Need some camo {{ FIRSTNAME | there }}? A cyber defence pro created a pattern that completely baffles surveillance AI. No jokes, he covered a Toyota in the pattern, and it became totally invisible to 11 of the top open-source detection algorithms. Wow. 👨🦯
In This Open Letter
Retail: Sixty60 does nearly 3 deliveries a second.
Local: SA's digital ID prototype and 24-hour visas.
Global: Cognition hits $40bn doing the grunt work.
Tech Jobs: 4 roles at top SA companies hiring now.
Raising: 3 questions to ask before you pitch a VC.
Beyond: The real risk in your AI project (no one shares).
Our Joburg events are mos a vibe 🔥
And this time, we’re introducing you to Barry Swartzberg, one of the co-founders of Discovery, coming to share the story of taking Vitality global.
We’re also bringing 3 Capital Ventures’ Sizwe Nxumalo your way to tell us what separates breakout SA companies from the ones that stall. And how a VC firm looks at your funding request. Plus: Networking, drinks, food, a room full of operators and investors looking to build the future.
Early Bird tickets are available for the next 6 days only.
TRENDING NOW
3 in every 4 grocery app deliveries in SA now come through Sixty60
On Wednesday, Shoprite announced its earnings expectation in a trade update, but it has never said how many deliveries the Sixty60 app actually does. So we worked it out, and the answer is quite astounding…
Sixty60 turned over R25.5bn in the year to 28 June, up 34.5% (to put that into perspective, Takealot is doing ±R18 billion). It's now 9.4% of everything Shoprite sells, and about 43% of all the growth in its SA supermarkets.
We can try to estimate how many deliveries that actually is:
Divide R25.5bn by the estimated median basket of R481; that's 53 million orders a year or 145k per day.
Then work forward from the 10'000-plus drivers on Shoprite's Pingo platform doing about 15 trips each. That's 150k per day.
Those two are close enough that we can bet we're in the right ballpark.
So let's imagine it's around 140k deliveries per day; that's 165 every minute the app is trading, nearly 3 per second.
On share, it isn't a contest: Estimates put Sixty60 at around 75% of SA's on-demand grocery delivery, and Shoprite itself claims more than 80%. Zoom right out, and this single app is somewhere between a sixth and a fifth of every rand South Africans spend online, across every category, against a total online retail market World Wide Worx sized at about R130bn.
Now the number that should make you think
Shoprite's South African supermarkets grew like-for-like sales 2% for the year.
Sixty60 grew 34.5%.
That’s the shops treading water and the app doing all the running, just like we saw the other day with TFG closing stores ‘cos the ROI on digital (Bash) is just so much more worthwhile.
Which means Sixty60 was never really a delivery service. It's 894 existing stores converted into the country's largest distributed fulfilment network. Rivals are now building dedicated dark stores to compete. Shoprite never had to build anything, because the warehouses already existed, already stocked, already staffed, already sitting in the suburbs the orders come from.
Sixty60 currently accounts for 9.4% of Shoprite's revenue and grows at 41% per year on average over the last 2 years. If this trajectory continues, Sixty60 will be bigger than the store operations in terms of revenue by 2034.
What will happen to the stores then? Well, perhaps many will simply go dark.
One thing is for sure: Sixty60 was a defining moment that changed the SA retail landscape forever.
We're watching this space…
Have your say…
CHECK THIS OUT
Describe your problem in one sentence, get a shortlist
Most founder research goes the same way: Six tabs, four review sites that are all affiliate farms, two calls with salespeople who wanted your budget before your problem, and no decision.
So we built the Founder Advisor. You tell it what is actually going wrong, in plain language, the way you would explain it to a mate. It reads that against every company on our stack and comes back with the two or three that fit.
No forms, no demo bookings, no lead score. Just a shorter list and the reason each name is on it.
Try it with the thing you have been putting off.
RAISING IN SA
3 questions to ask before you pitch a single investor
Sizwe Nxumalo from 3 Capital Ventures' simple decision order for anyone weighing a raise:
Tool: Is venture capital even the right kind of money, or would something else let the company become its best self?
Shape: Can this business get big enough, fast enough, and defensible enough that one outcome could move a fund?
Life: Do you actually want the pace, the dilution, the board and the exit?
"If any answer is no, that's not failure. It's clarity," says Sizwe, and it'll save you a year pitching the wrong kind of capital.
IN SHORT
Easing you into the weekend…
🪪 Digital ID, Sort Of. Home Affairs is building a digital ID prototype while it works through public comments. But the department's own performance plan only puts verifiable credentials in a wallet in 2027/28. At least we’re going that way.
🤖 $40bn for the Boring Half. Cognition, the company behind coding agent Devin, is in talks at a $40bn valuation, up 50%+ in under three months on an ARR approaching $1bn. That's a 40x multiple, roughly R720bn. Everyone argued about AI replacing developers while Cognition quietly sold legacy migrations.
🗣️ Talk to Your Groceries. Checkers has added voice, text and image shopping to Pixie inside Sixty60, 98% adoption among Xtra Savings Plus members in three months and 4 million-plus products added to baskets. Ah man, wish we could find out the conversion lift and basket-size delta on that product…
🛂 Visas in 24 Hours. SA's Electronic Travel Authorisation is live at four airports, 216'204 applications processed, approvals inside 24 hours, and a proposed R500 fee cutting the total from R1'975 to R925. Real reform, but it covers tourists and visitors, not the work visas stopping you from hiring overseas talent (yet).
💼 Investor-Ready Finances. Founders raising or reporting to lenders need clean management accounts, not month-end panic. Xero gives you P&L, cash flow and analytics visibility your accountant can plug into. 90% off for 6 months for TOL readers.*
🛍️ Tap to Checkout. The brands turning the most taps into actual sales in SA aren't dumping customers on a homepage and hoping. They're closing the gap between the click and the checkout in a single flow: no browser, no log-in, no drop-off. Something good’s coming.*
* From our partners. Find all the best service providers for your business in our Founder Stack.
WHAT YOU SAID
Another brick...
Yesterday, we showed you Prime Career's guidance platform, asking whether you'd pick the same degree again. Most here say nope…
🟨🟨🟨🟨⬜️⬜️ ✅ Yes, still the right call (33%)
🟨🟨🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🔀 Same field, different route (25%)
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 🔥 Absolutely not, R200k well wasted (42%)
READY FOR A MOVE?
Jobs in Tech
📊 Analyst @ The Open Letter Media Group
🛠️ Full Stack Software Engineer @ LekkeSlaap
🎨 UI/UX Designer @ Wamly
📋 Product Manager @ Takealot Group
BEYOND THE NEWSLETTER
Why do most AI projects fail?
We asked the head at an SA enterprise AI company why AI projects fail. And the answer will probably challenge how you think about AI implementation… 🧠
Don't miss all the extra operator interviews and insights content we do on our social channels — come enjoy the vibez.
LOOKING TO NETWORK?
SA business events coming up
Vienna Global Connection Sip and Paint, 20 Aug, Vienna: Led By Her brings SA women abroad together for paint, drinks and no formal programme. Register for free.
Digital Divas Summit 2026, 28 Aug, Cape Town: Women across business, tech and the creative industries on career growth, AI and visibility. Get tickets.
Venture Summit at LeaderEx, 1 Sept, Sandton: Founders, funders and the people writing the cheques, in one room for a day. Use code TOL at checkout for a free ticket, an Open Letter reader exclusive. Join here.
Powered by Radi. Want your business event in front of 36,000 The Open Letter readers? Host it on Radi, and it lands here.
AROUND THE WEB
Have some fun…
🌒 Next Level: There was a 96% solar eclipse in the UK this week; check out how it's captured on camera.
🌍 Wow Site: Wise Humans asks the world one question per day and reveals the answers only at a specific time.
