🦓 The Best Place to Build a Startup...
🦓 The Best Place to Build a Startup...
Plus: Kenya’s solar road trip 🛵, SA’s investment boom & SA goods on Amazon.
Celebrating SA? Don’t forget this Heritage Week you get free entry to Cape Nature parks for some swimming, hiking, mountain biking — whatever you fancy.
And more good news: the price of braaibroodjies is stabilising — see Johann Biermann’s braaibroodjie index. It’s a South African food inflation indicator, showing that, while the cost of braaibroodjies has increased year on year, we are at least in better space than January! If you needed more reason to light a fire, there you go… you’re welcome.
All in all, a good time to be living and building in SA…
In this Open Letter:
- Heritage special: The best place to build a startup.
- Kenya’s solar road trip, SA’s investment boom & SA goods on Amazon.
- Where people buy their clothing: And the results are in.
- Startup fuel: Share this once and get 100+ startup ideas!
- Save: Get 50% off The Open Collab this week!
TRENDING NOW
Happy Heritage Day!
We’re doing things a little differently today since it’s a Public Holiday, and many of us might be taking it easy – especially if you were strategic and took yesterday off as well.
So let’s just take a minute to celebrate…
The Best Place to Build a Startup
Building a Startup in SA is special…
We’re exposed to some unique challenges and limitations – but that also means we’re perfectly poised to build really powerful, solutions that solve these uniquely South African challenges.
And, naturally, we at The Open Letter have developed a pretty in-depth overview of the SA startup scene over the years. We have
- Interviewed hundreds of founders and builders over the last 2 years.
- Shared 160+ deep-dives into SA ventures, industries and opportunities.
- Published 129+ podcasts featuring SA founders, investors and PMs.
- Collected/curated preferential services, deals and tools for SA founders.
- Built an engaged community of SA founders, investors, developers and startup pros.
The best part of what we do? Seeing South Africans come up with really unique solutions to some of our most complex problems. So, to celebrate, here are some of our favourites…
1. The last-mile play that’s keeping SA rolling
Local Rent-to-Own bike startup Bike2Own have more than 400 riders earning between R2’600 and R6’000 per week, renting their delivery bikes from Bike2Own for anything between R650 to R850 per week. And after 18 months, the bike becomes theirs.
(Pssst… something pretty cool happens to about 60% of the riders once they’ve paid off their bikes – read the full Open Letter on SA’s rent-to-own bikes).
2. Connecting more SA townships for cheaper and faster
Many people in townships have two mobile devices – 1 cheaper, lower-spec phone for travelling and a 2nd higher-end device that stays at home because it’s mainly used for entertainment.
Unfortunately, the internet speeds available in townships haven't kept up with the demand for streaming.
Until now. fibertime, a Stellenbosch-based township internet provider, financed and installed Wi-Fi devices in 880 homes in Kayamandi, Stellenbosch, at no charge to the occupants, giving residents the ability to purchase Wi-Fi connectivity at R5 per day with speeds of up to 100Mbps. Learn more about it in this edition of The Open Letter.
3. Helping 15m+ South Africans combat the debt trap
Debt is a massive issue in South Africa, with some 62% of people’s incomes going towards servicing their debt. Local HRTech Jem is leveraging WhatsApp to provide a powerful Earned Wage Access (EWA) product that helps employees access the part of their wages/salary they’ve already earned so far that month. Check out the Jem feature in this Open Letter on financial inclusion tech.
4. The future of learning built right here in SA.
Local EdTech Lessonspace is building a virtual classroom, online tutoring & collaborative learning platform with a collaborative digital whiteboard which teachers and tutors can use to make notes, draw drawings, and explain concepts.
A key differentiator is Lessonspace’s set of education-specific tools built specifically for a wide range of subject matter - find out which subjects in this previous edition of The Open Letter on digital classrooms in SA.
5. Curing 2.5 million people with AI
Tuberculosis (TB) kills 153 people in South Africa every day, partly because it’s so hard to detect.
Local MedTech AI Diagnostics are revolutionising TB screening with their AI-enabled digital stethoscope that captures and analyses a patient’s lung sounds to help diagnose if that patient has TB. (Find out how it works in this Open Letter.)
These are just a few of the local startups we’ve recently featured building powerful solutions for South African problems – there are 160 more right here.
But founders: you don’t have to go it alone…
Of course, building in a special place requires special people… And developing a new business is as tough and lonely as it is rewarding. And right here in SA, we are changing that.
The Open Collab (previously known as The Open Letter PRO) is a thriving startup community of more than 50 South African founders and operators building together. In The Open Collab, founders get to…
- Connect with other local founders.
- Access a broader network in order to make progress faster.
- Learn nuanced skills like B2B Sales and Product in a South African context.
- Get access to experts who have done it before and be able to ask them questions and engage with them.
- Book 1-on-1 coaching sessions with startup specialists.
- Get deep dives into the business models and workings of all the startups we feature.
- Find up to 3 auxiliary opportunities to work with every startup we feature in every newsletter (twice per week — that 6+ real SA business ideas, every week).
We have some fantastic workshops lined up (did someone say B2B sales?!) exclusive to members of the community and we would like to make our circle bigger by offering 50% off this week.
Join For 12 Months, Get 50% Off
We’re doing a special Heritage Day Sale where you can join The Open Letter Collab for R2’500 for 12 months (our normal price is R5’000). Head over to The Open Collab page, choose the annual plan and use promo code HERITAGE (valid until Friday)
We’re bullish on startups and bullish on South Africa. It’s why we’re building The Open Letter to be the leading startup publication and hub in South Africa with all of you. We’re watching this space…
IN SHORT
🪴 Growing Startups. The British High Commission’s UK-SA Tech Hub has awarded an undisclosed amount in its third round of funding (with previous rounds reaching R2 millie) to assist high-growth start-ups in South Africa by propelling the SA Start-up Act Movement’s efforts.
🇿🇦 Proudly Mzansi. Amazon.co.za has launched the ‘Shop Mzansi’ storefront which houses more than 160 brands from new, emerging, and established South African businesses to make it easier for South African customers to find products from these local small businesses.
🛵 Sun Scooting. A solar-powered electric motorbike designed and built by Roam, a Kenyan electric mobility company will travel around 6’000kms from Nairobi to Stellenbosch in South Africa, in October. The partnership between Roam and Researchers from the Faculty of Engineering at Stellenbosch University (SU) will see the Roam Air arrive at SU on October 18 for its Electric Mobility Day.
🤑 Local Investing. South Africa is seeing an investment boom in the 100+ days after the formation of its business-friendly coalition government. ArcelorMittal decided against closing two steel plants, Qatar Airways bought a stake in SA Airlink, Toyota opened a $70 million auto parts facility, and Anglo American announced a $625 million iron-ore investment.
🛏️ Fancy Staying. Two South African hotels (and the only ones from Sub-Saharan Africa) have cracked the nod for the 2nd edition of the World’s 50 Best Hotels. The Mount Nelson in Cape Town came in at 28 (and was also crowned Best Hotel in Africa), while Singita Kruger National Park took the 44th place.
😎 The Stack. Founders need tools and suppliers they can trust. Check out our Founder’s Stack with zero-monthly-fee bank accounts and business loans with Lula and specialist small- and medium-sized business accounting software for less with Xero.
What You Said…
We asked where you buy your clothing, and it’s the usual suspects…
🟨🟨🟨🟨🟨⬜️ 🇿🇦 Local Proudly South African brands (26%)
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 🛍️ SA’s usual fashion retailers (Mr Price, Ackermans etc) (29%)
🟨🟨🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️ 👠 International chains (H&M, Zara etc) (17%)
🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 👜 High-end fashion labels (9%)
⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🤩 Novelty tees with funny illustrations (2%)
🟨🟨🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🧵 In this economy, I’ve taken up sewing to make my own clothes (17%)
Your 2 cents…
“Actually, I do a mix of all of the above :) ”
Joanne
Nice, healthy balance, Joanne. 🤸
“Bring on the classic Cape Union and Old Khaki! ;-)”
Herman
Hey, way to go local, Herman. 🧭
“I have bought off Shein mainly over the past 3 years as they have more variety than local stores and they are more cost effective.”
Michelle
Money-smart, Michelle. Hope you don’t get impacted by extra tax… 👠
“I've kept my clothes so long its back in fashion...”
Bzaar
He he, nice one Bzaar, keeping and maintaining your clothes is an art form. 🪡