The little-known fintech making FirstRand's R5bn bet look smart
Optasia's shares had their best day since listing after the mobile-lending group told investors its revenue could jump as much as 60%.
Companies
The deals, results, leadership and strategy of the companies shaping South Africa.
The AI firm behind Claude now wants to make its own medicines
Anthropic has unveiled a research tool for scientists and, more surprisingly, plans to develop drugs of its own for diseases big pharma overlooks.
How fake Spotify streams broke a $3 million bet
Spotify has told Kalshi and Polymarket to drop its logo after users faked streams to rig prediction-market bets on its charts.
Naspers is giving away powerful AI, and hoping the payoff comes later
Prosus has launched ToqanClaw, a free tool that lets small businesses build their own apps, but it still hasn't cracked how to make money from it.
Big story
Pick n Pay bets on Gemini-powered ‘Penny’ to close the gap on Checkers
The retailer’s asap! app gains an AI assistant that builds a basket from a voice note, a photo or a scribbled shopping list — with a full rollout from 6 July.
Christo Wiese's Titan backs alternative lender Preference Capital with R350m
The 84-year-old billionaire's Titan Premier Investments has taken a R350 million position in alternative credit provider Preference Capital, its latest 2026 deployment.
Big story
Idris Elba and Google want to hand Africa's storytellers the AI keys
A new programme worth more than $1 million will give 100,000 creators across five African countries access to Google's AI tools.
The R24 billion coding site that AI quietly gutted
Prosus has written off most of the value of Stack Overflow, the developer favourite it bought in 2021, as AI chatbots empty it out.
Why Pick n Pay's boss just handed back R21 million in shares
Sean Summers has forfeited a slice of his turnaround bonus after Pick n Pay pushed its break-even target out to 2029.
1.7 million South African cars still carry a hidden danger, and the fix is free
The motor industry is launching a year-long drive to find cars with faulty Takata airbags, which are free to repair but hard to track down.
Should Washington own a slice of ChatGPT? OpenAI reportedly thinks so
OpenAI is said to have floated giving the US government a 5% stake, and wants rivals to do the same, though nothing is confirmed.
WhatsApp is about to let you skip the phone-number swap
The app is rolling out usernames so you can connect without sharing your number, and you can reserve yours this week before the full launch later this year.