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Far enough? EV scale-up Lucid Motors set a new 1’205km record for driving an EV on a single charge — 150km further than the old one (Mercedes-Benz) and nearly double what the average car can do on a tank of fuel. That’s almost a Joburg-to-Cape Town trip. 🚘
Wanna build something big like SnapScan or Luno?
Well, the guys who built both of those, plus SA startup greats like Pondering Panda, Journey Apps, Offerzen, Root and Mindjoy are coming to Stellenbosch to tell us how they did it. You should be there.
Get R50 off when you use the code TOL50 at checkout.
TRENDING NOW
Making Mall Parking More Convenient (and Profitable)
South Africa’s 1’867 malls employ around 600k people and the bigger ones get up to 1.3 million visitors per month, so parking can be a pain – but this startup’s working to fix that with data…
Parking is a strategic play for retail landlords. Offering free parking for an hour helps your " in-and-out” stores like groceries. Making it cheaper for longer encourages browsing and strolling.
It’s big business: Take the Mall of Africa as an example. It sees over 1.3 million visitors a month. If just half arrive by car (at an average of two people per vehicle), that’s around 650k parking sessions. At R10 per visit, that’s around R6.5 million per month, or R78 million annually.
But parking also gives you data.
How many people come to the mall on various days? How long do they stay? What cars do they drive? Knowing this could help you optimise even further, because not everyone loves the current state of mall parking…
The customer’s point of view
What’s not been very strategic for customers is the pain of getting a ticket, keeping it safe, getting it paid without queuing for an hour, and – eventually – getting out.
No one likes painful parking experiences. In fact, parking-related problems are the biggest reason shoppers switch centres. So logic says: Make parking easy and super pleasant, and you’ll attract more regular shoppers, leading to happier tenants and paid parking income.
At this point, it would've been cheaper to pay the lost ticket fine…
Convenience and data all in one
admyt is a digital parking management platform that optimises the parking experience for parkers and landlords alike with cashless, contactless parking that turns every car’s license plate into their parking ticket. So it’s way more convenient for Ms Shopper.
But here’s where it gets interesting: The tech also gathers volumes of data on vehicles, driver behaviours, dates and times visited, stay times – it’ll even drill down on how trends like hybrid work impact tenant traffic. And makes all that business intelligence available to landlords for better pricing strategies.
Making parking profitable
We caught up with admyt co-CEO Kfir Rusin, who says they’re already live at 75+ sites, with 450k+ vehicles on the platform, where they’re managing to reduce parking OpEx by up to 60% through efficiency with better data and a VIP user experience that landlords can plug in immediately.
Naturally, this level of parking data opens up the potential of a rewards play where users can earn parking credits for referrals, promo codes and, soon, integrations with existing loyalty programs, turning parking from a grudge purchase into a brand touchpoint.
Sites using Admyt have seen up to 30% of parkers go app-based — a sticky, repeat behaviour that turns a once-forgotten backend system into a front-door advantage. We’re watching this space…
FOUNDER’S CORNER
Three Things for SA Business Builders
Clients not paying on time? Lula’s next webinar is all about the legal safeguards you should already have in place. On Wednesday, 16 July at 11:00, they’re hosting attorney Taryn Blignaut (Legal Ninjas) to walk through contracts every SME needs — and how to protect your business from cash flow disruption. Whether you’re scaling or just want watertight agreements, this one’s a must. Register here.
Wonder what AIs say about your brand? BrandBeacon tracks your company’s visibility across AI search platforms like Perplexity, Claude and Copilot — helping you spot mentions, compare against competitors, and plan better content/visibility strategies. B2B, B2C and more — this is the kind of brand edge worth paying for. Check it out.
Looking for real pain points to solve? BigIdeasDB tracks thousands of complaints, frustrations and feedback from real users — and turns them into validated product ideas backed by market data. It’s not AI guesswork, it’s scraped evidence from 150K+ user discussions. Great if you’re in ideation mode. Explore the database.
Lula proudly sponsors Founder’s Corner.
Lula is South Africa’s first business-only banking suite, offering fast, flexible funding and frictionless banking built exclusively for SMEs. Experience business-class banking and funding now.
FROM OUR FRIENDS AT FINANCE ISLE OF MAN
What if your next board meeting started with a sunrise like this?
If you’re building something bold in fintech, fund admin or blockchain, ask yourself this: What would your life look like if the commute took 10 minutes? If your kids walked to school past wildflowers? If every Friday felt like a soft launch into a long weekend?
The Isle of Man isn’t just another jurisdiction. It’s a global finance centre with a real community. You’ll find serious firms, world-class infrastructure and opportunities trusted by investors and clients worldwide. But what sets it apart is how it feels.
It’s safe. It’s close. It’s easy to meet people. And it’s built for balance.
Founders here are growing companies while still making time for trail runs, sea swims and school plays. Because when you’re not stuck in traffic or chasing bureaucracy, you can focus on what really matters: your startup and your life.
Thinking about a move?
IN SHORT
What’s shaking in tech…
🤖 Risky Business. Stanford's latest study suggests therapy chatbots could dangerously stigmatise mental health conditions, not just serenade them with code. Surprisingly, the AI models, regardless of their size or version, seem to falter equally in empathy and accuracy. Just cause you can ask it questions doesn't mean you should.
🚀 On The Up. African tech startup funding skyrocketed by 50% in Q2, hinting that the funding winter might be thawing. Despite fewer startups securing backing (49 compared to 55 in the first quarter), the total cash injected soared to $426.9 million. What do you reckon?
🚚 E-comm Pick Up. Takealot is ramping up its delivery game with Pick n Pay, adding more pickup points and aiming for a whopping 36 spots by 2025. But when can we add it to our ASAP! order?
🍫 Woolies & Engen. Woolworths and Engen just celebrated the opening of their 100th Foodstop at the Engen Sandton Convenience Centre. Perfect for that late-night Chuckles run…
😎 The Stack. Founders need tools and suppliers they can trust. Check out our Founder’s Stack with cloud services and solutions for Azure, AWS, security and AI by Cloud on Demand, 90% off your first 6 months’ accounting with Xero, plus loads more vital startup tools & services.
WHAT YOU SAID
Money well sent…
Yesterday, we told you how Zeam helps you send money overseas from SA faster, and it should be quite useful since most here still send via the bank…
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 🏦 Bank wire transfer (32%)
🟨🟨🟨🟨⬜️⬜️ 📱 Mukuru, Mama Money, etc. (23%)
🟨🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 💸 Crypto or stablecoins (14%)
🟨🟨🟨🟨🟨⬜️ 🤔 Never had to — but curious now (27%)
⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 😉 Actually, I found a much better way... (4%)
Your 2 cents…
“I've recently had to relocate to West Africa and struggled for months searching for a way to change Rands into Naira. Crypto (stable coins) has been the quickest and easiest but can take some time and requires some focus — buying USDT in rands at a good rate, selling that USTD to get Naira, also at a reasonable rate. The entire ordeal can take up to half an hour.”
Hey, so hopefully Zeam can help make that a bit easier, eh, Kay? 💰
“A friend of a friend who needs Rands in SA in exchange for sending a local USD mobile wallet transfer or arrange a cash pickup with someone ‘on the other side of Limpopo’.”
Ha ha, Isaac, ja, in that case we’d probably opt for the wallet. 🤑
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