Time to optimise? BMW released another video of ChatGPT partner Figure 2’s robot army working in their factory. Apparently, the bots have boosted their efficiency by 400% in just 3 months.

And if you wanna laugh at some silly humans, the Reddit comment thread on this video is quite fun too.

In this Open Letter:

• Democratising data: Giving everyone bank-level financial insights.

• Innovating Jozi, AI Pokémon trainers & Africa’s cybercrime conundrum.

• Finances sorted: Get 90% off your business accounting right here.

• Fake startups and learnership impact: The results are in.

• Lonely building your startup? Join The Open Collab and get support.

Together with:

TRENDING NOW

Democratising 40+ Million’s Financial Data

If you’ve ever tried applying for any credit, you’d know it needs A LOT of paperwork… 

Payslips, addresses, bank statements, and all that budgeting and expenditure info — you know the drill. Then you apply to two providers for the same product, and guess what? You have to do it all over again. Yep, that same handwritten budgeting sheet… twice.

In fact, given that the number of overall credit originations (how many new accounts opened) increased by 15.2% in Q2 of this year alone, it’s likely that this process happens countless times per year. And this doesn't even include the two-thirds of applications declined by the banks themselves.

Yet, all of this financial data has given banks a bit of an unfair upper hand: SA banks have managed to capture the business of 50% of credit products in SA. 

They know exactly what people need, what they can afford, and they control most of the key credit-related communication channels. It’s basically a law-backed moat — hard to break into, even if someone else comes along with a better product.

But whose data is it anyway?

With AI making data more valuable than ever, it begs the question: who really owns it?

A solid case can be made that data belongs to the person who creates it. Now in banking, that’s not the bank — it’s the person making the transaction and generating the data point in the first place.

Open banking is a step towards giving customers more control over how their financial data is accessed and shared. While it doesn’t necessarily mean you legally “own” your data, it shifts the power back to you, letting you decide who gets access and why. 

And that’s a big deal.

Open banking essentially allows API access to bank accounts that could allow third parties to get deep insights into your transaction data.

Why is this a good idea, you might ask?

Well if they have the same level of detail your bank does, they can offer you competitive or even outright better products than your bank, making it a big win for consumers.

So, how does it all come together seamlessly? Let’s be real — integrating with an Open Banking API isn’t exactly simple. Getting every credit provider on board and pulling meaningful insights from it? That’s a huge ask.

That’s where local startup truID comes in.

Democratising SA consumers’ financial data…

truID is on a mission to democratise consumers’ financial data, enabling them to share their financial information to get better financial services securely.

It works by letting providers securely link a consenting applicant’s account with truID, which fetches financial data from SA’s Big 6 Banks, validates it, and enriches it into detailed insights. Basically, it gives a FinTech the same transparency and quality data that a bank would have.

It even levels the playing field for non-bank providers, enabling them to achieve the same operational efficiencies as banks and FinTechs, improving credit origination from hours or days to just 3 minutes.

And financial enablement for every South African is something truID co-founder Paris Valakelis feels very strongly about: “Access to financial services should not depend on outdated methods of assessment,” he explains. “By using transaction data, we’re not just improving efficiencies for credit providers – we’re empowering millions of South Africans to take control of their financial futures.”

Great for the current 22 million credit-active South Africans, but the real game-changer is what this could mean for the 20 million financially invisible ones.

We’re watching this space…

CHECK THIS OUT

Free Sanction Screening (KYC) for 2025

In the mission to get SA of the FATF greylist, stricter anti-money laundering (AML) regulations now apply for businesses that deal with individuals where the movement of an asset is involved — think investments, sales of property or sales of any other assets.

Central to this AML process is checking whether individuals appear on international sanction lists — even better is ongoing monitoring to see whether any of your customers appear on these lists in the future.

That’s where local startup ZenDetect sorts you out. They onboarded Pioneer Finance within 2 weeks and helped them reduce their KYC overhead by more than 50%.

Whadda Deal

And to make it really easy for you to get going, they are offering FREE sanction list screening for a year for anyone onboarding sanction list screening before 15 February 2025.

All you have to do is book yours by 15 December, and BOOM, you got 1 year’s worth of savings to outprice your competitors with for Mahala.

IN SHORT

A couple o’ fast facts for your water cooler chats…

💡Innovate Jozi. Jozi gets a new hub to stimulate innovation and support SMMEs thanks to networking & security technology company Cisco, and business incubation hub Forge X.

🗺️ Pokémon No. Niantic the company that developed Pokémon Go is building a new “Large Geospatial Model” (LGM) using millions of scans from the smartphones of Pokémon Go players.

🕵️‍♀️ Cybercrime Hotspot. Africa’s growing digital infrastructure is providing fertile ground for cybercriminals with African organisations suffering 3’370 attacks per week, 2x that of their global counterparts.

🥊 Punching Up. Pick n Pay is set to list Boxer on the JSE after raising an R8.5 billion IPO with 157.4 million shares allocated to qualifying investors at R54 per share.

🎯 Black Friday. Xero is offering 90% off the first 6 months of their packages. That’s right, get the world’s leading cloud accounting software starting at just R45 per month. Offer expires this Friday, so hurry!

BUILDING TOGETHER

Happening over at The Open Collab

In the last few days alone, in our online community, we…

• Learnt about a whole whack of awesome business/startup games to play together…

• Gave Joel some veteran insights into the LinkedIn ads network.

• Celebrated Laurie’s computer vision project with Skeg.

• Adored Jo’s new comms agency website 🤩.

• Helped proofread Danei and Elijah’s fin board game rules — it’s almost time!

• Were the first in SA to learn of an exciting new partnership that might just shake up the local e-delivery bike game.

• Organising comp tickets to a Stellenbosch event for Elijah.

Thinking about joining The Open Collab?

• Supercharge your network in the SA startup landscape — get that introduction, get that customer, or meet that partner.

• Get feedback on your products, services and/or offers from others who have built and are building their own products right now.

• Join all our online and in-person events for free!

• Exclusive 1-on-1 sessions with startup consultants.

SA’s only dedicated tech startup and scale-up founder community.

HAPPENING SOON

Upcoming Events

29 November 2024 — Chat Roulette — Online: Voted as one of the best-loved founder community exercises of 2024, The Open Collab community gets together to connect, work together and help each other succeed — Join The Open Collab community to attend for free.

4 December 2024, 17:30 — 20:00: We are partnering up with The Stellenbosch Network to host a speed networking event. This is going to be an awesome opportunity to meet some local Stellenbosch startups. Come join in!

6 December 2024 — AMA with Alan Knott-Craig: After our LinkedIn Live with Allan, you voted to an Ask Me Anything session — Join The Open Collab community to attend for free.

13 December 2024 — Sales Masterclass — Online: Part 3: Keep your B2B sales pipeline filled with this Masterclass session with sales expert, Sebastian Chapman — Join The Open Collab community to attend for free.

View all our upcoming events here.

WHAT YOU SAID

Spot the fake…

On Friday, we ran a special startup trivia in our first Fast Five Friday edition, and it was quite stellar: Spot the fake startup (or Boulderdash — startup edition)

🟨🟨🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️ Rent-A-Chicken: A service that lets you rent egg-laying hens and coops for a farm-to-table experience. (25%)

🟨🟨🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️ Ship Your Enemies Glitter: A company that anonymously mails glitter-filled envelopes to your foes. (20%)

🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 Plant Therapist: AI-based “therapy” sessions for your plants to “understand their emotional needs” and ensure optimal growth. (40%)

🟨🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ I Do, Now I Don’t: An online marketplace for selling and buying second-hand engagement rings. (15%)

Wanna know which one was the right answer? Go to Friday’s letter and vote to unmask the fake startup.

Prepping the next generation…

Then, last Tuesday, we asked about your experience with learnerships, and most don’t want the bureaucracy…

🟨🟨🟨🟨⬜️⬜️ 🎓 I’ve completed one myself. (17%)

🟨🟨🟨🟨🟨⬜️ 😉 We regularly use them to get new employees. (21%)

🟨🟨🟨🟨⬜️⬜️ 🍎 Well, now I’m strongly considering offering one. (17%)

🟨🟨🟨🟨🟨⬜️ 🙌 We tried it once with interesting results. (21%)

🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 ⛔ Nope. Too much red tape. (24%)

Your 2 cents…

Such an inspiring story, Mike! 🙌 Kudos to you for making such a lasting impact!

Great perspective, Rudolph! 😊 It’s fantastic when programs align to give a win-win all around!

Ha ha, not everyone’s journey is the same, hey Chris? But, ja, the couple of success stories shine. 🎉