Ride in your home language? Gauteng now has its own “Afrikaanse Uber” — and we just love their brand positioning. Wanatu is a play on “waar na toe” (where to?) and it works so well: Wanatu? “Na Mamma toe!” (if you’re Kurt Darren or one of his fans).

And with that, we welcome you to Fast-Five Friday! 5 things SA Startups in 5 minutes — let’s go…

Together with:

1. CROSSING THE DIGITAL DIVIDE

The littlefish enabling big payments…

If you’re a regular Open Letter reader, chances are you haven't used cash to pay for something in quite some time. In fact, only 2% of our readers use cash with a cool 80% opting for Tap-and-Go or Apple/Google/Samsung Pay.  

And while digital payments are certainly on the rise, the vast majority of South Africans might not be ready to ditch cash just yet. In the recent Payments Study Report, The South African Reserve Bank found that:

• Cash payments account for 56%.

• Debit card payments account for 34%.

• Banking app payments account for 5%.

• With credit cards, internet banking, money sending, and other payment methods making up the remaining 5%.

So for Micro, Small, and Medium Sized Enterprises (MSMEs), it’s tricky moving away from cash mostly due to the perceived cost and complexity.

That’s why local merchant-success platform littlefish helps banks serve more MSMEs wanting to cross the digital divide. 

It gives merchants a range of digital, mobile or POS payment software, as well as an e-commerce, stock and inventory solution. Including a suite of products to help merchants understand their cash flow – complete with analytics to spot new opportunities and risks. 

All while giving big banks the tools to onboard the little guy, offer them specific financial services, and help with the required compliance, all with the ability to build bespoke solutions for each merchant based on their unique needs.   

And that’s one thing we like. Instead of trying to beat the banks and building another FinTech-would-be-bank, they are empowering existing banks with a white-label solution that helps them service a customer segment better. Smart play.

2. OH SNAP!

Turning the page on literacy in SA’s schools

More than 40% of South African households with children have no books at home. While the country's education challenges are complex, failing textbook distribution isn’t helping.

And we can see it not only in results but also in studies screening SA learner competency.

One found that 81% of Grade 4 learners struggle to read for comprehension at the age of 10. And when we see that nearly 75% of SA schools do not have school libraries, we can start to see why.

Snapplify is a local EdTech platform setting out to change this, not only locally, but across the rest of Africa. For the last 13 years, their platform has given students 24-hour access to their digital library of more than 50’000 free resources like study guides, e-textbooks, children’s books and past exam papers. They also sell e-versions of paid-for textbooks.

With a focus on promoting African mother-tongue languages like Afrikaans, Xhosa, Sepedi, Zulu, and more, could Snapplify be the answer to getting more books in front of more SA learners? We think it might just be….Definitely watching this one.

3. BITING DOWN ON DENTISTRY

The tooth, the whole tooth, and nothing but the tooth…

Two of the world’s most common oral health problems are gum disease and cavities, with 90% of South Africans experiencing these at some point in their life (the only thing more common than gum disease is getting the cold – think about that…).

Gum disease unfortunately also leads to a bunch of other health issues like an increase in cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and even mental health issues…

Local ToothTech Mia Health Technologies is making it easier for more people to access a wider range of dental services through their Mia Mobile dental clinics which can come to your home, school, or even the office.

We chatted to Mia Health Technology Co-Founder Zane Stenning recently on “Meet the Startup” to hear about what they’re up to, and where they’re going next.

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4. FROM THE OPEN COLLAB COMMUNITY

Back on yer bike…

Believe it or not, bicycles can be quite expensive…

We found this one for a cool R270’000 – about as much as a brand new Polo Vivo.

And while it’s a great way to increase the odds of recovering your stolen bicycle (apparently less than 5% of the 100’000 bicycles stolen in SA each year are ever recovered), the insurance space might be an interesting opportunity.

We’ve written about the booming global bicycle market before – as much as $122 billion globally.

With expensive bicycles causing a bit of a headache for insurance companies dealing with insurance fraud – “Was the bike really stolen or does the owner simply want a new bike?”.

Cause you know cyclists are a lil bit sketchy like that (Issa joke, guys…).

Local BikeTech startup 3BO has built a tracking device that can be discreetly attached to your bike. It also integrates with WhatsApp, which allows them to unlock a whole host of features like accident detection, post-theft tracking, and first responder & community support.

And with a 3BO tracking device on the bicycle (btw – a mega cool one with magnetic battery charging and designed in such a way that it can look like it’s part of the bike), this could go a long way in limiting bicycle insurance fraud – not to mention bumping up those recovery numbers…

Join The Open Collab. Build with awesome SA founders like Enrico Liebenberg from 3BO.

5. SUPPORT YOU NEED

Getting your own back in 2025

5 Key opportunities for SMEs to capitalise on this year…

2024 was not an easy year for SMEs.

“We saw continued headwinds for SME owners in South Africa – high interest rates, inflation, as well as heightened uncertainty around election time and the GNU left their mark,” says Thomas McKinnon, Chief Growth Officer at Lula.

But the Bureau of Economic Research believes 2025 could be very different.

It projects increased economic growth at 2.2% this year, with S&P expressing positive outlooks for South Africa, which Lula believes could help SMEs see growth double over 2024.

How? Thomas and team have identified five 2025 business trends that could give SMEs the upper hand, including:

• Smarter fin models to serve SMEs faster and more efficiently

• Democratised financial data gives SMEs unprecedented insights

• New markets are being born every day as connectivity increases

• Payments are getting smoother and faster, and SMEs are winning

• Tech like IoT and AI are now available to everyone – time to innovate.

And it’s all changing the game in small businesses’ favour…

The Lula team have gone through great effort to package these SME opportunities in an accessible, powerful way to help small businesses get set up to capture the moment – backed by data and complete with practical steps for capitalising on each trend.

Want the full picture?

IN SHORT

Stand on a soap box at the braai…

😶‍🌫️ Get Naked. Local InsureTech startup Naked has landed a staggering R700 million in Series B2 funding from BlueOrchard, with increased funding from existing backers Hollard, Yellowwoods, International Finance Corporation (IFC), and Germany’s development finance institution DEG. The funding will go towards deepening investment in automation and AI, product and market expansion, and enhancing advertising. Finally, they can put on some pants…

📱The Meta Multiplier. Meta has announced it’ll soon let users add WhatsApp to their Meta Account Center to allow its users to manage their Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Meta Quest accounts in one place using ‘Single Sign On’, as well as being able to post to the various platforms from one single place. Cue your Facebook and Insta feeds getting even more cluttered with cheese motivational and floral good morning pics…  

🕺 XTok. US President Donald Trump is reportedly open to the idea of Elon Musk buying TikTok. His idea is that somebody “buy it and give half to the United States of America”. Musk might not be entirely opposed to the idea noting that it’s “unbalanced” that TikTok can operate in the US, but X is not allowed to operate in China. Unsurprising given how viral Trump’s dancing has gone recently…

🌌 Galaxy of Blues. Local researchers from UCT and SA’s MeerKAT radio telescope have discovered a rare giant radio galaxy, calling it Inkathazo. Giant radio galaxies (GRGs) are enormous galaxies fueled by supermassive black holes at their cores, unleashing plasma jets that span millions of light-years across intergalactic space. Jis that’s lekker…

😎 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.

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JOBS IN TECH

Time to find a new water cooler?

🚢 Product Owner @ Lula

👍 Quality Assurance (QA) Developer @ Wamly

🎨 Senior UX Designer @ Optimal Growth Technologies

👩‍💼 Senior Marketing Data Analyst @ Carry1st

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

GAME TIME

Can you get it?

I’m here to inspect but not with my hands,

A car’s condition, I perfectly scan.

With AI in tow and a smartphone in sight,

I save you the trouble of checking by light.

What South African startup am I?

WHAT YOU SAID

Why we check out…

We asked about the best part about ordering online, and it’s the convenience…

🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 🛋️ Not having to cook/drive to the shop. (68%)

🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🤑 Getting it cheaper (always be bargain hunting). (15%)

⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🗿 Acquiring rarities you can’t get anywhere else. (5%)

⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 📳 Just like keeping my fingers (and card) busy. (2%)

🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🤔 I don’t actually like shopping online, because… (10%)

Your 2 cents…

Nice one, Genessa. Yeh, it’s really an ultimate convenience 🛍️.

Feels, Liesl! Yeh, most of us too. And, though we shop online often, that almost daily walk to the Spar is lekker. 🛒

Yeh, we also find online shopping a good way to limit the kids’ requests for candy. 🍫

Oh, ja, KB. Look, we wish everyone in e-commerce would realise that your shipping and returns policy is directly linked to your CX and business success potential. 🤔💭