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New place? This international startup creates new rental market revenues by charging potential tenants to view properties. Yeah, most people think it’s crazy, but they also do 10-30 apartment tour packages, offer pre-approval and a host of handy financial services (plus benefits to landlords). Hmm… sounds like a model we should deep dive on… What do you think?

Hit reply and let us know…

Sending money across borders used to be complex, but startups are finding ways to do it much cheaper and faster...

South Africa controls how much money can leave the country to protect the rand. Citizens can send up to R1 million a year without approval (but it must be recorded), and up to R10 million with Reserve Bank approval.

Here’s the thing, though: SA has around 2.4 million migrants and expats working here and sending a little bit of money to help keep their families alive back home. When they send the money, they need to use a SARB-approved provider with a category 2 ADLA license.

And that can get pricey.

It’s expensive sending Rands overseas

According to the World Bank, sub-Saharan Africa has the highest remittance costs in the world. Sending Rands out of the country costs a pretty penny. Fees start at R50 — sometimes more than the money being sent — plus 1–2% forex charges.

Why so expensive? Regulation requires middlemen, systems like SWIFT and banks on both sides, which all add onto the fees, easily costing R250-R500 a transaction.

The problem

Those rules might help manage capital flight from the wealthy, but for migrant workers supporting families hand-to-mouth, it makes no sense.

If sending R50 costs R50, how does anyone get help?

Not to mention that traditional bank lines take 2–3 days to clear. There’s gotta be a better way, right?

The local player bringing a smart solution

SA solution headquartered in the UK, Zeam, uses stablecoins (that they created on the Stellar network) to let migrant workers send, save and spend without losing value. Peer-to-peer transactions are near-instant and 100% free — there’s only a cashout fee of around 1% (1.5% in Malawi and Zim).

For Zeam, keeping those fees low relies on them building a big network of redeemers fast, so they can avoid expensive cash conversions. But a bigger play would be to build a network of merchants across Africa that accept Zeam as currency, where merchants can offer cashbacks to Zeam for sending customers their way.

Bold play, but if they pull it off, it will be massive. We caught up with Zeam CEO Louis van Biljon recently, and while Zeam only launched in 2024, they already have over 60k users and rising. Looks like they’re onto something. We are watching this space…

“We’re burning through cash and can’t explain half the Azure bill.”

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📦 News24alotMore! TakealotMORE subscriptions now come with free News24 access and MVP Days (Black Friday-like sales exclusive for members)! Just as competition heats up from Amazon and Temu. Looks like the battle for your online shopping heart is only getting started.

🚀 Google's $2.4 Billion Talent Grab. Google is pulling out the cheque book, acquiring licenses and top tech wizards from AI startup Windsurf for a cool $2.4 billion. Windsurf's CEO and co-founder will now join Google's DeepMind, right after OpenAI's purchase deal collapsed. It’s interesting – no equity involved, just talent and ideas. Hmm, talent wars in AI are heating up.

💸 Payday Power Play. Earned wage access startup, Paymenow, has secured a $22.5 million working capital facility from Standard Bank. PayMeNow uses its facility to onlend wages to users. So the bigger the facility, the more loans they can issue, and the more money they make.

📞 Spam Calls Battle Upgraded. South Africa is introducing new rules for telemarketers under the POPI Act. As of April 2025, companies must secure better consent for using personal data, and opt-out just won’t cut it anymore. It’s like 2020’s POPIA intro sent spam calls into overdrive.

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Last Friday, we told you about SA’s R28 million snake antivenom opportunity, asking what the best thing is about snakebites. No surprise, most agree they’d die before a snake gets ‘em…

⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🛌 The couple of weeks of sick leave, bed rest, and catching up on Severance (3%)

🟨🟨🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🔥 The story you get to tell around the campfire (27%)

🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🦸 The Superpowers you develop, Snakeman/Snakewoman (13%)

🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 💰 The money you can make from selling the antibodies (10%)

⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🤷 Well, I guess that’s one way to cure my fear of snakes (3%)

🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 🚫 I’ll never know: I’d die before the snake even touches me (43%)

Your 2 cents…

He he, we read ‘car’ the first time, Chris. Still rolling. 🤣