It’s holiday time {{ FIRSTNAME }}! 🏖️ So instead of sending daily, we’ve reduced to just 2 sends per week (Tuesdays and Fridays) from now until 12 January and special holiday content for you to enjoy…
SA Startup Winners of 2025
This past year has been a massive one for startup comps, signalling a shift as more and more corporates and orgs recognise the importance of our startups…
1. The AI Making SA Parents so Much Smarter
The problem: With 1.1 million new births a year, less than 14% of SA’s new parents get proper antenatal training.
The solution: Meg Faure’s Parent Sense gives parents clinically vetted support.
The prize: Parent Sense was the overall $1M winner of Big Pitch 2025.
Read more here about the AI parenting advice platform.
2. Investment Tech to Lock Down Your Next Rental
The problem: Not everyone can afford a rental deposit (2+ months’ up front).
The solution: FinTech GraceNineteen’s easy-access, low-interest loans.
The award: GraceNineteen won the Consumer Category in the Investec ESEY Awards.
3. Giving SA Girls Access to Healthy, Affordable Alternatives
The problem: 7.7 million SA women don’t have access to sanitary products.
The solution: Lindiwe Sanitary Pads built a local plant producing 1.5 million affordable pads per month.
The award: Lindiwe Sanitary Pads won the 2025 News24 Lula SME Awards.
4. Helping SMEs Keep Up with Costly Compliance
The problem: CFOs can’t help SMEs because of the workload involved in managing so many separate systems (CIPC, SARS, payroll, etc.)
The solution: Fintura built an AI-powered platform that pulls all that data easily for CFOs.
The award: Fintura was the 2025 Startup World Cup SA Leg winner.
Read more about how Fintura’s bringing smarter accounting to SA.
5. Helping SA Prevent Ecological Disasters
The problem: Gauteng sees 60–350 million litres of acid mine drainage and seepage per day, poisoning groundwater.
The solution: ROC Water Technologies built a piped freeze-crystallisation system that turns it into drinkable water.
The award: ROC Water Technologies won first place in the SA Tech Challenge.
6. Powering AI Translation for SA’s BPO Sector
The opportunity: SA’s BPO sector tripled in revenue and employment, but call centres need better ways to handle multiple languages.
The solution: Botlhale AI built products to help SA call centres service many languages on the phone or chat
The award: Botlhale AI won Innovation City’s Startup of the Year 2025.
Also read about their amazing work in call centre analytics.
These are, of course, just some of the ventures and SMEs that won in 2025 – congrats to you all and everyone we couldn’t mention here.
We can’t wait to see what you’ll do in 2026. 🔥
WITH OUR FRIENDS AT LULA
Taking your SA company global is tough
When Anthony Anti-Corrosion Coatings started getting lots of international business, it actually put them in a tough position: It’s an amazing opportunity, but where does a small SA shop get the capital and cash flow to suddenly start playing across borders?
You have to be able to invest in equipment, expand your team — all things that cost money to get going.
They approached Lula, and instead of box-ticking, Lula took the time to understand the business and backed its vision. Funding enabled new spray booths, new equipment and workforce expansion, while a dedicated Lula relationship manager helped the company plan the next phase of growth.
The result? Stronger cash flow, faster product development and a business ready to scale with confidence. Next stop, the world.
If you need a bank that understands small business, you know who to talk to…
READY FOR A MOVE?
Jobs in Tech
🧑⚖️ Senior C#/Angular Full Stack Developer @ LexisNexis Shared Services
🍊 Full Stack Developer @ Sun World International
🧑💻 Obsolescence Developer @ CyberPro Consulting
📱Application Developer @ CyberPro Consulting
✈️ Data Engineer @ Travelit
OfferZen proudly sponsors Jobs in Tech
The name in SA tech employment for over a decade, OfferZen needs no introduction, and their ability to get you placed is only as legendary as the time, energy and money they save employers in finding top skills.
WITH OUR FRIENDS AT OCTOCO
How to get to market in weeks (not years)
LeaseSurance had validated a powerful idea: replacing rental deposits with an insurance-backed alternative. But building the tech to make that concept scalable and market-ready would normally take months or years.
You have to build tools that do risk profiling, pricing and claims administration, ‘cos you can’t do those manually when you roll out nationwide.
Octoco stepped in and rebuilt the core platform for scale. Manual spreadsheets were replaced with automated, API-driven workflows, accurate risk profiling and streamlined claims processing, making the product commercially viable at volume.
The result? In just 5 months, LeaseSurance went from early validation to a market-ready PropTech platform.
Want to move really fast but still accurately?
THANKS FOR READING
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