Digging the future {{ FIRSTNAME | there }}? A two-year-old startup founded by ex-Waymo engineers now has self-driving excavators doing paid work on real building sites. Seems a fenced-off building site is easier to automate than a busy road, and we reckon SA can do with some of this, too. π
In Today's Open Letter
Squirrel Away: From app to JSE-listed fund in 12 months.
Local: Matrics prep with AI & FNB fined R1m under POPIA.
Global: Anthropic team says itβs ready to finally go public.
Growth Desk: Afrihost cut prices and grew 28x in 4 years.
Work Smarter: Hire above your budget with share options.
π° Does your investor pitch have an invisible hole in it?
Your team wants the raise to work and your advisors are being polite, so how do you get the real feedback you need to be successful?
Peter took his pitch into the Collab and found blind spots he didn't know he had. Omar had deck feedback within 48 hours. That's because the Collab is 218+ founders with no stake in flattering you, just honest feedback so you can build better, faster.
TRENDING NOW
How (and why) Squirrel Away went from startup to JSE-listed fund in 12 months
When we first featured Squirrel Away in Sep '25, they gave parents a way to, instead of birthday gifts, have friends and family put funds towards a money market account for kids β today, it has its own fund listed on the JSEβ¦
Just a year ago, Sibongile (Sibo) Maputla's Squirrel Away app invested the money into other people's financial products (money market, with ETFs and TFSAs on the roadmap), meaning they had to pay management fees, etc. Now it offers four portfolios:
a cash option earning around 6%
the conservative Acorn Shield
a JSE-listed balanced fund
and the aggressive Mighty Oak
Why create their own fund? Yes, it cost them a lot of money and was a lot of effort (it's a startup, after all). But now they can invest and manage the money themselves, which could be a fee/margin play if it grows, but mainly is a trust and credibility play.
Before, the only way to invest was through their app; now their fund's listed and you can buy via EasyEquities, where anyone can buy into a TFSA or RA. Their assets literally grew from R600k before the listing to nearly R5m in roughly a month (founder stated) when they opened that new channel.
All because they were able to publish a video like thisβ¦
The 4 big moves in the last 12 months
1. They got licensed: Squirrel Away secured a Category II licence (founder-stated), making it a discretionary investment manager.
2. They listed a fund on the JSE: The Squirrel Away EasyETFs Balanced AMETF went live in September this year. It was expensive, and Sibo says time will tell if it was the right call.
3. They unitised a stokvel: They're piloting a stokvel where people's share is dynamically adjusted based on their contribution. A smart model for SA β keep an eye on this one.
4. Theyβre piloting payroll savings: A Cape Town hospitality business asked Squirrel Away to offer savings as an employee benefit, with the company matching contributions, so they built it to work with payroll schedule and one EFT, on an account in the employee's name.
The 4 lessons Sibo took from three years of building
Her first answer? You need to be a little stupid to do this (it's not every startup that can go the formalisation route so fast, and you should know Sibo comes from a finance background, which is probs why she was able to).
Her real answers, though:
1. Never lose sight of the vision: The noise doesn't stop: she's had a disappointing investor call followed, an hour later, by a voice note from a customer thanking her for making investing fun. Stay the course.
2. Swap the funding chase for a number you control: Sibo was so worried about money that she obsessed over raising it, and it drained her. Now her target is getting 100 people depositing, so her energy goes into converting them. Her view: build revenue, and the rest falls into place.
3. Stop measuring yourself against your old cohort: Founders she shared programmes with two or three years ago can look miles ahead. Compare yourself to them, and you start thinking nothing's working; then you try everything at once and split your focus.
4. Partner for the skills you don't have: You can't be a jack of all trades. Instead of hiring for AI-driven WhatsApp support and nudges, she's piloting a solution with fellow Google alum Ruka.
What's next for Squirrel Away
Distribution is the job now, and Sibo's role is shifting towards sales and partnerships.
And, in case you didn't know, Squirrel Away was the very first investment by Yenza, the venture studio of our tech partners Octoco β so some kudos to Heinrich and your team of legends, too.
We're watching this spaceβ¦
CHECK THIS OUT
Your cash flow sorted (for free)
An exclusive Open Letter offerβ¦
Profit's great, but cash flow and timing can make or break your business β that's why Finvoke founder Cirsten Claassen says the key to keeping your business alive in SA is:
chasing debtors
stretching supplier terms
keeping accurate forecasts
and reviewing every overhead line
The problem is that the data you need to know when to do what, and how, is locked inside financial reports you normally only get at month-end. So he built a tool called Clarity that pulls the most vital info you need to make better financial decisions now.
It connects to your Xero (with read-only access) and puts the numbers on one screen:
who owes you
how fast your customers actually pay
your supplier payment terms
a 13-week cash forecast
revenue, margins and costs, month by month
And you can activate it right now for free: Cirsten's giving the first 5 Open Letter readers who apply a free month of Clarity.
Simply use code FINCLAR00 in the message section of the "contact us" form.
THE GROWTH DESK
3 things to help you build a better business
Grow by focusing on creating value. Afrihost's broadband barely sold at R55/GB in 2009, so the team spent its advertising budget on cutting the price to R29/GB. Thousands signed up in weeks, and it grew from a R14 million hosting company to a R400 million ISP in four years. See how.
Grow by putting all your brands under one roof. TFG pulled its 40-odd brands into one app, Bash, and online sales grew 49% last year. The CEO's maths: that extra R1.1 billion would have needed over 100 new shops and about R500 million to build. See the maths.
Get fraud protection built by 26 million clients. Before an EFT leaves your Capitec account, the recipient is scored in real time using reports from other clients who flagged them. That stopped R699 million in fraud and protected 113'410 people in a year. Protect your finances.
Capitec proudly sponsors The Growth Desk
Whether you're starting out or scaling up, Capitec Business offers simple, accessible banking solutions designed to support your business journey.
IN SHORT
Hot off the press in business and techβ¦
π¦ FNB Fined R1m Under POPIA. The Information Regulator fined FNB after its app let 696 customers see othersβ home loans, and the bank ignored two warnings. The fine is small for a bank. The lessons for every business arenβt.
π Matrics Are Studying With AI. As finals run, an Oxford survey found 66% of learners use AI chatbots to prepare for exams, SA included. The catch: nearly one in five SA learners lacks a device somewhere they need one.
π Anthropic Files For Its IPO. The company behind Claude has filed to list under the ticker ANT, reporting about R268bn in first-half revenue, up from roughly R20bn a year ago. Its founders keep 50.1% of the votes, so a share won't buy you much say.
π From Data to Decisions. Siloed reporting and messy data make AI impossible. Praelexis AI has spent 13 years helping finance, health, retail and agriculture teams turn data into action, through AI strategy, data integration and GenAI implementation that fits the business.*
π§βπΌ Straight To A Senior Expert. Not sure whether you need cloud optimisation, modern working, or both? That's what the meeting is for: a senior expert works it out and gets the right person on it. No call centres. No juniors. Just the pros who do the work. Book your meeting.*
* From our partners. Find all the best service providers for your business in our Founder Stack.
WHAT YOU SAID
Organised chaosβ¦
We featured Clara AI's SME operating system and asked where your business admin actually lives. And most here say six tools, none of them talking to each otherβ¦
π©π©π©π©π©π© π Six tools, none of them talking to each other. (72%)
π¨β¬οΈβ¬οΈβ¬οΈβ¬οΈβ¬οΈ π§ Mostly in my head. Don't ask my team. (14%)
π¨β¬οΈβ¬οΈβ¬οΈβ¬οΈβ¬οΈ π₯ My inbox is the system. Send help. (14%)
WORK SMARTER
Can't afford the hire you need? Offer them ownershipβ¦
Most SA startups can't match the salaries top people earn elsewhere. Share options let you offer ownership instead, but be careful how you set them up, 'cos the wrong move might cost you an investment. We asked a startup attorney how to do it properly.
And it turns out, there are 5 steps to use share options to hire talent you can't afford.
STARTUP OPPORTUNITIES
Need a lil' bit of help?
Black-owned business with a founder aged 18 to 35? Absa's R12m Youth Entrepreneurship Fund offers grants you don't repay, and that take no equity, plus mentorship and market access. Closes 31 Oct. Apply now.
EdTech startup getting young people into work? Injini's equity-free EdTech for Employment programme takes five SA ventures through six months of mentorship, youth user testing and funder introductions. Closes 6 Nov. Apply now.
Agritech startup with an MVP? UNDP's timbuktoo Launchpad takes African agritech teams into structured incubation, mentorship and investor-readiness support, with a new cohort every quarter. Apply now.
Need more than just advice? The Founder Collab bundles R40k+ in tools, cloud credits, legal sessions and a curated founder community into one membership for SA tech builders. Join now.
Want free AI skills training? Google Hustle Academy 2026 offers one-day bootcamps and 60-min webinars for SA entrepreneurs and SME owners. Register for free.
Want to promote your event/programme here? Let us know.
AROUND THE WEB
Let it goβ¦
𧩠Tool to Try: CheckoutJoy lets you sell your Kajabi, Thinkific or Teachable course in rands, with PayFast and Paystack at checkout. Free 14-day trial.
πͺ That's Interesting: After WWII, Japanese general Hitoshi Imamura served his war crimes sentence until 1954, then decided it was too light. So he built a replica prison in his garden and locked himself up in it until he died in 1968.
