Out of this world? The James Webb Telescope snapped an actual image of an exoplanet. Still a bit of a smudge, but it is 12 light-years (113 trillion km) away. And it’s possible because it’s 6 times the size of Jupiter (or 1’908 more massive than Earth).

In this Open Letter:

• Fast play: Unique startup plays in SA’s booming last-mile space.

• OpenAI’s search play, Marmite’s new boss & flagging SA searches.

• Let’s hang out: Our first in-person event is here — book your spot.

• How often you service your car: And the results are in.

• Startup fuel: Share this and get 100+ SA business ideas.

Together with Udok

TRENDING NOW

Unique Last-Mile Plays (Meep, Meep!)

If ever there was a perfect storm to drive the adoption of technology, it must be the Checkers Sixty60 launch and Covid lockdowns. 

It's obviously no longer the only player in the same-day FMCG space (bearing in mind it wasn’t the first: OneCart and Zulzi were leading the charge years before Sixty60), but the impact of the Sixty60 service has been immense. 

Earlier this year, it was reported that the app had been downloaded more than 4.5 million times, available at over 500 locations and has created more than 9’900 jobs. 

How much money does it make? It's not clear from the financials, but well-calculated estimates put it north of R10 billion per annum.

80k deliveries per day

What is particularly interesting is that Pingo, the company that coordinates the last-mile delivery for the Sixty60 service, made R994 million in revenue in 2023. And at R35 a delivery that’s 28 million+ deliveries – or 77’800 per day! 

And that’s only Sixty60 – add Woolies Dash, Spar 2U, PnP ASAP!, Zulzi, OneCart, MrD Food and Uber Eats and the amount of last-mile deliveries in SA reaches millions per week. 

Almost overnight, it's a massive industry with massive opportunities for software and intelligence (read AI) to optimise routes, cut costs and increase margins – the obvious places entrepreneurs tend to look. 

But with a rising demand, just helping people get bikes on the road offers a massive opportunity!

Rent a bike until it's yours

Local Rent-to-Own bike startup, Bike2Own started out by renting out 2 bikes they bought on auction and started modelling how it could scale. Now, a few years later, they’re servicing more than 400 riders. These riders earn between R2’600 and R6’000 per week with the highest earning in a week seen thus far R9’000 per week.

To rent the bike, these riders pay anything between R650 to R850 per week, depending on the bike spec and what’s included. And after 78 weeks (18 months) the bike becomes theirs. 

What is fascinating is that about 60% of riders, opt to go into a new contract to take on a new bike. They then rent out their old bike for additional income.

The ability to reduce risk with great payment processes is key to making this business work. If they drive for Uber Eats, Bike2Own gets paid directly from Uber weekly. If they drive for another company (like Checkers, Spar, Woolies, etc), these drivers pay by setting up an automatic recurring payment through Bike2Own’s WigWag setup.

It's more than just a bike

With a way to collect payments predictably, they have branched out to solve other needs of these riders: 

• Phones and data contracts – coz you need a smartphone to deliver.

• Gear –  jackets, helmets, gloves.

• Insurance and tracking devices – these bikes are unfortunately targeted by criminals in certain areas. 

• Parts shop – these riders normally know how to fix something on the bike, so selling parts and delivering to them is a great value add.

• Advertise on bikes – with countless trips per day, it makes sense to turn these bikes into moving billboards.

This industry is growing faster than most and major opportunities here. To learn more about the market size and get a deep dive into this startup and all future startups we feature, sign up for The Open Letter Pro. 

Plus: When you sign up, you get to join our community of 30+ SA founders who get access to free support and free online and in-person events.

IN SHORT

🔍 RoboSearch. OpenAI has launched a search competitor prototype SearchGPT, that’s powered by OpenAI’s GPT-3.5, GPT-4 and GPT-4o models. And while it isn't available just yet, you can already join the waitlist.

🤳Selfie Safety. Bolt SA is rolling out rider verification as part of its safety features, allowing riders to take a selfie and upload a pic of a valid ID doc to validate themselves.

🖤 Spread out. PepsiCo SA is selling Marmite & Bovril to the Canadian company that owns Anchor Yeast. Included in the deal is also the business unit that produces the popular spreads.

🇿🇦 Flying the Flag. Following the remedial actions set out by the Competition Commission in its final report of the Online and Intermediation Platforms Market Inquiry, Google has started adding a label to its organic search results that indicates if a travel service or e-commerce platform is HQ’d in SA or owned by a South African.

😎 The Stack. Founders need tools and suppliers they can trust. Check out our Founder’s Stack with tools like easy no-code websites via Webflow and services like Dommisse Attorneys who can help you get all your legal stuff sorted, fast.

CHECK THIS OUT

Still, the fastest way to see a doctor

“We only have an opening on Thursday at 10 AM”

We have all heard that said, and this is a problem…When you want to see a doctor, you are sick now, not Thursday. And besides more, 10 am splits your day in half, so you might as well take the day off. Not to mention the drive, the parking, the waiting room (doctors always seem to be running late).

What if you could see a doctor right now? Not now, now, but right now. That’s Udok.

With more than 20 registered practitioners waiting to see you and trusted by Clicks to deliver healthcare consults in more than 150 stores nationwide, it’s never been faster and more convenient to see a general practitioner in South Africa.

Need to see a doctor? Try Udok today.

ENGAGE

Brand-New in The Open Letter Community

Things are getting fun in the community, and it’s time for a few firsts… kicking off with our first in-person event…

That’s right, we’ll see you at LaunchLab in Hammanshand Road, Stellenbosch next week on Tuesday (6 August 2024) at 18:00 sharp for a dive into why Stellenbosch is one of the best places to launch a startup and how to do it, plus some good vibes and lekker times.

It’s R100 or free if you’re a pro member.

Coming Up This Week

• Wednesday 10-11: Office Hours, where we all log in and work together, + the whole Open Letter team is at members’ disposal.

• New: Free monthly startup strategy calls for all pro members.

• Support: All day, every day: unlimited introductions, recruitment, service provider referrals and business-building insights.

Want to join a group of South Africans building high-value tech-enabled startups? How about free entrance to all our events for the rest of this year?

Well now you can — we’ve enabled free trials, so you can try it and cancel anytime…

What You Said…

We asked how often you service your car, and most everyone agrees…

🟨🟨🟨🟨⬜️⬜️ 🕒 Like clockwork – exactly as the manufacturer says (36%)

🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 📅 Just once a year, never get up to those kms (43%)

🟨🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🤷‍♂️ Meh, those are more like guidelines, right? (19%)

⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🥰 Never, my partner takes care of that stuff (0)

⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 😲 Wait, you have to service your car? (2%)

Your 2 cents…

Nice one, glad you like the option, Jason!

Ha ha, well that should get you all the more KMS from it, Sabeeha.

So true, Marius. One of us needed to change brake pads recently (super cheap) but the dealer prices didn’t make sense (super expensive). YouTube and 20 minutes later, the job was done, with loads of spare change left over.