Gaming in real life {{ FIRSTNAME | there }}? Scientists have created a powder you spray on open wounds that instantly turns into medigel and helps heal wounds on the battlefield — Mass Effect & Star Citizen players rejoice. 🔫

In Today’s Open Letter

SA’s online retail is growing by 30% per year, but it’s excluding locals for foreigners – and this SA startup wants to flip the script with a better local-first solution…

SA e-commerce is booming: In the last 5 years, it grew from just 1% of total retail sales to 10% to be worth around R130bn in 2025. And, growing at 30% per year since 2020, some expect it’ll grow by another 150% to R225 billion in 5 years' time. Mega. 

And as it grows, so do ancillary sectors like last-mile delivery, creating an opportunity to tackle SA’s 46% youth unemployment rate. Gig work is ideal for a young person studying, so why are almost 96% of last-mile drivers foreigners and not local SA kids?

Well, it might have something to do with current barriers to entry…

The problem with last-mile entry

While the industry invests in e-mobility options, the truth is that the average person’s fastest route into the last-mile game is getting a petrol motorbike (with fuel and maintenance costs) – an insurmountable barrier for some unemployed youth. 

A brand new delivery bike might cost around R17’000 to buy, or you have to roll the dice on a half-price deal on a Marketplace. E-bikes are double that at R30k—R90k for an entry-level Euro version (built for paved European cities). A model with more “vasbyt” for SA roads goes into the hundreds of thousands of Rands.

We need a smarter way to get good, honest SA youth on e-bikes…

The local startup getting delivery riders moving

Green Riders is a home-grown delivery solution that swaps expensive, imported petrol bikes for SA-built, heavy-duty electric ones, making them available for rent-to-own to cut costs for riders and opening up jobs for unemployed youth.

Riders join by enrolling in the 12-week Green Riders Academy professional training programme. After which, they can rent the bike for around R900 per week, requiring them to do about 30 deliveries. And, after 24 months, the bike belongs to them, taking them from “contractor” to a "business owner".

So far, they’ve created over 2’000 jobs, covering 14.3 million kms to complete just over 1.3 million deliveries.

With a mission to create 50’000 jobs in five years, Green Riders might just be creating a brand new class of micro-entrepreneurs (while delivering dinner from your favourite burger joint). 

By providing professional training with a quality bike and work opportunities, Green Riders could help turn the "gig economy" into a legitimate career stepping stone for the youth into one of SA’s fastest-growing sectors.

We’re watching this space…

Who still wants to talk to a call centre agent?

Even rural and regional municipalities are flipping the switch: using WhatsApp as a frontline channel for service delivery and public updates.

Here’s how they’re being clever:

✅ George Municipality now lets residents report electrical faults via WhatsApp.
✅ Sol Plaatje Municipality now does real-time alerts on outages, road closures, emergencies and safety notices via WhatsApp.
✅ No portals, no call queues, just updates in the app people already use daily.

For municipalities and corporates with stretched resources and wide geographies, WhatsApp isn’t a nice-to-have. It’s becoming the fastest way to reach households and businesses without delay.

What will you build on WhatsApp today?

Deel Local Payroll launched one of the first integrated, cloud-native payroll and HR platforms in South Africa as Payspace in 2007. But to expand its global footprint in 2020, it needed to do a major transition to Microsoft Azure to enhance security and trust.

That’s when they engaged Azure and AWS specialists Cloud on Demand to help simplify the cloud migration, optimise the platform and simultaneously help create go-to-market and lead-generation campaigns.

The results? Faster time to market, improved performance and a steady increase in qualified leads that converted into sales. What could have been a slow, complex transition became a growth accelerator.

When it’s time to grow, you know who to talk to.

🚙 Howzit My China. Seems like the recent influx of Chinese vehicles is not just impacting new car sales, it’s also started trickling down into SA’s used car segment. AutoTrader is seeing these brands sell in large volumes, often with low-mileage and pretty young registration ages. Hmm, very interesting.

🤖 Hey there, Baby. BioticsAI, an AI-powered fetal ultrasound company and winner of TechCrunch Disrupt Battlefield 2023, has just received FDA clearance for its AI software that detects fetal abnormalities in ultrasound images. Very cool.

🗞️ Local News’ Language Boost. Google News Initiative has launched a local language pilot for Afrikaans, isiXhosa, isiZulu and Sepedi to provide digital and AI training to community newsrooms across SA. This initiative builds on a R688 million support package from Google and YouTube targeting national and vernacular media. Nice one.

⚽ FIFA’s SA Holiday Home. FIFA has signed a cooperation agreement with SA to set up a FIFA office in Jozi. The move will help strengthen football development in Southern Africa, with the SA offices also supporting neighbouring countries’ football associations. Lekker man.

💬 Sales, Not Spam. Poetry already had the brand and the audience. So Chat Inc turned WhatsApp into a high-conversion sales channel that pulled in 14.8k shoppers to generate R1.58 million in revenue at 269% ROI. Ask them to do the same for you.*

* From our partners. Find all the best service providers for your business in our Founder Stack.

Yesterday, we showed you how the Sleep Health Centre is bringing at-home sleep-health tech to SA, asking how much you sleep at night. Most get a good 8 hours…

🟨🟨🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️ 😵‍💫 Less than 5 hours a night (31%)

🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 🤌 Pretty average 8 hours (52%)

🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🥷 I’m a Nap Ninja and sleep any time I want (3%)

🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🛌I get that full sweet 9 hours, baby (7%)

🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 💀I’ll sleep when I’m dead (7%)

Your 2 cents…

Nice! You’re way more diligent than us, Heike. ⏰

Ha ha. Indeed, CN. Sometimes, we wish we’d been born on the other side of the N1. 🛣️

Young climate innovators (16–28): beVisioneers Mercedes-Benz Fellowship offers mentorship plus up to €20'000 (≈R400k) to scale green projects. Apply by 26 Jan.

Early-stage SA tech founders: Get R40k+ business-building tools, including data, cloud architecture support, legal and hiring vetting, 1-on-1 strategy and coaching sessions, plus free event tickets, Microsoft Marketplace access and more when you join The Founder Collab.

Artisan entrepreneurs (18–35): Allan Gray Makers StartUp Academy offers an 8-month incubation for bricklayers, carpenters, electricians and plumbers. Apply by 30 Jan.

Eastern Cape innovators: TIA Industry Seed Fund supports prototype development (TRL 5–6) for SMEs and researchers — extended deadline: 31 Jan.

TVET youth innovators: Students, StartUpAfrica Innovation Olympiads land in SA on 26 May 2026 — showcase solutions in key economic sectors. Register by 31 Jan.

Want to promote your event/programme here? Let us know.

💡 Tool to Try: PixelMotion turns photos into AI-generated social videos and publishes to every platform in one flow.

📱 That’s Interesting: In 2017, an Asian woman got a refund after her co-worker could repeatedly unlock her iPhone X with Face ID.

🔊 Next Level: Grab a mate for the loudest, cleanest DAP you’ll ever hear.

✈️ Hack: A visual guide of travel hacks to help you holiday like a pro.

🎶 Wow Site: Internet Plays Music lets strangers make music together, one note at a time.

Help us make The Open Letter more useful to you.

Vote in the poll, leave a quick comment, or hit reply — we read every single one.