Second brain? Two founders raised $1M to develop the Halo X glasses: Smart glasses with AI that records everything you see and hear and helps you “cheat” by translating languages, giving you extra info, answers to questions etc. in real-time. 😎
In Today’s Open Letter
Big Insights: The startup showing you what your neighbours are really like.
Local: Growthpoint’s mega energy game & new homes from Takealot.
Global: SA’s naturally caffeine-free export that’s taking Japan by storm.
SA Businesses: How to build like Elon & meeting customers where they are.
Tech events: The man who made us rich & the latest in disruptive AI trends.
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TRENDING NOW
Helping Homeowners Make Better Decisions
About 300k South Africans buy new homes every year (R39bn), with little-to-no info on what they’re getting into – this startup’s making future homes more transparent…
Finding your next home can be mega exciting: From searching for available properties in your preferred suburb, to swiping through the pics and checking if you can bring along Fluffy.
But when you’re looking for something in a complex or estate, the information available is pretty generic, even listing-specific; what it’s actually like to live there i.t.o. noise, neighbour culture, service delivery, etc., there’s almost no reliable data.
The closest we get is Google Reviews or HelloPeter, but neither is really built for residential life. It’s a serious gap in a market where property is a household’s biggest expense (as much as 24% of monthly income goes to rent or bond costs).
The Work From Anywhere Opportunity
COVID opened the door to work from anywhere. Semigration trends show that people are moving to other provinces, and not just that, smaller towns outside of major metropoles, thanks to large-scale fibre rollouts and the other creature comforts that them city-folk have grown accustomed to.
This pushed homebuying beyond “location, location, location” into lifestyle decisions. But this meant that someone in Jozi moving down to George had a pretty limited view of what they were getting.
At the same time, digital trust has shifted. We review everything from our Uber driver to our latest Takealot purchase (in fact, it informs 90% of SA’s buying decisions), but somehow the places we raise our kids escape scrutiny. Being 500m from a park might be a blessing or a nightmare, depending on what goes down at the park.
The Local Player That’s Got The Tea
Rondawel is a PropTech platform making the case for contextual, crowdsourced property insights. It gives buyers, tenants, investors and developers suburb-level intelligence by blending reviews, AI and public data into a full picture of neighbourhoods, from schools and crime to rentals and future growth.
Their platform captures reviews, runs sentiment analysis with AI and rolls it up into fact sheets, including live incident reporting (like water or electricity outages) and proximity data (schools, hospitals, even undesirable locations like rivers, which could be prone to informal settlements).
We recently caught up with Eugene de Beer, co-founder of Rondawel, together with Daniel Makgonta and Madimetja Shika. Eugene shared that, soon, they’ll include political representation at a ward level, resulting in a layered view: Zoom in for property-level detail, zoom out to see neighbourhood, municipal and eventually provincial dynamics.
While it’s still early days (Rondawel launched in May 2025 and just crossed 500 users), the thinking is bold. Instead of another listings portal, they’re building a trust layer for South African property.
If it works, buying a home may no longer be about trusting the sales pitch. It could be about trusting the data. We’re watching this space.
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IN SHORT
While you were weekending…
🧠 AI Confidant. SA startup Eden AI has launched BlossomCare, an AI-boosted mental health app targeting the often-overlooked needs of stigmatised women like sex workers and pregnant teens. The app offers discreet, multilingual support via WhatsApp — a potential game-changer. Very cool…
🏠 Takealoan Home. Takealot is adding home loans to shopping carts with its new home loan hub, partnering with MortgageMarket. The deal lets users compare offers from seven major banks, with a sweet R20’000 voucher for successful applicants. Pre-approvals based on your shopping history.
🍁 Rooibos Rules. SA’s iconic Rooibos tea has seen its exports soar by 64% between 2015 and 2024, making serious inroads in over 50 countries, with Japan leading the pack. Thanks to its caffeine-free charm and health benefits, it's not just a local hero but a global heavyweight in the healthy tea arena. You’re welcome, World…
🌿 Green Energy Revolution! Growthpoint’s The Towers will be among the first in SA where tenants use wheeled renewable power that’s also certified, tokenised and tradeable. From October 2025, Growthpoint’s e-co2 initiative will supply hydro, wind and solar via a 195GWh PPA with Etana Energy. Partnering with Fuel Switch, tenants’ smart meter data is converted into blockchain-verified renewable energy certificates, stored in free digital wallets. Mega.
✅ The Stack. Founders need reliable tools and suppliers. That’s why our Founder’s Stack gives you full-funnel tech performance marketing by Stream, hardware, software, acceleration and funding for remarkable builds with Octoco and loads more vital startup tools & services.
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BUILDING A BUSINESS IN SA
5 things going down in The Founder Collab
The hard part isn’t code — it’s need. Successful founder G-J van Rooyen shared how he goes about nailing product market fit, relying on Elon Musk’s first principles in a Friday Masterclass.
We got the scoop on the latest Notion updates (before everyone else). One of our members is a Notion insider and shared some of the upcoming features.
Stacked connections. More than 10 connections were facilitated last week. Meetings, collaborations, and even starting startups together. The Founder Collab is cooking.
Free tickets to our JHB event! We have more than 25 members based in Gauteng, and excitement is brewing as most will be attending The Open Letter event on 18 September.
Meet other founders building businesses. This week, members of The Founder Collab are in for a double header on connections. Office hours on Wednesday and Chat Roulette coming Friday.
Find your founder community. Join The Founder Collab, it’s where 100+ real SA founders help each other to build better, faster every day.
WHAT YOU SAID
Power play…
Last Friday, we told how startups are investing in harvesting solar power from space, asking what SA power might look like in 2035. Most say rooftop solar wins the game…
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 ☀️ Rooftop solar everywhere (67%)
⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🛰️ Solar beamed from orbit (3%)
🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ ⚡ Modular nuclear reactors (20%)
🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🌬️ A miracle from the wind (10%)
Your 2 cents…
“Solar in space sounds... overly complex and will probably be very expensive. Keep it simple. Solar on earth, coupled with battery storage (lots of advance and dev happening in this space) and Bobs your uncle!”
Yeah, just imagine making all roofsheets out of PV, PK? 🔆
“The energy landscape is changing very quickly, with a whole sale energy market coming soon. This will allow more renewables to be traded like stocks on day ahead, week ahead and I think month ahead scheduled. SA has so much renewable potential, not to mention nuclear — cost wise too it all points to green/nuclear energy combos.”
Indeed, especially if you have more private partnerships involved, hey, Ludwig? 🔋
“NMR's by floorspace generate a lot more energy than a square kilometer of panels — and 24 hours a day nogal — with no ha-de-dah poop interfering with them....”
Nice one, Chris, didn’t know you could use them for generation. Lekka. 💡
LOOKING TO CONNECT?
Upcoming Startup & Tech Events
Democratising SA’s Financial Access — JHB 18 Sep, 18:00 — The Open Letter is hosting Charles Savage, founder of EasyEquities and CEO of the JSE-listed Purple Group, at our next Joburg event. Early bird tickets are R200, but use the code TOL50 to get an extra R50 off, exclusive to Open Letter readers. Book here.
Venture Summit — JHB 9 Sep, 09:00 — SA’s largest gathering of tech startups and scale-ups lands at Sandton Convention Centre. Learn from top founders, sharpen your GTM strategy, explore disruptive tech and AI trends, and get funding-ready. The Open Letter readers get free access to this event by using the code TOL when RSVPing here.
FundRaise Con — CPT 28 Aug, 17:30 — Outsourced CFO’s flagship evening for Africa’s high-growth founders, CFOs and early-stage investors. In one packed session, we learn what investors are really looking for, plus: Networking, legal micro-masterclasses and a capital-readiness checklist you can use right away, in Cape Town on 28 Aug. Book your ticket here.
Startup Huddle — PTA Aug 28, 17:30 — Two startups get to present on their product and outline any problems they’re facing. Then a team of entrepreneurs, mentors and ecosystem builders from TUT and the Global Entrepreneurship Network tries to help them solve it on the spot. This is the launch of a new event concept and it’s free of charge. Check it out here.
Hosting a demo day, panel, founder meetup or tech event? Let us know, and we’ll feature it for FREE.
AROUND THE WEB
🛠 Tool to Try: SimpleDraw makes precise, to-scale drawings for DIY/renovations — free, no login and easy as pen-and-paper.
🤔 That’s Interesting: How do you print a 2D image on a 3D object? Tampography uses a flexible silicone pad to transfer designs onto curved surfaces.
🔥 Next Level: A mesmerising montage of mine blasts, plus how they lay the dynamite.
🍔 Hack: Snapshot the market with this chart of 2025’s top 30 unicorns.
🌐 Wow Site: Ambiphone lets you make your own ambient music with nature sounds and more.
THANKS FOR READING
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