One call too many {{ FIRSTNAME | there }}? A new SA founder built a local TrueCaller-type app, F-OffMense, that also identifies and blocks spam callers, but sommer lets you hit them with POPIA escalations, too. Mooi man. ☎️

Send this to a friend who never answers their phone.

In This Open Letter

99.6% of taxpayers just accept SARS’s auto-assessment and move on. But how would you know if it were wrong? This SA tax tool now brings all your fin context to the party…

Let’s be honest, SARS’s auto-assessments are genius: A pre-done document to accept or edit is such an obvious thing for a revenue receiver to do (they have all the info anyway, right?).

Just one nagging problem: How would you actually know if it’s right or wrong? It’s the same jargon based on a tax legislation that failed basic general consumer understanding tests.

The modern move

If you’re like us, you’ll probs try getting ChatGPT to help. The problem there being that it’s an international tool that’s better at coding than your personal finances.

And as you know, with AI, context is everything. So who’s gonna sit and train a bot on years and years of personal filings on a system (e-filing) that it can’t see or access?

That’s just the thing. You don’t need to…

The AI that knows your own taxes better than you do

TimAI is a 100% South African, custom-built tax-only AI that integrates with your SARS e-filing profile to help you file and educate you on tax, step by step, in plain English and on WhatsApp.

The power lies in two places:

The future of filing

TaxTim Director Daniel Swiegers says users love TimAI, with some 6’000 unique conversations since launching. And it’s backed up by TaxTim’s dashboard for storing documents, so tax doesn’t become a once-per-year scramble anymore.

We like that you can try it guilt-free: TimAI hasn’t taken any human jobs, it’s creating more – TaxTim’s team has doubled since TimAI came on board.

What’s more: It’s free to try. So, if you get auto-assessed, what’s to lose in letting TimAI try to get you some extra rebate? Register free here.

Why we love it is the use of AI to simplify a field where few people are competent in, yet many have to do it, using AI to do something many hate to do (admin) and finally, potentially saving one a bit of money. Great application of the tech, we’re watching this space…

Visitors land and leave, and "looks fine to me" isn't a diagnosis. SureThing audits SEO, speed, mobile, and messaging against the page, then ranks the fixes by impact.

See the Audit

🛰️ SA Tech in Space. Cape Town’s New Space Systems announced that 100 satellite and auxiliary components by them and 9 other SA companies were aboard SpaceX's Transporter-17 mission last week. SA tech in space, we love to see it!

🤖 Your Customers Prefer ChatGPT Over Your Chatbot. A Gartner survey of 3'566 customers found people are 3× more likely to use third-party GenAI tools than company-provided chatbots for customer service. Hmm, time to rethink customer service.

🎰 200% Surge in SA Gambling Fraud. According to a new report, online gambling fraud in SA more than tripled in 2025. A 200% jump. Yet another reason for SA to try to get a handle on online gambling, asap.

🤝 Rachel Kolisi's Rural Health Project Funded! Binance, the world's largest crypto platform, has stepped in to fully fund Rachel Kolisi's Impilo Project, a healthcare initiative focused on rural communities. Crypto doing some good in SA? Love to see it.

🏆 Engagement That Converts. Studio 88 used WhatsApp competitions to turn attention into action. Chat Inc drove 83% read rates, 23% button clicks and converted nearly 6% of clickers into competition entries. Want that kind of engagement?*

* From our partners. Find all the best service providers for your business in our Founder Stack.

AI can be so useful, but it's impossible just to trust it and let it run. So we got an SA operator who rolled out Claude across two countries to show us how she draws the line between what AI handles alone and what it checks with a human first.

And it turns out, there are 4 specific steps to tell your AI when to loop you in so you can trust it with real work.

☝️ Send this to a founder who needs an AI supercharge.

Bitcoin is defending $64k into a big week. BTC traded near $64'100 on Saturday after a 2.6% weekly rebound, its firmest run since March. The real test is Monday's US CPI inflation print. ETF inflows were positive for only one session, so it's unclear whether buyers can hold the level.

17 global banks are piloting tokenised payments on SWIFT. HSBC, UBS, Wells Fargo and Citi are among 17 banks preparing to pilot live transactions using tokenised digital assets on Swift's new blockchain payments platform. Almost every SA bank uses SWIFT rails for cross-border, so could this come to our shores soon?

Crypto meets TradFi for the next generation. Binance Research's July market insights are out, and Binance SA's Hannes Wessels writes that the convergence of crypto and traditional finance is creating new pathways for the next generation of investors, particularly in emerging markets.

Disclaimer: Digital asset prices can be volatile. The value of your investment may go down or up and you may not get back the amount invested. You are solely responsible for your investment decisions and Binance is not liable for any losses you may incur. Not financial advice. For more information, see our Terms of Use and Risk Warning.

Last week, we showed you Verascient's AI data connector, asking how AI is landing in your business. The verdict? Lots of experiments, very few in production…

🟨🟨🟨🟨⬜️⬜️ 🚀 Scaling it properly, agents and all (27%)

🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 🧪 Plenty of pilots, nothing in production (33%)

🟨🟨🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🗂️ Our data's too scattered for it to work (20%)

🟨🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 👀 Keen, but no clue where to start (13%)

🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🙅 Steering clear for now (7%)

Getting Better Results From Google Ads, 17 Jul, Online: Chantelle unpacks when Performance Max makes sense, what to watch and how to stop wasting budget. Founder Collab members only. Join the Collab.

The Blind Man With Vision: Hein Wagner, 28 Jul, CPT: Born blind, Hein's completed the Ironman, run the Antarctica Marathon, sailed Cape to Rio and set the Blind Land Speed Record twice. A keynote on perspective, resilience and refusing to let circumstances define you. Get tickets.

Led By Her: Tech for Good, 29 Jul, Online: Four female founders on using tech to solve real problems, from breaking into male-dominated industries to leveraging AI to scale impact. Hosted by The Lekker Network. Register free.

Faith in the Workplace, 29 Jul, Stellenbosch: An evening of honest conversations on integrating faith with purpose in business. Guest speakers share personal experiences navigating the workplace while staying rooted in values. Get tickets.

Building & Scaling Venture-Backed Businesses, 30 Jul, Stellenbosch: 150+ founders, investors and operators at Workshack. Panel on raising VC, plus Renier Kriel sits down with Brett Commaille (Hlayisani Capital) on decades of investing in SA startups. Get tickets.

🧩 Tool to Try: Add Car Widgets customises CarPlay with glanceable widgets.

🌍 That's Interesting: Because Mercury lacks an atmosphere, its surface swings from −180°C on its night side to 430°C on its day side. A 610-degree temperature range on one planet. Pack layers.

⚽ Next Level: Watch this guy turn two coins into a golden World Cup ball trinket.

🌌 Wow Site: The newly updated Cosmic Odometer now shows you even more fascinating cosmic data centred around your birthday.