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In This Open Letter

Only 8.7% of South Africans speak English at home, yet every language-learning app uses English as its base – this new venture teaches SA languages in SA languages, natively…

For a country with 11 official languages, building language-learning on an English-first approach is just copying a design flaw baked into every platform built for Western markets. 

And research shows learners tested in their home language score dramatically higher than peers tested in a second language. So using English as your language middleman isn't just unnecessary, it's actually making learning harder for users.

The local app that drops the middleman

Sawubona is a mobile language learning app built for all 11 of SA's official languages, in any combination. A Sepedi speaker can learn isiZulu directly. A Setswana speaker can pick up Afrikaans. No English required.

For years, anyone trying to build this hit the same wall: AI voice models sounded like robots attempting click consonants. The pronunciation tech simply wasn't there. But that's shifted: ElevenLabs now supports 70+ languages, including Afrikaans, and its speech synthesis handles the specific nuances of SA languages, including the click consonants in isiXhosa and isiZulu, at a level that actually holds up.

That technical unlock is what let founder Henrico Bekker, who'd been sitting on the idea for years, finally build it.

But Sawubona goes beyond pronunciation. There's a cultural layer that teaches what no phrasebook covers: What to bring up at a Zulu gathering, what to avoid at an Afrikaans braai, how family structures differ across cultures, etc. 

Because knowing the words without knowing the context is only half the conversation.

On the southern tip of a continent with over 2’000 languages, around 95% of which are excluded from AI development entirely, Sawubona is building language-learning for the SA that actually exists, right now.

We're watching this space…

Have your say…

Most South African companies outsource their technology to dev shops. And most dev shops do the same thing: they write software. Need an app or dashboard? No problem.

But the moment your product enters the physical world (a sensor that communicates with your platform, a connected device, a piece of custom hardware), most partners hit a wall. They weren't trained for it. They don't have the team for it. And they'll quietly scope it out or sub it to someone you've never met.

Here's the thing: The most interesting tech products being built in SA right now sit at the intersection of hardware and software. Smart energy systems. Agricultural monitoring tools. Connected security devices. Medical instruments.

These aren't apps, they're engineered systems. And if your tech partner can't think in circuits and code simultaneously, you're building on a shaky foundation.

The question isn't whether your next product will need deeper engineering. It's whether your current partner can deliver it.

😎 Now Everyone Can Get Their Hustle On. Google’s Hustle Academy programme is now open to everyone, from employees, students, job-seekers and entrepreneurs across Sub-Saharan Africa for immersive AI skills bootcamps.

💸 SA Ventures Sold for Billions. We often hear there are no big exits in SA, but this couldn't be further from the truth. In the past 5 years, not one, not two, but eleven SA startups were sold for R billions. It’s happening all the time.

🔐 Anthropic's Goes Bug Hunting. Anthropic has launched Project Glasswing, giving select partners like Apple, Microsoft, Google, Nvidia and Amazon exclusive access to its unreleased zero-day vulnerability-spotting Mythos Preview model. Ohkkkaaaaaayyyyyy!!!!

🧚 PixtiePixtie. ShopriteX has just dropped an AI-powered shopping assistant in the Sixty60 app called Pixie. Pixie is a personalised recommendation engine that uses a shopper’s history and patterns to show them potential products they can swipe Tinder-style. Cute man.

📄 Still Not Registered? Last year, the government shut down 15'000 informal businesses for compliance failures. This free guide breaks down exactly when you should register your business in SA and why waiting too long can quietly kill your growth.*

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

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Yesterday, we showed you Insure110's AI policy reader, asking whether you actually read your insurance Ts & Cs. Turns out most here do, but not sure why…

⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 👀 Every line. I've been burned badly before (9%) 

🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🤷 Nah, that stuff's pretty standard, right? (17%) 

🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🤔 Surely that's what my broker is for? (15%) 

🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 🤯 I do, but whether I know what's going on is another story (59%)

Your 2 cents…

Honestly, this should be on a plaque in every insurance office in the country, CN. 🏆

🧑‍💻 Lead Android Developer

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We asked one SA founder why he walked away from a comfortable corporate role to build something from scratch — and his answer is refreshingly simple…

Don’t miss all the extra operator interviews and insights content we do on our social channels — come enjoy the vibez.

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