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In This Open Letter
EdTech: His university battles built SA's lecturer OS.
Local: Nedbank's 5-min loans & Lewis crushes JSE
Global: Why publishers can now opt out of AI search.
Tech Jobs: 6 new SA dev & data roles up for grabs.
Beyond: How local startups think about going global.
Work Smarter: How to get investors to come to you.
South of Series A — new episode just dropped!
Our weekly comic strip about life in a Cape Town startup is waiting at the bottom of this email — don't miss it. 👇
TRENDING NOW
His Uni Battles Built SA’s Lecture OS
Of SA’s 1.7 million+ enrolled students, only 30% will finish their undergrad on time (some 60% of first-years will never complete their qualifications). Their own fault? Or is it a systems problem? – this new platform’s layering AI across students, lecturers and administration to solve it…
Look at any 3 SA uni students: Statistically, 2 of them will never graduate; crazy considering our 80% matric pass rate.
And EdTech’s response has been overtly student-facing: AI tutors, study apps and flashcard generators all assume that “fixing the student” automagically fixes the problem. But what if the problem’s not all on the student side?
Not a lecturer to be found
Founder Daniel Maloba moved from the DRC to SA at 19 to study engineering at Stellenbosch. And when he struggled, he assumed it was personal. When he joined Stellenbosch's Launch Lab, other students kept asking how he'd managed it.
See, Daniel’s problem was not language or background. It was the system itself.
He says support dries up the moment you leave the lecture hall, and lecturers admit they don't have the time to track who's slipping (they have overwhelming workloads thanks to manual marking and other factors), so students are expected to self-rescue.
That’s why Daniel built a tool…
The startup building an academic operating system for universities
Yeba AI is an academic operating system for universities, layering AI course creation, predictive analytics and institutional intelligence across students, lecturers and administration.
Its flagship feature, Pass Ring, pulls data from engagement, quizzes, submissions and attendance to track each student's likelihood of passing, alerting lecturers and institutions of gaps and recommending interventions most likely to work, giving faculty leaders more insight and control over retention and pass rates.
It also handles AI-assisted marking, generates course structures from a prompt, and deploys multilingual AI tutors that meet students in whichever language they think in.
With 248 users and 57 courses live, Yeba has pilots with UWC's Innovation Centre, the Mastercard Foundation Scholars programme, a corporate using Yeba for workforce learning and two more prominent Western Cape tertiary institutions in the works.
We're watching this space…
Have your say…
CHECK THIS OUT
Growth Requires Letting Go of the Wrong Work
The work that got you here won’t take you further.
Without support, it’s easy to stay stuck doing everything long after you’ve outgrown it.
Download Operator to Owner: How to Exit the Middle to learn how to refocus your time on the work that actually deserves you.
WORK SMARTER
How to get VCs to come to you
Most founders just chase VCs for one-off money, but the long-term play is getting VCs to notice you over time. We brought in the co-founder of Knife Capital to show us how it's done.
And it turns out there's a simple formula for sending investor updates that get VCs to come to you.
Send this to a friend who needs investment. 🚀
IN SHORT
Easing you into the weekend…
💸 5-Minute Loans. Nedbank has partnered with local FinTech Jumo to launch Nedbank Quick Loans inside its Money App: R500 to R50'000, fully digital, no branch visit, funds in as little as five minutes. Love to see it.
📰 Gemini Is A Choice. The UK has imposed legal guardrails on Google's AI search, and Google says it will let publishers opt out of being aggregated into AI search results. Testing starts with UK publishers before a global rollout. A start, at least.
🚜 Italy Comes to Paarl. Italian agricultural machinery manufacturer SDF (the 100-year-old company behind Same tractors, Deutz-Fahr tractors and Gregoire grape harvesters) has opened its SA subsidiary in the Cape Winelands. Another international investment for the Western Cape.
🛋️ Lewis Wins the JSE. Can you believe the best-performing retailer on the JSE is a furniture store? While Spar and Pick n Pay have their backs against the wall, Lewis grew revenue 11% to R10.3bn, with headline earnings per share up 18.3%.
🎯 Leads Unlocked. Former Springbok Bob Skinstad has the presence but not the time to build LinkedIn. So FDC turned his profile into a lead engine that's driven 33.5 million impressions, 70k+ new followers and at least 2 quality business leads per month.*
* From our partners. Find all the best service providers for your business in our Founder Stack.
Get the best in SA tech and business news →
WHAT YOU SAID
Deep pockets needed…
Yesterday, we featured Altera Biosciences' universal-donor cell technology, asking whether SA should be building more deep tech companies. The verdict: yes, but we need investors who are on board with the timelines…
🟨🟨🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🔥 Yes, this is how you build real IP (32%)
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 👍 Yes, but we need investors willing to play the long game (53%)
🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🤷 Not sure, the risk is too high (3%)
🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🖐️ No, we should focus on what we're good at (5%)
🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🤔 This is very interesting (7%)
READY FOR A MOVE?
Jobs in Tech
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BEYOND THE NEWSLETTER
How do you actually go global?
We asked the founder of a growing local travel-related startup how they're thinking about global expansion — take notes, the answer is pretty 🧠…
Don’t miss all the extra operator interviews and insights content we do on our social channels — come enjoy the vibez.
AROUND THE WEB
Have some fun…
📸 Tool to Try: omemo turns your screenshots into links you access anytime.
👊 That's Interesting: Legendary boxer George Foreman named all five of his sons George Foreman so they'd always have something in common.
✈️ Next Level: This guy built a system that tracks aeroplanes from a nearby airport and projects them onto his ceiling in real time.
🎨 Wow Site: Last Museum has virtual versions of 5.8 million artworks from museums around the world.
SOUTH OF SERIES A
A slice of SA startup life…
Look… our beloved Cape Town startup now only has 7 weeks of runway left to become a unicorn. Will they make it? Find out: There's a new comic strip every Friday, only in The Open Letter.
Got a favourite? Meet all the South of Series A characters here.
☝ Send this to a friend you'd build a startup with. 🦄
