Matimba Nkuna
Founder & CEO
Shoprite Technology; geomatics and AI research at UCT
Timbuk2 / Seed 2027
Timbuk2
The intelligence layer for physical markets.
We turn what communities know about places, products and demand into evidence businesses can use.
Built in public. Collected in communities. Sold to enterprise buyers.
01 / The thesisUpdated 1 October 2026
01 / The thesis
An overlooked market is becoming measurable.
Digital advertising has a map of clicks. Retail, finance and media decisions in emerging markets still depend on an incomplete map of the physical world.
That gap is our opportunity. 2Klip gathers local signals through play without commissioning every observation. FOONA verifies what matters on the ground. Pikaboo packages the evidence for enterprise decisions.
See the system ~50mnanostores across emerging markets
~4bnconsumers they serve with daily groceries
R170bnannual South African traditional-trade FMCG sales
Industry context, not Timbuk2 revenue or addressable software spend. Sources: Fransoo / HKUST, 2025 and NIQ, 2026.
02 / The proof
The engine is accelerating.
September was the first complete month with the broader game live. Accepted mission answers rose nearly threefold from August as the game expanded from three instruments to four.
250k+accepted mission answers since launch
~3xSeptember versus August answer volume
12k+people and devices tried the game, mostly free practice
200k100k0
66k
Aug
188k
Sep
Source: 2Klip dashboard, complete August and September 2026. Cumulative count 253,644 through 1 October; rounded here. Instrument mix changed during the comparison. Practice traffic is not a monthly-active-user metric.
More answers alone do not prove retention or lower unit cost. The next tests are repeat play, verified-record quality and enterprise reuse.
The verification layer
Not just a game.
FOONA completed ten dated Western Cape field jobs in 2026. Contributors delivered more than 1,200 approved submissions, nearly all with structured GPS, across flood response, media inventory, city data and local-business interviews.
The game widens the top of the funnel. Paid fieldwork checks the observations that need physical proof. These are different datasets; we do not add them together.
See the operating model
03 / One system
Play gathers signals. People verify. Software makes them useful.
01
2Klip
A free browser game draws local knowledge into a growing, reusable dataset.
02
FOONA
Paid community contributors check selected places and observations with GPS and photos.
03
Pikaboo
Enterprise software turns the evidence into location and market decisions.
The same evidence can support more than one buyer question. That reuse, rather than a bigger fieldwork bill, is the economic thesis.
04 / Commercial signal
From project to platform.
Primedia is discussing a licence or acquisition of the software behind the work. That shifts the conversation from a services order to a reusable enterprise capability. Nothing has closed.
The buyer logic
A media owner needs to price and place inventory with better local evidence. Software can make that capability available across teams and markets, not only one project.
Media owners are the first software wedge. Retail and financial distributors face adjacent place-level decisions; each new buyer should reuse the evidence, not restart collection.
Primedia discussions are live. Scope, rights, price and timing remain under negotiation.
Indicative committee modelR7.42m
Proposed commercial structure across platform, narrowly scoped South African media-owner rights, subscription and group expansion.
- Platform / perpetual licence
- R2.50m
- SA media-owner rights
- R1.50m
- 12-month subscription
- R2.22m
- Group expansion
- R1.20m
Modelled proposal, not booked revenue, company valuation or a formal acquisition offer. Rights are limited to named South African out-of-home media-owner competitors and a defined pricing workflow. Model receipt dates are not commitments.
R1.51m recorded Jan-Aug actual operating revenueR7.42m proposed 4 August committee structure; unsignedSoftware dialogue Licensing/acquisition under discussion as
at 1 October
The upper event lane is not on the revenue scale. Proposal value is a mix of one-off rights and services, not booked revenue or company valuation. The line is cumulative; March contributed zero.
Earlier reported revenue and forecast basis
Timba2 annual financial statements report R90,000 revenue in 2023 and R249,276 in 2024. The 2026 point is eight months of management accounts and is not an annual year-on-year comparison. A reconciled 2025 annual series and a current, agreed 2027 forecast are not available in this investor brief; we do not plot a 3x forecast or a R20m sale as if either were contracted.
05 / Repeatability
Built in South Africa. Tested beyond it.
We have delivered location and market work for enterprise buyers and completed field collection in Abidjan. The next step is to sell through regional accounts and measure how much data and software can be reused in each market.
Operating base South AfricaCompleted field proof Côte d'IvoireProposed expansion Kenya and Rwanda
Earned execution
From decisions to infrastructure.
- Retail product craft Founding-team experience in Shoprite's Scouty and UNIQ work.
- International proof A Virgin Active location proof of concept in France.
- Repeatable capture FOONA field delivery and 2Klip's game-led evidence engine.
AWS programme support since 2024; selected for Ninety One x Endeavor SA's ESD programme. These are support relationships, not customer revenue.
06 / The people
Built by operators who have done the work.
Geospatial delivery, game product, community operations and international execution in one team.
Kouame Kouassi
Technical Lead
Built Shoprite's geospatial AI capability and Scouty
Kunta-Kinte Ngcobo
Technical Product
Shoprite and African Union innovation delivery
Robyn Khoury
Chief of Staff
Rumbo launches in Mexico and Lima; Shell Foundation delivery
Takalani Malivha
VP Operations
Two business exits; cross-border client delivery
Phelelani Mkhize
Growth
Development economist and town planner; retail expansion
Nyimpini Mabunda
Executive Chairman
Former CEO, GE Southern Africa
Andrew Firman, CFA
Strategic Advisor
Kaleo Ventures
Tim Henshall
Legal & IP
Henshall Attorneys
07 / The raise
Scale a living market-intelligence network.
We are assembling $3m of total usable capital to strengthen product, grow the contributor network and prove repeatable enterprise delivery. The final capital mix and terms remain to be agreed.
Start a conversation Request data room access What the next phase must prove
- Repeat play and useful local coverage
- Accepted evidence at sustainable cost
- Repeat software revenue from enterprise buyers
- Delivery beyond the first market
Targets and forecast are management plans, not achieved results.
Evidence, definitions and source dates
Growth. 2Klip dashboard extracts dated 1 October 2026: 65,750 accepted mission answers in August, 187,846 in September, 253,644 cumulative. The 12,715 trial figure counts people and devices and includes free practice. None is a unique monthly-active-user count. Instrument mix changed from three to four during the comparison. FOONA's 2026 job export records 1,237 approved submissions across ten Western Cape jobs, 1,235 with structured GPS. They are not added to 2Klip answer totals.
Finance. Corrected management accounts dated 16 September 2026 show R1,511,002.64 operating revenue January-August, excluding grants, interest and other income. March is zero. The R7.42m proposal comes from the 4 August Exxaro committee outlook and July model; its components are mixed one-off and time-bound.
Geography and people. South Africa is the operating base; Abidjan is completed field proof. Kenya and Rwanda are proposed expansion. Biographies are management-provided; prior-career experience is not Timbuk2 revenue.
History. Timba2 annual financial statements show R90,000 revenue in 2023 and R249,276 in 2024. These are not plotted against 2026's eight-month management total as comparable annual periods. A reconciled 2025 annual series has not yet been supplied for this version.