Hi there,

On his 99th birthday (yesterday), David Attenborough released the trailer for Ocean, a new documentary about preserving our oceans. A sensitive subject, since most Western countries, including SA, have strict quotas, while Chinese and many other Asian and South American companies still overfish routinely (often government subsidised, nogal).

And the almost-centenarian Attenborough reminds us that our oceans = life as we know it. And we can’t think of a better way to close off 99 years of exploring life on our planet. 🫡

1. EARLY DAYS

Keeping the rideshare wheels turning

It’s getting more expensive for rideshare drivers like Uber and Bolt to operate (fuel alone can hit anywhere between R3’000–R6’000 per month). And drivers using a car owned by someone else need to cover their monthly “fee/instalment” before they can even start earning for themselves.

This puts drivers in a catch-22: They need to be driving to make money, but need to work smart with that money (for fuel) to keep the wheels turning.

The Brown Fuel Card is setting out to help these drivers out.

Their free Fuel Card provides loans for fuel to ridesharing drivers for between R1’000 and R5’000, with a 30-day repayment at 5% interest to take the bite out of filling up when income has been a little tight. We’re watching this space.

2. GET IN THE GAME

Love me (a) tender

Government tenders are a pretty big deal in SA. It’s also a great way for the government to lean on private sector expertise to get stuff done. And, all controversies aside, tenders can be a great first step for an SMME to get their foot in the door and some runs on the board.

That’s why we found the SA Government Tenders Database super interesting.

You can view all (1’500+) active tenders, see what’s been awarded, how many tenders (and their values per province), who’s got tenders out (Eskom leading the way by far with 202 advertised, with SANRAL having awarded the most – a juicy R26 billion).

It was built by Karl-Alexander Meier Mattern, the same person who brought us SA’s economic “cheatsheet” we featured in a previous FFF a couple of weeks ago. Lekker man.

3. FROM THE OPEN COLLAB COMMUNITY

A warmer way to cold email?

The average open rate for cold emails varies between 15% and 25%, with SaaS and business consulting emails falling to the lower end. But what if there was a better way to engage on email?

Studio-4U is a video-led email marketing service that trades walls of text for something more human: a real person on video (after all, we process videos 66’000 times faster), repping your brand, tailored to your audience.

It works like this:

• They research and script your campaign.

• You pick a video rep.

• They film short, branded clips to slot into your outbound flow.

• Your prospects get personalised intros, better context and someone warm to connect with, even before a sales call ever happens.

• You get detailed reports on who's opened the email, clicked the links and watched the intro video.

Studio-4U says they boost open rates up to 60–70%. And founder Ben Goodwin says they even have a cool quiz you can take right now to learn how to increase your B2B sales. Yes please!

Come build alongside SA founders like Ben from Studio-4U by joining our dedicated SA tech founder community: The Open Collab.

4. GUESS WHO’S BACK (MAYBE)?

A salute to those gone before us

Despite the African continent experiencing a bit of a funding winter (only 200 startups raised a total of $1.1 billion in 2024, down from the 406 that raised $2.4 billion the year before), African builders and innovators are never in short supply.

But sometimes those ideas just run out of juice: be it funding, passion or even just bad luck.

The Startup Graveyard Africa is a platform we recently stumbled across that showcases startups that closed their doors. Wait, before you bash us, it’s not a shaming exercise, each listing features detailed info on the startup and the untold stories of why they didn’t make it. 

With mega-handy filters, like industries, years and countries, it’s actually a great tool for builders to learn from those that came before. We can honestly see founders stumbling onto great ideas, using the platform to learn from past mistakes and building Africa’s next Unicorn.

Kudos to founder Kelvin Gobo for having the confidence to put this out there.

5. BUT IS IT REAL?

Superbike for the skies?

The internet has been abuzz with speculation about this Polish-invented flying speeder-like bike straight out of the Star Wars universe. The Volonaut Airbike is apparently a jet-powered, single-occupant “superbike for the skies” that can hit speeds of up to 200km/h (the website claims).

The problem? The company gives zero info on how it works and shows no footage of take-off, landing or manoeuvring, young Padawan, leaving many people calling it fake or AI-generated. Many couch analysts on YouTube agree, but one personal mobility expert seems to think it’s the real deal, speculating that it’s likely gas-turbine powered and probably extremely loud in reality (flight sound is drowned out in the video).

Now, we know Dubai’s jet suit racing is real, but you don’t have all the jets placed under your centre of mass there, so the Volonaut would have to be something closer to the Williams X-Jet from the 1970s that was ditched after the US Army refused to buy it.

Maybe the world’s ready for something like this now, though? That’s if it’s real, of course. What do you think? Our verdict: If it’s not real, why would you design it to look like you’re riding a wheelchair/sky-toilet?

IN SHORT

Serve hot takes, without the homework….

🧟‍♂️ Not Dead Yet. Gotta hand it to the South African Post Office: they’ve got big plans to become digitally connected and financially stable by 2028. Amongst its key initiatives, it plans on empowering small businesses and delivering essential services to rural and underserved areas. Let’s hope they can deliver.

🤖 Can Touch This. Amazon’s new warehouse robot, the two-armed Vulcan, can apparently “feel” the items it touches thanks to force sensors, a camera and a suction cup, and has already processed 500k orders. What’s with the intense robot names? What about something significantly less sinister, like Steve?

✈️ Breach on Board. South African Airways suffered a “significant cyber incident” on Saturday, 3 May 2025, which disrupted access to the airline’s website, mobile app, and several internal operational systems. The airline immediately activated its disaster management and business continuity protocols, and normal system functionality was restored later the same day.

🏆 Bean to Cup. Two SA coffee shops, Espressolab De Waterkant in The Mother City and The Whippet in Jozi have made it into the 100 best coffee shops in the world, with Espressolab ranking 11th (making it the best coffee shop in Africa), and the Whippet ranking 89th. Hellooo weekend plans.

😎 The Stack. Founders need tools and suppliers they can trust. Check out our Founder’s Stack with all your VC and startup legal sorted by Dommisse Attorneys, your own CFO for a fraction of the cost with OCFO and loads more vital startup tools & services.

CHECK THIS OUT

Dev hiring chaos = tech team death spiral

Find yourself reading too many CVs? Then read this….

Whether you’re scaling a startup or growing a product team, hiring developers shouldn’t drain your time or derail your roadmap.

But somehow, “get one dev onboarded” turns into a month of CV triage, back-to-back calls, and ghosted follow-ups.

It’s a hidden cost and breaks momentum.

OfferZen Embedded gives you hiring muscle — without the overhead:

✅ Access to 100,000+ vetted devs on SA’s biggest tech hiring platform

✅ A premium, end-to-end recruitment partner working inside your stack

✅ Faster hires, no admin drag, zero bad-fit distractions

You build. They hire,

PS want to know just how much hiring is costing you? Use this free hiring cost calculator.

DON’T MISS THIS

Coming Up in SA’s Most Vibrant Tech Founder Network

Next up in our members-only founder network — The Open Collab.

9 May 12:000 — Legal AMA: Term sheet, SAFE notes and legal traps to watch out for when you’re building a venture in South Africa, with the VC legal pros at Dommisse Attorneys — join The Open Collab to attend.

16 May 12:00 — The Path to Scale Masterclass, Pt. 2: The science of success: Discover the hidden pitfalls and proven growth tools for every stage with Jason Goldberg, Art of Scale author and co-founder of Edge Growth — join The Open Collab to attend.

23 May 12:000 — Business AMA: Using business valuation as a strategic growth tool: The secrets to leveraging growth no one tells you with Graham Stephan from Bizval.

PLUS: When you join The Open Collab get access to expert sessions, more than 100 SA founders to network with and weekly online and offline network engagements.

JOBS IN TECH

Work that works for you.

🧱 Data Product Manager @ Superbalist

🍍 Creative Director @ Pineapple

🏓 Senior Traffic & Production Manager @ Lula

🧑‍💻 React.js Developers at Syneru — download job spec below 👇

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

GAME TIME

Find zen with today’s ZA startup haiku…

Learning lights the room,

Stories leap through AR worlds,

Play becomes power.

WHAT YOU SAID

Enabling SA business…

On Tuesday, we asked what FinTech tool you’d like to empower businesses, and for most, it’s either better analytics or sales tools…

🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 💸 Make getting paid feel instant and painless (8%)

🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 📊 Turn messy data into money-saving decisions (32%)

🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 🛒 Help small businesses sell like the big guys (32%)

🟨🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🧾 Make tax season feel like a spa day (14%)

🟨🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🏦 Replace boring banks with actual business tools (14%)

HOW DID WE DO?

BEFORE YOU GO