Super flexible? Unhappy that most animal-based robot designs were rigid and clunky, one team built this hyper-agile robo dog for climbing into small spaces. They trained it virtually in a sim first, and now it can do the old hallway wall-climb probably better than we can. 🐕‍🤖

In Today’s Open Letter

While SA’s storage economy booms, this startup’s allowing us all to benefit by putting every spare square metre to work…

Think self-storage is a cheap option? Forking over between R500 and R3’000 a month to keep your extra stuff somewhere might not be so bad for some… But compare it to the average rent in SA (~R8'654) and it starts to look less attractive per square metre.

Check it: This 58 m² 2-bedroom apartment to rent in Ferndale costs R8’400 per month, which is R145/m². And a small 3m² storage unit is R500 per month, working out to about ±R167/m². So as far as value for money goes, you’re actually losing on the storage deal.

It gets better at larger sizes: a 27 m² storage unit at R3’000 per month might seem more economical at ±R111/m², but it’s still pretty close to the flat in Ferndale – without even being able to live there.

The opportunity in our backyards

How many thousands of garages, parking bays and spare rooms are sitting idle every month, earning nothing across SA?

We’re already comfortable with informal renting arrangements and digital marketplaces, from short-stay homes to buying secondhand goods on the line. Add to that an undercurrent of economic pressure and how all of us have smartphone ubiquity, and the timing seems perfect. 

The local tool turning underused physical space into income

Keyp is building South Africa’s first peer-to-peer storage and parking marketplace. Think Airbnb, but for garages, driveways, spare rooms and more: Listings are vetted, pricing is transparent, and payouts go straight to hosts, avoiding regulatory snags around holding funds.

We caught up with founder Jeanot Boutry, who says Keyp lets anyone list unused space, set access hours and start earning pretty much the same day, with onboarding and support handled via WhatsApp. 

And while it’s still early days, early traction is promising: Over 120 renters on the waitlist, garages listed across the Cape and unconventional use cases and opportunities (like parking for a few hours for events at the stadium, boat storage up the West Coast, even advertising space on blank walls!) already surfacing.

Keyp’s bet is simple: the storage economy shouldn’t be locked up behind chain-link fences and long-term leases. There’s an opportunity to unlock micro-monetisation for pretty much anyone with a square metre or two and a smartphone. We’re watching this space…

The key to building a great startup team. Matt Beck, currently CEO at OfferZen and previously leading marketing at SA startup GetSmarter (which sold to 2u for $103m in 2017), shares the secrets to making sure you build an exceptional startup team here.

Struggling to turn messy data into visuals that investors actually get? Venngage’s AI Infographic Generator turns simple text prompts into clear, editable infographics — timelines, charts, and data stories — in seconds. Perfect for pitch decks, reports or landing pages without wasting hours on design. Try it here.

Still guessing how users will navigate your product? Velocity lets you run AI-powered user tests on your Figma designs — showing you where people click, get confused, or drop off before you even bring in human testers. It’s a fast way to catch UX issues before building your MVP. Check it out.

Get financial insights in plain English

Got data? Chat with it!

Sidekick Lab makes discovery, cataloguing, and instant querying effortless.

Tired of wrestling with scattered data in outdated, disconnected systems? A leading JSE-listed IT consortium, comprising eight companies, faced this challenge, struggling to navigate complex databases and legacy platforms for quick insights across its diverse operations. 

Enter Sidekick Lab’s natural language query assistant. Using intelligent discovery and cataloguing, Sidekick Lab consolidates all your data—spreadsheets, databases, even unstructured PDFs—into one intuitive hub. 

Company management simply has to ask, “What are the Q3 sales trends?” or “Show me customer patterns,” and they get clear, concise answers in minutes, all in plain English.

Budget-versus-actual comparisons that previously required specialist Power BI skills can now be generated instantly through conversational prompts. The system integrates seamlessly with existing enterprise authentication and scales across multiple operating companies. Sidekick Lab is designed for simplicity, making it ideal for mid-market businesses ready to unlock the potential of their data. Discover hidden patterns, catalogue your info neatly, and query instantly with ease.

Don’t miss this chance to simplify your data game!

🌟 Rate Cut Buzz. The South African Reserve Bank is set to potentially lower interest rates next week, hinting at a promising economic boost. Hopefully, some relief for cash-strapped South Africans…

🥷SA's Data Drama. South Africa's been hit hard by cyberattacks, with 369’600 accounts leaked this year, averaging a breach every minute in Q2. That ranks us 27th globally, amidst a whopping 93.6 million worldwide breaches. With 66 out of 100 South Africans affected, it seems our data has become the latest neighbourhood gossip. Guess we gotta stop using Password 123!, now.

🌞 How much sun? Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey has launched a new app that monitors your sun exposure and vitamin D levels. This is his second app release in a week, following last weekend’s encrypted peer-to-peer messaging app Bitchat. He is developing these apps using an open-source coding tool called Goose.

🪲 Share the Love. Microsoft's SharePoint is under fire from hackers exploiting a bug, leaving servers vulnerable and security experts scrambling. With no immediate patches, the digital baddies are likely playing havoc on thousands of businesses. Quickest fix might just be to stop using SharePoint.

🚗 BotBuyCars. WeBuyCars, the vehicle trading giant, is putting AI in the driver's seat with two new tools named "Blue" and "Orange." Blue is handling complex pricing autonomously, having already bought 2,800 cars using AI-driven models. Meanwhile, Orange is upgrading customer interactions with a large language model. All fun and games till it hallucinates the Ferrari you’re trying to sell is a Ford Fiesta…

✅ The Stack. Founders need tools and suppliers they can trust. Check out our Founder’s Stack with the best in IP offshoring and global market access with Finance Isle of Man, all your VC and startup legal sorted by Dommisse Attorneys, and loads more vital startup tools & services.

Yesterday, we showed you how Beeline’s tackling SA’s multi-billion Rand employee training industry, asking how you’d train your staff. And peeps like the WhatsApp approach…

🟨🟨🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️ 📚 Old-school workshops — if it ain’t broke… (21%)

🟨🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🖥️ LMS dashboards (yes, even the clunky ones) (17%)

🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 📲 Bite-sized WhatsApps with real-time nudges (38%)

🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🎙️ Voice notes in your team’s own language (8%)

🟨🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🧪 Hire guys that’re already trained (16%)

…one of SA’s biggest tech hits, Mxit's monthly active user base dropped to just 1.2 million, down from 7.5 million in just two years before in 2013.

It would only be another 3 months before Mxit announced the closure of commercial operations in October 2015, with final shutdown 12 months later in 2016.

Did you know? We caught up with Alan Knott-Craig, who famously bought Mxit from founder Herman Heunis, 9 years after its shutdown, to learn about picking up the pieces and building more successful companies after such a massive setback. He’s done some amazing things since — many of which are in the interview, but he also got serious about Mxit, explaining to us:

Catch the full interview here:

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