Hungry? A team from Washington is working on a way to grow food in the dark. The new tech called electro-agriculture uses electrolysis to replace a plant’s need for sunlight and even soil. Here’s to a future of space farming.

But first, it’s time for another Fast-Five Friday — 5 startups in 5 minutes, let’s go…

First time reading? Join 21,694 South African professionals and sign up.

Together with:

1. TAP DANCE

Tapping Into Better Water Quality

SA’s water quality standards are not in a good space.

Since 2020, the municipal water supply systems have taken a bit of a beating with the number of “Good” systems dropping from 70 to 59 in 2024. The number of “Poor” systems, on the other hand, has jumped from 39 to 57 in the same period.

So who knows what’s coming through your taps into your drinking water?

Local water subscription service Solvd is providing a way for South Africans to ensure they’re getting clean water into their homes. Solvd sediment and carbon filtration systems do this right out the gates, or you can opt for a system with 2’000l+ of backup water for those times when water gets shut off for extended periods. 

They also offer annual water quality tests, regular filter replacements, and added components such as an additional tank or 3-stage filtration.

2. RAPID EXPANSION

Our Biggest Exit Yet?

Big news coming out of the local startup scene this week is the acquisition of RapidDeploy by Motorola Solutions. The deal has been described as a “landmark” and one of SA’s largest tech exits by its investor HAVAIC.

What started out as an idea by 2 South Africans Steven Raucher (a volunteer on the NSRI’s Rescue Crew), and Brett Meyerowitz (a volunteer Community Medic), RapidDeploy is active in 24 states across the US offering first responders and emergency services a full suite of powerful, cloud-enabled products.

These include Radius Mapping for real-time, precise location tracking, Lighting an emergency info app for first responders, and Eclipse Analytics to measure call response times and staffing optimiser based on call volumes – all in the name of getting first responders to the people who need them in the shortest time possible.

Check out RapidDeploy’s origin story…

3. HOLIDAY SOUVENIRS

Year-Round Revenue For Holiday Hotspots…

Few industries get hit by changing economic winds like the hospitality industry…

It’s highly seasonal, tourism numbers fluctuate when times are tough, holidays and leisure are one of the first things to go, and freak events put a serious spanner in the works: Just think back to the 2nd round of Covid travel bans to SA when Cape Town alone suffered loses to the tune of R200 million per day. 

What if hotels, lodges, resorts, guesthouses, or BNBs could find ways to make money throughout the year by tapping into the nostalgia of visiting guests and setting up their own storefronts for guests to buy products and services directly to their guests?

Well, furbsh is a brand new startup that seems to think there’s something there. Anything from wine to locally made arts and curios (Africa has some seriously lekker stuff that local and international tourists absolutely love) that can be shipped directly to your guest's rooms, or to their home if it’s a little big to fit in their suitcases. And while it’s still very early days for furbsh, we’re definitely watching this space.

4. UP IN AFRICA

Fighting The Fake Pharma Fight

Fake meds are enough to get your blood pressure through the roof – especially if the meds you’re taking are meant to lower it, turn out to be fake.

Fake and ineffective meds are a big problem globally with 250k children dying worldwide every year from taking counterfeit meds – 300 in the last year from fake cough and pain syrups alone.

Not to mention a continent like Africa with its malaria infection rates, seeing nearly 90% of antimalarials in some markets reported as fake.

These fake pharmaceuticals have devastating consequences. Something Adebayo Alonge the CEO and Founder of RxAll experienced when he fell into a 21-day coma after taking fake meds he bought from his local pharmacy in Nigeria.

This experience led him to start RxAll which built the RxScanner a device using AI and machine learning technology to check and confirm drug quality.

5. AN EVENT YOU CAN’T MISS

Founder Fireside Stories

Not many South African startups manage to scale globally, let alone beyond our planet, but CubeSpace is shooting for the moon!

Join Mike Kearney, Co-Founder and CEO of CubeSpace, for an in-person fireside chat with Renier Kriel at LaunchLab in Stellenbosch, where we’ll unpack the journey of a South African startup that beat the odds to become a global space-tech leader.

In this fireside chat, we will discuss:

• How CubeSpace scaled from a university spinout to a global deep-tech leader

• What it takes to raise international funding in South Africa

• Scaling a hardware business for a global market

• Winning major international clients like NASA and ESA

• Lessons on scaling, investment, and building a globally competitive tech company

PLUS: a whole lot of networking with The Open Letter Community.

Tickets are selling fast, so get yours now.

IN SHORT

🩲 Shorter shorts for a Fast Friday…

⭐ Time to Shine. Are you ready for Innovation City’s 2025 Startup of The Year Awards? If you’re a startup younger than 5 years, with an MVP and want all the glitz, glory, exposure and startup support you can handle — enter here.

🌊 Keep it Flowing. Flow48, a FinTech in the SME lending space has just concluded its $69 million Series A round. $10 million of that is earmarked for scaling its SA operations. Nice.

🔌 Charging Freebies. Volvo SA is offering its new EV owners a 2-year charging voucher linked to the GridCars charge card valued at R12’000, R7’500 towards a GridCars wall box for home charging, and 3 years of 10GBs of free Vodacom data. Wow.

🍿 Oscar Buzz. There’s been a rise in online scams in the lead-up to Sunday night’s Academy Awards. Posing as a streaming service for Oscar movies, these sites are stealing people’s personal and financial data. LOL.

🤝 Going Green in CT. Cape Town has landed a cool R2.9 billion from Germany’s KFW Development Bank. This takes the Mother City another step closer to its green energy switch and a step further from Eskom reliance. Love.

😎 The Stack. Founders need tools and suppliers they can trust. Check out our Founder’s Stack with your own CTO for remarkable tech builds with Octoco, your own CFO for a fraction of the price with OCFO and 12 more vital startup tools & services.

CHECK THIS OUT

Unlocking Growth? You Need a Solid Foundation

SME owners already know the pain of financial year-end: the last-minute reconciliations, scrambling for missing invoices, and the tax headaches. 

But what if this could be the year it all changes?

Last week, we partnered with Xero and OCFO to show founders exactly how to make financial year-end effortless. We broke some of the first few steps down into:

✅ Build a rock-solid financial foundation — without the overwhelm.
✅ Automate accounting so your books stay clean year-round.
✅ Use Xero’s seamless integrations to cut down admin and boost clarity.

The takeaway? When you have full visibility into your numbers, financial year-end isn’t a panic — it’s a breeze. And it’s only once you’ve laid that foundation that you can start thinking strategically about your business.

Getting down to it

🎯 Measure: How solid is your financial foundation? OCFO’s experts shared the key numbers every business owner must track.

🎯 Automate: Xero connects seamlessly with your bank, payroll, and expenses — so you can stop chasing invoices and start making strategic decisions.

🎯 Iterate: Like any great business, financial management is about continuous improvement. And the right software makes that easy.

Don’t wait for next year to do things differently. Get your books in order now — and take the financial stress off your plate.

🚀 Get 90% off Xero for 3 months when you sign up today. This offer expires tonight.

DON’T MISS THIS

Coming Up in SA’s Most Vibrant Tech Founder Community

Coming up in our members-only, founder community — The Open Collab.

28 Feb 12:00 — Masterclass: Tech PR 101: Building Buzz Without Big Budgets by Jo Eyre from Voxeon Communications.

7 March 12:00 — Masterclass: How to validate early-stage ideas in SA with Thijan Dippenaar from The Delta.

21 March 12:00 — Masterclass: How to growth hack in SA with Ben Blaine from Neurabuild.

PLUS: Weekly office hours, online chat roulette and in-person coffee and drinks gatherings.

JOBS IN TECH

Hot off the Jobs press…

🏗️ Product Developer @ Ninety One

👩‍💻 Senior Software Engineer @ Confluence

🎨 Financial Wellness Design Lead @ Old Mutual South Africa

💼 Business Development Consultant @ Outsourced CFO

Hiring? Get in touch, and we will feature it here.

GAME TIME

3 Startup Lies and a Truth

WHAT YOU SAID

Proof of life…

On Tuesday, we asked about important documents you’re always scrambling for when applying for finance, and proof of address is by far the hairiest…

🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🪪 Copy of ID (9%)

🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 🏡 Proof of address (54%)

🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 💰 Payslips (9%)

🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 📰 Proof of life (17%)

🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 📂 All of these... (11%)

Your 2 cents…

Spoken like a true straight-outta-college founder, Danei. But yeah, pay yourself a salary before applying for finance to save yourself from turning grey before 30. 👵

Ha ha, yes, pretty sure if financial products were as easy to buy as airtime, we’d have a much more prosperous society. 🤑

Hopefully initiatives like Umazi will start making these kinds of things easier for you real soon, Neo. 💪