Good boy {{ FIRSTNAME }}? China is using those Unitree robot dogs in interesting ways: From replacing animatronics in dinosaur parks to training them to fight fires where humans can’t go. 🐕🤖
In This Open Letter
Good & Honest: Scaling up remote invigilation tech in SA.
Local: SA’s cybercrime crackdown & green funds unlocked.
Global: Forget annual, Spotify now does weekly wraps.
Personal Finance: How to use medical aid for tac rebates.
SA Businesses: SA founders help each other. You in?
Tech events: Africa tech fests, AI coding events & more.
Pitch your startup on SA’s largest stage!
The Open Letter is taking 3 startups to pitch in front of 50+ investors at AfricArena Grand Summit on 2—3 December 2025.
All SA seed-stage startups are welcome to enter now (before 19 Nov); the winning 3 will get to pitch at AfricArena, attend their startup bootcamp (worth R5’000), get a year Founder Collab subscription (worth R6’000) and get featured in The Open Letter.
TRENDING NOW
Ensuring Your Degree Actually Means Something
Keeping students honest is the next frontier for SA’s estimated R170bn a year higher education industry – and this scale-up’s got the tools…
Post-COVID, online learning has gone into overdrive, with enrollments rising 90% since 2017, opening opportunities for even more students around the world to get a quality education.
But it introduced a brand-new headache…
How do you prevent students from cheating in online assessments? The environment itself poses higher integrity risks and needs stronger controls than venue exams.
In SA, the tide has already turned, with around 60% of students studying online.
The tech (and connectivity) is there; double our population (195.4%) has cellular connections (lol). How do we make sure everybody who receives a qualification actually did the work to deserve it?
The local scale-up baking trust in online exams
The Invigilator App is a South African platform built for non-venue assessments that can run on entry-level smartphones and PCs.
It works by verifying students' identities, prompting periodic check-ins so students can't get someone else to take the test for them (hello, Mike Ross). It also records short audio or video recordings at random intervals to detect any suspicious sounds or events during the test, with AI monitoring a student’s behaviour and use of unauthorised materials.
The platform also uses GPS to confirm exam location and screen monitoring to flag window switching or unauthorised access, and institutions can also pair it with plagiarism detection tools to catch copied or AI-generated work.
And if, like us, you’re wondering about privacy concerns: The app keeps data use minimal, storing recordings securely for review by authorised staff only, in line with POPIA and institutional policy, with most monitoring happening locally on-device rather than through continuous livestreaming.
What universities like
The product is designed for low data and offline use, made to run on low-spec smartphones and PCs, so tech limitations need not be a stumbling block.
It is already specified in UNISA student materials (SA’s oldest distance-learning entity), showing a strong signal of institutional fit in an industry that needs to ensure students present their own knowledge in a trusted and reliable space.
(Just like The Invigilator App), we’re watching this space…
FROM OUR FRIENDS AT DOMMISSE ATTORNEYS
Why do VC deals in South Africa take forever?
Because every law firm has its own documents.
In the US and UK, standardised templates mean faster closings and less legal bloat. In SA, we’re still redlining Word docs for weeks.
That’s why we worked with SAVCA to create open-source model investment documents for South Africa – faster deals, more clarity, less cost.
Want in?
IN SHORT
While you were weekending…
🌍 Cash for Climate Change! Novastar Ventures just landed a cool $40 million from the Green Climate Fund, kicking off its $200 million Africa People & Planet Fund III, focusing on eco-friendly startups in Kenya, Nigeria, Rwanda and South Africa. Nice one.
🔍 CSIR's Cybercrime Crackdown. SA's CSIR has unveiled their tool for banks and telcos to report cybercrimes directly to the cops in a move urged by skyrocketing fraud rates. Nice.
🎧 Weekly Wrapped Unwrapped. Spotify now lets you flaunt your music habits weekly instead of at the end of the year. Great, now you won’t have to wait till the end of the year to mock your buddy’s questionable taste in music.
🚨 Dark Web Card Price Surge. Prices for stolen credit cards on the dark web have skyrocketed, up 63.56% in South Africa alone, with prices in some countries soaring by 444%. R114’00 rondt if you’re wondering…
✅ The Stack. Founders need reliable tools, so our Founder’s Stack gives you real-time AI insights from Sidekick Lab, zero-monthly-fee bank accounts and business loans from Lula and more.
LOVE IT?
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!
PERSONAL FINANCE
How to use your medical aid to get a little extra back on tax
You know how you can claim tax credits for out-of-pocket medical expenses (the ones your medical aid doesn’t reimburse) in SA? It’s great, except for the schlep of having to keep track of all of those (slips and invoices) throughout the year.
But here’s a neat trick: Use your medical aid's itemised certificates to track it for you...
Submit ALL your medical expenses to your medical aid, even the out-of-pocket ones you know they don’t cover.
They’ll log them and include both reimbursed and non-reimbursed items on your annual medical tax certificate.
Now you have a single, ready-made record that proves all out-of-pocket expenses for your tax return.
It’s a lekker simple way to capture every possible deduction without any admin headaches.
Disclaimer: This content is for educational purposes only and should not be considered personalised financial, investment, tax or legal advice.
Doshguide proudly sponsors Personal Finance for Entrepreneurs.
Doshguide helps entrepreneurs take control of their personal finances and build a path to make work optional. As SA’s first flat-fee financial advice platform, we don’t earn commission or push products — keeping our advisors 100% unbiased and focused on you.
BUILDING A BUSINESS IN SA
3 things we learnt in our startup founder community called The Founder Collab
We learnt that fair pay matters: Founders agreed R4k buys you an intern, but R15k buys you someone really talented. Pay what attracts the right people.
We learnt that content systems don’t need five tools: Candice’s Notion masterclass proved AI can plan, repurpose and publish for you.
We learnt that scale doesn’t mean distance: The best tech events stay small enough for real conversation, even as venues grow to 500 seats.
The Founder Collab is a community of 120+ SA startup founders. With weekly standups, office hours, and masterclasses, it’s how SA founders build smarter, faster, together.
WHAT YOU SAID
Eyes peeled…
Last Friday, we showed you how Altify is trying to make exclusive private credit investment deals available to all of us, asking about your FOMO level. Most are intrigued but want to know more first…
🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🔥 Through the roof, I need private credit (11%)
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 📊 Curious but cautious (49%)
⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 😅 Still recovering from last crypto winter (0)
🟨🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🏡 All my money’s in bricks, so… none left to FOMO with (19%)
🟨🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🧘 Zero, ignorance is bliss (21%)
“I wait patiently for 6am every morning because I know Open Letter will be in my inbox soon!!”
Awesome, Clair! We hope you find something inspirational every day. 🌅
LOOKING TO NETWORK?
Upcoming SA Tech Events
Africa Tech Festival — CTICC 11–13 Nov — The continent’s biggest tech gathering. Founders, investors, policymakers and scale-ups under one roof. Book now.
Open Build: AI Coding Night — CPT 12 Nov, 18:00 — Join Windsurf and The AI Collective for live builds, dev tools and snacks with fellow AI-native coders. Book here.
Origin Stories: Live Founder Tales — CPT 12 Nov, 19:00 — Raw, human journeys from African entrepreneurs. Theatre, storytelling and startup community. Book now.
Tech Safari CPT Mixer — 12 Nov, 17:30 — Founders, devs, and operators: join Africa’s tech community for sharp talks, real convos and drinks. Register here. (The first 5 people to use the code LEKKERCOMP get a free ticket!)
AfricArena Grand Summit — 2–3 Dec, CTICC — Watch 50+ top African startups pitch at the continent’s premier venture summit. Seed to growth stage. Get tickets.
Hosting a demo day, panel, founder meetup or tech event? Let us know, and we’ll feature it for FREE.
AROUND THE WEB
Blow off some steam…
📊 Tool to Try: Yorph AI lets you visualise data through natural language.
🏛️ That’s Interesting: In 1934, Italy tried to straighten the Leaning Tower of Pisa by pumping 90 cubic meters of concrete under it, but that only made it lean more.
🛩️ Next Level: Just a reminder that jetpacks are totally real (Gravity Jetsuit).
🎂 Hack: Hand-me-down birthday cards are actually a very sweet and endearing idea.
🧘 Wow Site: Intentional Boredom lets you do nothing on purpose and capture ideas.
THANKS FOR READING
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