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Ecosystem Predictions for 2026
Happy New Year! We got together and put down some of our team’s biggest hopes and dreams for SA’s startup ecosystem in 2026…
The Open Letter Squad : Elvorne, Claudell, Renier, Nita and Jason
Renier Kriel
CEO, ideas, growth and master of money
SA’s township economy has been misunderstood by businesses for too long. With the likes of GG Alcock and Capitec showing the potential and scale-ups like fibertime connecting residents, this part of the economy is likely to get serious attention and investment in 2026.
SaaS is about to get lit as AI is making it faster and cheaper to build, enabling smaller teams or even solo founders to build competitive SA products, so we don’t have to pay dollar-based rates in SA anymore.
Claudell van Eeden
Our social and events superstar, the only person who does any real work around here
Community-first building will likely see a massive rise as AI lowers the barriers, seeing more people turning their skills to startups, reinforcing the need for support, connection and clarity.
The Open Letter plans to grow and bring bigger, high-value events, deeper insights and create more opportunities for collaboration between startups, investors and partners.
Jason Mill
Wordsmith, interview legend and meme lord
More stuff gets built on WhatsApp: I don’t think it’s going to change any time soon, especially if building solutions aimed at the mass market in SA.
Employee benefits are going to become a serious lever in making employers more attractive. It’s no longer just about medical aid and RAs. We’re already seeing several startups building in the space.
Interviewing 5 startups a week, all building very cool things, Jason will continue to fall in love with every startup we feature (why wouldn't you?).
Nita Theron
Founder Collab and community champion
Communities will become more important as solopreneurship is catching up with people and they’re now looking for accountability and a way to re-engage with others who are building cool things.
We will see more startups solve unsexy problems: logistic bottlenecks, healthcare gaps, compliance, financial ops, etc. The things that are not glamorous but matter in SA.
Elvorne Palmer
The only reason any of these predictions got published
Solidifying early-stage investment and pipelines will (or at least should) be a major ecosystem focus. Finding funders and helping them extract value early is how we power the logical next steps for SA tech and business.
We hope to see more heavy-industry innovation, perhaps starting in 2026, we could see ecosystem maturation from software-heavy innovation to unlocking more opportunities in hardware, cementing SA’s place as Africa’s innovation leaders.
Got your own predictions to share? Reply to this email and let us know, we’d love to hear what you have to say… 🏆
WHEN YOU’RE READY TO GROW
How they expanded from SA to the world
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.
WITH OUR FRIENDS AT DOMMISSE ATTORNEYS
If you’re raising funds in 2026…
Ask: Why do venture capital deals in South Africa take forever?
In the US and UK, they have standardised templates to use, which means faster closings and less legal bloat.
But in SA, you still have stakeholders redlining complex deals on Word docs for weeks.
That’s why VC legal specialists Dommisse Attorneys worked with SAVCA to create open-source model investment documents for South Africa, to give you faster deals, more clarity, and reduce the cost of raising capital.
Want in?
READY FOR A MOVE?
Jobs in Tech
🧑⚖️Senior C#/Angular Full Stack Developer @ LexisNexis Shared Services
📑 Development Team Lead @ Lucro
🩳 Software Developer (Durban) @ LexisNexis Shared Services
🧑💻 Senior Angular Developer @ LexisNexis Shared Services
📊 Full-Stack Engineer: Python @ Cogitait
🍊 Full Stack Developer @ Sun World International
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THANKS FOR READING
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