Reading on mobile {{ FIRSTNAME | there }}? Our friends over at Fibertime created a cool little kasi-themed game you can play here to become a township legend. Can you beat our high score?

Send this to a friend to challenge them to a kasi-off.

In This Open Letter:

SA’s 250k minibus taxis move 80% of our public transport users (about 3.7 million) per day, yet the entire network has zero real-time information – so these two locals built an app that turns the commuters into the tracking system…

Getting a taxi in SA hasn’t changed in decades: A commuter stands somewhere along their desired route and waits. 10 minutes, 40 – who knows.

Some have tried bringing GPS tracking, digital payments, ride-hailing and smart fleet management tech into the sector, but the sector’s resistant to change, lacks infra and there’s regulation to get around.

And obvs, it’s the commuters who suffer. Until now…

Turning commuters into the tracking system

Uthutho is a community-powered public transport app that gives commuters real-time visibility on taxis without needing a single operator to opt in.

Commuters arrive at their stop, marking themselves as waiting for their taxi. Geofencing verifies they're actually there. When someone on the same route starts moving, GPS broadcasts their progress to everyone waiting along that line. 

There’s no hardware in the taxi, and no driver opt-in is necessary. The commuters' phones are the sensors.

For Shaqeel Less, who built Uthutho with Makhi Mangxola out of UWC's Future Innovation Lab, the idea started as a basic question: How far is the taxi? 

They floated it at Google DevFest, got crowd validation, and built it.

Onto the world champs

The app is already live on the Play Store with around 300 users, primarily university students in Cape Town. Routes are pulled from City of Cape Town data, with community-suggested stops validated through in-app polls. 

Privacy is baked in with journeys showing headcounts rather than names.

Beyond taxis, the team is building school transport tracking, giving parents Uber-like visibility with live tracking of their child's driver, notifications on pickup and drop-off, with buses and trains on the future roadmap.

Earlier this year, Uthutho won Red Bull Basement South Africa 2026. And, later today (Wed 3 July), they’ll be flying the SA flag at the World Finals in San Francisco, against winners from 40+ countries for $100,000 in equity-free funding. LET’S GOOOO!!!! 🇿🇦

We're watching this space…

Who still thinks e-commerce only happens on websites?

A new Stitch report shows 26.9% of SA e-commerce sales now happen through social commerce channels, with WhatsApp Commerce hosting the bulk of transactions in the informal economy.

But here's what's really clever:

✅ The entire purchase journey is in one app
✅ WhatsApp doubles as customer acquisition for 74% of informal SMEs
✅ AI agents are starting to transact on behalf of consumers

Township entrepreneurs are already running full storefronts via WhatsApp: Customers send a pin location, order via chat, and pay on delivery.

What would you build on WhatsApp today?

🤖 Claude's Creators Go Public. Anthropic, the company behind AI chatbot Claude, has filed for a US IPO. It last raised at a $965 billion valuation in late May, putting it ahead of rival OpenAI. Big year: SpaceX going public, and now the largest AI company follows.

🔗 Yoco x stub = Lekker. Yoco and the homegrown accounting platform stub have enabled a direct integration, connecting Yoco's sales data with stub's accounting to automate reconciliations. Love to see it!

🔓 AI Hacked Instagram. Hackers hijacked Instagram accounts by tricking Meta's own AI support chatbot into giving them access. Even the old Obama-era White House handle started posting again (thanks to hackers). Eina.

📡 Wi-Fi 8 Lands. TP-Link’s new Archer 8 router arrives in October to bring Wi-Fi 8 to SA, thanks to Icasa’s new spectrum rules. But don’t expect massive leaps in gigabit speeds; Wi-Fi 8’s focus shifts from speed to reliability. Yeah, we can do with that.

👷 Teams Kitted Out. Hiring physical operations, site, warehouse or field teams? Jonsson Workwear has supplied durable workwear, footwear and PPE to South African businesses since 1955 — online ordering, national stores and tools to manage staff sizes, departments and repeat orders.*

📰 10'000 ICPs, Opened. The team behind The Open Letter now builds done-for-you newsletters for B2B scale-ups — 10'000 ICPs who open, read and trust you every week, before your sales team even picks up the phone. Learn more.*

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

As you grow, you need a cap table management platform that you can trust to keep up. 

From issuing grants to 409A valuations or ASC 718 reporting, Pulley gives you the tools to manage equity. Experience a platform built for you: transparent, reliable, and designed to put your company first.

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Yesterday, we featured Veylt secure messaging, asking how private your work conversations really are. Most here just WhatsApp away…

⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🔒 End-to-end encrypted everything, I'm covered (4%)

🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 📱 WhatsApp for everything, not concerned (35%)

🟨🟨🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🤷 Never really thought about it TBH (22%)

🟨🟨🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️ 😬 Our company Slack sees all, and I'm scared (22%)

🟨🟨🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🕵️ I have conversations I genuinely need to protect (17%)

Hmm, guess the real question is: Does your comfort level match your actual risk? 🔐

Most founders battle with cold sales outreach because the space is just so saturated. So we brought in a sales automation expert to show us how it's done.

Turns out there are 3 concrete steps you can take to get a list of warm sales prospects with Apollo.

☝Send this to a friend who needs a warm intro. 😎

Hardware founder building for climate? Savant's Build Cohort 4 offers up to R1.6m in grant funding for deep-tech climate hardware founders: 3 months in Cape Town, applications close 15 June. Apply now.

SA tech founder just getting started? The Founder Collab wraps R40k+ in tools, legal sessions, cloud credits and a curated founder community into one monthly membership. Join now.

MVP-stage African startup? GEC+Africa 2026 is picking 10 finalists to pitch live in Cape Town — investors, ecosystem enablers and the full stage. Register now.

Women-led venture going continental? KPMG's Female Founders in Africa Competition brings resources, mentorship and networks to help you scale. Apply now.

Young agri founder in an AU country? GoGettaz puts up to $50k behind agribusiness builders — pitch live in Rwanda in September. Closes 28 June. Apply now.

Want free AI and digital skills training? Google Hustle Academy 2026 is open: one-day bootcamps and 60-min webinars for SA entrepreneurs, students and SME owners. Register for free.

🧩 Tool to Try: Zaplens spots issues with your UX before users do.

💁 That's Interesting: Oprah Winfrey's real given name was Orpah, after a biblical figure. People couldn't pronounce it, so it became Oprah. Arguably the most valuable mispronunciation in history.

🐳 Next Level: Check out the actual size difference between a humpback and a blue whale. Ees beeg.

🧱 Wow Site: Wall lets you claim one of 400 squares to draw, write or drop live code in. First-come first-served.