Endeavor South Africa Quarter 3 Newsletter 2025
Dear Friends of Endeavor,
The markets have continued to climb, hardly missing a beat, and the term FOMO has become well scribed especially where it rhymes with AI. We are slowly seeing this liquidity trickle into the private markets and are thrilled to reflect on the recent exits in the SA venture capital ecosystem in a recently penned article for The Business Day. Liquidity has been the missing link and it is most welcome, this is a win both for the ecosystem and the country.
Whilst not a conversation goes by without checking in on “what is your AI strategy”, Linda Rottenberg , our co-founder, has begun asking something else entirely: “What’s the most human thing you’re doing, now more than ever?”
This reflection is echoed in Nick Cave’s unmoderated blog Red Hand Files where he asks the question “will AI ever be able to write a good song?” The answer being, “yes, AI would be able to write a good song, but not a great song” – because all great songs come from a story – and stories are about people.
In this story edition we have been dovetailing with Endeavor Global’s “Untold Story edition” where Pieter de Villiers from Clickatell has been spotlighted – don’t miss this story of friendship, loss, resilience and the values that shape a lasting legacy. Also catch up with Mike from Yellow and Dare from Onafriq in our local edition and watch out for more to come.
This quarter saw Endeavor Board Member Vukani Mngxati appointed the new CEO of Microsoft South Africa.
We extend a warm welcome to our newest Local Scale-Up joiners: Kuunda, Melon Mobile, Ezeebit, Bothlale AI, Cerebrium, and GoBuddy, solving for pain points in critical areas such as lending, connectivity, payments, AI infrastructure, and last-mile delivery.
Congrats go to SwiftVEE and Pineapple for passing the Regional Selection Panel — both one step closer to the International Selection Panel and becoming an Endeavor Entrepreneur.
We continue to double down on what sets us apart, not just globally but locally – creating high calibre touch points of mentorship and connections. The FinTech Roundtable took place in Johannesburg as did the annual LeaderEx, and Endeavor Entrepreneur and Board member, Pieter de Villiers of Clickatell, hosted a dinner at his home in Cape Town.
In Global news, we welcome 24 new founders from 11 companies across 10 countries who were selected at the 104th ISP in Cambridge in September. This event heads to Africa next, taking place in Stellenbosch between 10-12th December – palpable excitement is brewing with a chance to showcase our magnificent country at the beautiful Spier.
At Endeavor success is more than profit or valuation. It’s about paying-it-forward as a multiplier: the entrepreneurs you’ve mentored, the startups you’ve helped build, and the investments you’ve made to grow others. This vision came alive last month at the multiplier event in Dubai, check it out. Here
Local Endeavor Events & Network News
Nadir Khamissa (Hello Paisa): After years of building quietly, this founder and Endeavor Entrepreneur shares his leadership reflections and lessons. Here
Endeavor SA Board 2025 Q3 – Paying it forward: Board meeting at InnoVent offices with founders and leaders sharing knowledge across the network. Here
David Frankel (Endeavor Patron; Founder Collective): From co-founding Internet Solutions to backing Uber, The Trade Desk, and BuzzFeed. Here
Vinny L. (Endeavor alumnus & mentor): From South Africa to the World: Vinny Lingham’s Entrepreneurial Impact & What Sets Him Apart. Here
Local Founder Stories Podcast
Episode 3: Dare Okoudjou (Onafriq, Africa’s largest B2B payments network): Scaling across 40+ African countries and the resilience it takes to lead. Here
Episode 4: Kirsty Chadwick (TTRO, global digital learning firm): From rural beginnings to building one of the world’s leading learning companies and redefining education through technology. Here
📺 View all Founder Stories episodes
Entrepreneur News
Yoco x Platō x Yoyo – Card-Linked Loyalty
SA’s first card-linked loyalty rollout, where your bank card is your loyalty card. Over 30% of transactions ran through the system in just three weeks, showing how frictionless innovation can reshape everyday commerce. Read more
TymeBank buys Sanlam’s R1.1bn loan book
Strategic push into credit to serve SA’s mass market. TymeBank’s R1.1bn acquisition of Sanlam’s personal loan book marks a major step in deepening its credit offerings and scaling inclusive finance. Read more
TymeBank & Ozow – Inclusion in action
Transforming access and inclusion — TymeBank enables Smart IDs and passports with Home Affairs, while Ozow joins as PayShap Request’s second sponsor bank. Read more
Onafriq x Visa in DRC.
Visa Pay enables true wallet-card interoperability through one API — linking M-PESA, Airtel Money, Orange Money, and Visa. Seamless, secure payments for millions across the DRC, driving a more connected and inclusive Africa. Read more
GoTyme Bank PH – 7M customers
40% YoY growth and a first-of-its-kind TikTok Shop Loans launch — GoTyme Bank is redefining inclusive, tech-driven banking across Southeast Asia. Read more
Perfume Co. Africa x Pargo
Partnership expands last-mile delivery via pickup points — The Perfume Co. Africa partners with Pargo to streamline distribution through its smart pickup network. Read more
Local Scale Up News
Welcome to the latest joiners:
- Kuunda: Andrew Milne, Sam Brawerman and Morne van der Westhuizen co-founders – Kuunda is a B2B lending-as-a-service platform expanding access to credit for informal retailers, agents, and consumers across Africa. Read more
- Melon Mobile: Calvin Collette and Marius van Rensburg, co-founders – Melon Mobile — shaking up the telecom space with a customer-centric mobile network and new Business Portal for SME control. Read more
- Ezeebit: Daniel, Jonathan and David Katz, co-founders and brothers – Ezeebit is a crypto payment infrastructure enabling next-day fiat settlements, POS systems, and API-first tools for merchants. Read more
- Botlhale AI: Thapelo Nthite, Sange Maxaku, and Xolisani Nkwentsha, co-founders: Botlhale AI – develops Natural Language Processing (NLP) tools to bridge language barriers for African businesses and their customers, specializing in native African languages. Read more
- Gobuddy: Leon Strumpher, founder – GoBuddy is building Africa’s most inclusive logistics ecosystem, matching e-commerce and retail parcels with everyday commuters to cut costs, reduce emissions, and create income opportunities for youth. Read more
- Cerebrium: Michael Louis and Jono Irwin , co-founders – Cerebrium is a platform for deploying machine learning models to serverless GPUs with sub-5-second cold starts, enabling 40% cost savings and effortless scaling to 10K+ requests per minute. Read more
AURA x Samsung Embedding safety tech into mobile ecosystems; >1M users, 3,000+ responders. Read more
Melon Mobile Founder journey + Business Portal relaunch for enterprise control of telecom spend. Read more
Pineapple Founders From strangers at an innovation competition to a 200+ person insurtech scale-up. Read more
Flood raises $2.5M SuperApp-as-a-Service digitizes offline retail; 8,000 merchants in 3 months. Read more
Global Endeavor Events & Entrepreneur News
Reid Hoffman on AI co-pilots “No more IC roles” — teams of AI agents will reshape work. Watch
Building a Company Is Hard Enough — Don’t Let Illiquidity Make It Harder – click on these insights by Patrick Alex. Here
Other cool stuff to double click on
- Scan the 40 companies Coatue believes make the next tech order — and note who’s missing. Mercado Libre made the cut. Google didn’t. And this keynote has been the talk of the town this last month.
- Trade doomscrolling for curation. This guide offers 100+ vetted sources — from philosophy podcasts to global newsletters — to help you feed your brain without burning it out.
- What’s the point of winning? World #1 golfer Scottie Scheffler gets real about the emptiness of trophies — and what actually makes the grind worth it. Founders will relate.
- Learn why Reid Hoffman believes scaling without (user) trust is a death sentence. In this short riff, he tells a PayPal story about systems that hold up when it counts. And in this Masters of Scale episode, he digs deeper with Spotify’s Daniel Ek — 2 for 1!
- Endeavor Brazil’s research on mental healthshows that building a business is ultimately human!
Closing the quarter
In a world where algorithms dictate who and what we listen to and founders are constantly asked to optimize, automate, and accelerate, Linda’s and Nick’s question reminds us that entrepreneurship remains a deeply human domain.
As Nick Cave explains – at the heart of any creative act, songs arise out of suffering, by which he means they are predicated upon the complex, internal human struggle of creation. And this is how great stories are made.
May your last quarter be a great story!
Warm regards,
Alison Collier, Endeavor South Africa MD.