? 🌱

Who really holds SA’s cash?

💡 There’s still R180-billion in cash and coins circulating in SA.

💡 Individuals and non-bank financial players hold the bulk of this.

💡 Only R34-billion is with the SARB, R28-billion with commercial banks.

A lot of SA’s cash sits outside traditional banking, meaning it’s not fading, just decentralised and thus much harder to track.

💼 Tool to Try: Aurasell replaces an entire stack of sales tools with one unified platform.

🎬 That’s Interesting: The original Jackass cast actually included a female member, Stephanie Hodge (from Coyote Ugly), but a stunt in the first season saw her fracture her pelvis and spine, so she left the group permanently.

🌪️ Next Level: How do filmmakers shoot clean, stable scenes in extreme weather? Spinning lens shields fling rain and snow away in real time.

🧭 Hack: Choose a home on the eastern side of your daily routes, so you never have to drive straight into the glare of sunrise or sunset.

📡 Wow Site: After the other day’s Cloudflare outage, here’s a DownDetector for DownDetector.

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