Peak performance? Bafana Bafana is on a 23-game unbeaten run and qualified for the 2026 FIFA World Cup in the US and Canada. First time in 24 years, nogal!

In Today’s Open Letter

New and small companies battle to get business funding – this marketplace is working to get SMEs the dough to grow…

For SMEs, capital can be the difference between sinking and swimming. Yet despite employing over 60% of South Africans and kicking in 40% of our GDP, SMME funding rejection rates are staggering: nearly 40% seeking loans under R250k are rejected outright, causing a R350 billion funding gap.

With around 3 million SMMEs operating in SA, 82% of them informal, so the vast majority still operate outside the systems designed to help them grow. So even the most promising new ventures never even make it past “no.” 

The capital exists, though, it just never finds the right door.

The SMME marketplace connecting the dots

BIG Marketplace is a digital ecosystem helping South African SMEs become fundable by turning business readiness, compliance and credibility into a measurable score investors can trust.

This BIG Score is a composite, dynamic credibility measure made of compliance, leadership, governance, capital readiness and legitimacy metrics. 

SMEs fill in one universal profile with foundational business data once; that becomes their passport to trade, to funding, to advisory, to matches. If your score is < 80% you can get targeted feedback (by a nifty AI coach) on exactly what to fix next, before you can apply.

Once you hit eligibility, you see funders whose criteria align (ticket size, sector, stage) and can apply directly through the platform. On the supply side, investors see BIG-vetted prospects, with considerable pre-work done.

Unlocking growth capital

We met BIG Marketplace founder Thando Moutlana at a conference recently, and she describes what they’ve built as “the first true SME ecosystem.” Rather than another lending app, BIG Marketplace asks: what does a high-potential business need to cross from aspirant to investable?

It’s more than money matchmaking, also providing tools such as templated contracts, KPI suites, dashboards and even connecting SMEs with interns or advisors. 

And, over time, the plan is to roll out APIs with government registries to reduce manual uploads and continuously update compliance documents. 

What remains to be seen is not whether SMEs deserve access to capital, but whether mechanisms of trust can be engineered well enough (and at scale) to make that a reality.

We’re watching this space.

Want your own ChatGPT clone for $100? AI guru Andrej Karpathy’s created nanochat, a repo that walks you through training + deploying a working LLM agent from scratch in mere hours.

Need enterprise-ready AI without the dev team? Google’s betting the AI battle will go to whoever makes it easiest and fastest to use, so they launched Gemini Enterprise to let your team build internal AI agents via drag-and-drop — priced for startups too.

Testing Sora alternatives? Microsoft just dropped MAI-Image-1, a new image model specifically focused on realism, lighting and photorealistic detail. Hmm, intriguing…

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

If you’re a SaaS founder in South Africa right now, you probably recognise this:

You’re not alone — most SaaS startups on Azure overpay by 10–30%. 

That’s why Cloud On Demand built a local Independent Software Vendor (ISV) program that gives SaaS startups a free, no-strings-attached cloud cost review, run by real Azure architects. They’ll show you exactly where you’re wasting money and what to change to fix it.

No lock-in. No bait-and-switch. Just clarity on where your cash is going.

If you’re bootstrapped, scaling or watching margins, this is one of the smartest 30-minute calls you can make.

📱 Need For Speed. MTN is SA's best mobile network with an unbeatable 9.95 quality score, leaving Cell C, Vodacom, Telkom and Rain trailing. The results are based on over 300’000 speed tests. Nice.

🎙️ Podcasts’ Streaming Dreams. Spotify plans to launch its growing video podcast library on Netflix in 2026, tapping into a 20x growth rate in video consumption. Nice. More stuff to scroll through before rewatching an episode of your fav show…

📦 Sixty60’s Massive Milestone. The Shoprite Group's delivery platform, Sixty60, just hit 100 million orders since its 2019 launch! A whopping 27% surge in digital customers fueled this milestone, with 48% revenue growth hitting R18.9 billion in 2025. Mega.

🤑 Locals Only. OpenAI's latest move aims to charm South African users with a new plan, ChatGPT Go, and Rand pricing across all plans. The new option cuts costs by 75%, now going for a cool R149/month. Lekker man, lekker.

✅ The Stack. Founders need reliable tools and suppliers. That’s why our Founder’s Stack gives you your own CFO for a fraction of the cost with OCFO, WhatsApp marketing with 2'000% ROI powered by Chat Inc, and loads more vital startup tools & services.

Takealot Fulfilment Solutions (TFS) offers smart logistics that scale with your business, combining freight forwarding, courier, on-demand and supply-chain services into a single, end-to-end partner.

With import and export lanes across 20+ origin countries and a national network serving 170+ areas and 185 delivery hubs, TFS connects global sourcing to fast local delivery.

The platform features advanced tech integrations for real-time tracking and optimisation, backed by a 98% on-time delivery rate, so brands gain visibility and reliability across every touchpoint.

Whether you’re an:

✅ Importer
✅ Exporter
✅ Retailer
✅ or Marketplace seller…

TFS reduces complexity, lowers costs and accelerates growth through tailored fulfilment solutions and measurable performance.

The team provides consultative planning, customs expertise and scalable warehousing so businesses of every size can access dependable, transparent logistics.

Partner with TFS to simplify logistics end-to-end, from ocean lanes to doorstep.

Yesterday, we showed you how NexusIntel is advancing transparent compliance pricing, asking if compliance was a person, who they’d be. Most favour the persistent intern…

🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 👮 An overzealous hall monitor (15%)

🟨🟨🟨🟨⬜️⬜️ 📚 That teacher who loved homework (30%)

🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🧙 The wizard guarding your FICA scrolls (10%)

🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 🧑‍💼 The intern who won’t stop asking for your ID copy (45%)

Capitec dominates SA’s banking footprint — with more ATMs than all rivals combined.

Here’s how the big five banks stack up:

💡 Capitec has 880 branches and 8'798 ATMs — serving 24 million customers.

💡 FNB, SA’s biggest banking employer, has 630 branches and 4'771 ATMs for 12 million clients.

💡 Absa has the fewest branches (616), but operates the second-largest ATM network at 5'138.

The mix perhaps reveals strategies: Capitec’s doubling down on reach and accessibility, while others balance footprint with digital expansion.

🛠️ Tool to Try: Protein Pilot is an AI-powered nutrition app that helps improve your protein intake.

🎸 That’s Interesting: Nine Inch Nails lead singer Trent Reznor loved Johnny Cash’s cover of the song Hurt so much he said "that song isn't mine anymore”.

🐐 Next Level: Watch Lionel Messi curl in an amazing cross in the US league this past weekend.

🗣️ Hack: Before signing a contract, read it out loud — your brain catches things in audio that eyes might miss.

🐱 Wow Site: Cat Age Check helps you settle how-old-is-my-cat-in-human-years debates.

Vote in the poll, leave a quick comment, or hit reply — we read every single one.