OpenUp

What OpenUp does

OpenUp is a South African civic technology non-profit founded in 2013 and headquartered in Cape Town, with a team of 1-10 employees. The organization builds open-source tools, opens government data, and provides data training to support active citizenship and improve how communities and governments work together. Its core product portfolio spans budget transparency (Vulekamali, Municipal Money), parliamentary monitoring (PMG, ParliMeter), GIS data exploration (Wazimap and its specialized instances such as Youth Explorer and SANEF elections dashboard), legal access (Evictions Guide, Case Management System), health pricing (Medicine Price Registry), and various sector dashboards covering elections, employment stimulus, water, land, and political party funding. The technology stack emphasizes low-tech, context-specific solutions over complex architectures, with nearly 200 GitHub repositories, Webflow-hosted websites, and open data platforms; the Wazimap platform serves as a reusable multi-region GIS framework deployed across multiple organizations.

OpenUp's revenue model has shifted dramatically from philanthropic dependency toward commercial sustainability. Between FY 2022-2023 and FY 2024-2025, the organization pivoted from 74% grant income / 26% client income to 86% client income, following the sunsetting of Luminate's core funding and restructuring of Open Society Foundations. Current revenue streams include client/project revenue from data-driven storytelling training, technical development services, and consulting for government agencies, civil society organizations, and impact-focused private sector entities, alongside Wazimap product licensing. Distribution occurs through direct web access for free tools, government partnership transfers (e.g., Vulekamali to National Treasury), Wazimap instance licensing, and training/capacity building programs across Africa. Key institutional partners include the European Union, GIZ, CIVICUS, National Treasury, the Parliamentary Monitoring Group, SALDRU, the Office of the Presidency, and the Global Partnership for Sustainable Data's Capacity Accelerator Network.

Name

OpenUp

Legal name

OpenUp

Website

https://openup.org.za

Company type

Private

Founded year

2013

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

OpenUp is a South African civic technology non-profit that builds open-source data tools and provides data training to promote government transparency, parliamentary accountability, and citizen empowerment for civil society, journalists, and government partners.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Civic Technology and Open Data Platforms

NAICS

Computing Infrastructure Providers, Data Processing, Web Hosting, and Related Services (518210), Web Search Portals, Libraries, Archives, and Other Information Services (519)

SIC

Services-Computer Programming, Data Processing, Etc. (7370)

akta.pro primary industry

Public Communications, Transparency & Open Government (BPAIAAAH)

akta.pro secondary industries

Public Transparency Portals & Open Data Reporting (EDADAIAN), OER Repositories, Discovery & Metadata Services (EDAGAJAL)

Keywords

• Civic technology platforms
• Open government data
• Parliamentary monitoring tools
• GIS data exploration
• Data visualization dashboards

Headquarters

HQ city

Cape Town

HQ country

South Africa

HQ region

Africa

Offices2 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B and B2C

Offering type

Software

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Infrastructure

Revenue model

1. Grant Funding: OpenUp historically relied heavily on project-related philanthropic funds. Between 2022-2023 and 2023-2024, they pivoted from 74% grant income/26% client income to 65% client income/35% grant income. Major funders have included Luminate (core funds sunsetted in 2023), Open Society Foundations, European Union, CIVICUS, and others.
2. Client/Project Revenue: By 2024-2025, OpenUp achieved 86% client income stream through service offerings including data-driven storytelling training, technical development services, and consulting. Revenue generated from government agencies, civil society organizations, and impact-focused private sector entities.
3. Wazimap Productization: Wazimap Next Generation provides a steady stream of income through product refinement, licensing the GIS tooling solution to various organizations for their specific data exploration needs.

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels4 records

Marketing channels7 records

Core offering

OpenUp builds open-source civic technology tools and data platforms that make government information accessible to citizens, journalists, and civil society. The organization develops and maintains platforms for budget transparency (Vulekamali, Municipal Money), parliamentary monitoring (PMG, ParliMeter), GIS-based data exploration (Wazimap and its instances), medicines pricing, evictions guidance, and various other government accountability dashboards. In addition to building tools, OpenUp opens up data and provides data-driven storytelling training to support an active citizenry in South Africa and across Africa.

Product overview

OpenUp is a civic technology non-profit organization that operates a portfolio of interconnected data tools and platforms focused on government transparency, accountability, and citizen empowerment in South Africa. The core offering includes budget and financial portals (Vulekamali, Municipal Money), parliamentary monitoring tools (PMG, ParliMeter), GIS data explorers (Wazimap and its specialized instances like Youth Explorer), legal access tools (Evictions Guide, Case Management, Open Justice), health pricing transparency (Medicine Price Registry), and various sector-specific dashboards covering elections, employment, water, and land. The products work together to provide citizens with accessible data across government domains, supported by data training services and a developer community (Codebridge). All tools are built on open-source principles with the GitHub repository containing nearly 200 repositories.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Vulekamali: SA Budget Portal - makes government budget data and processes accessible to citizens
• Wazimap
• Municipal Money
• ParliMeter
• Africa Data Hub
• Youth Explorer
• Open Gazettes
• Living Wage
• Medicine Price Registry
• Evictions Guide
• Water Wazi
• Whose Vote Counts

Products and services

• Vulekamali (SA Budget Portal) A collaborative SA Budget Portal with National Treasury and Imali Yethu that makes government budget data and processes accessible, cutting through jargon and bulky documentation to enable informed citizen participation in the budget process.
• Wazimap Multi-region GIS data exploration platform enabling citizens to explore relationships between geography, population, and resources. Includes Wazimap Next Generation with enhanced social impact analysis capabilities. Powers multiple instances for different organizations including Africa Data Hub, Youth Explorer, SANEF elections dashboard, and more.
• PMG (Parliamentary Monitoring Group) Tool providing accurate, objective information on parliamentary committee proceedings in the form of detailed unofficial minutes, documents, and sound recordings since 2007. Long-standing partnership since 2009 with PMG.
• Municipal Money Collaborative platform with National Treasury that makes municipal-level budget and financial management data accessible, enabling citizens to monitor how municipalities manage public money. Features informational videos and API access.
• ParliMeter Parliamentary transparency dashboard developed with OUTA and PMG, co-funded by the European Union, converting South African parliamentary records into searchable visual data for tracking MP, party, and committee performance.
• Medicine Price Registry (MPR) Open source platform providing regulated medicines pricing in South Africa to empower individual health decisions and transparency in pharmaceutical costs.
• Evictions Guide Free legal resource repository helping tenants and landlords navigate the complicated eviction process in South Africa, assisting thousands with housing rights information.
• National Lottery Tool South African National Lottery explorer built with investigative journalist Raymond Joseph that has exposed hundreds of millions of rands in lottery corruption by making grant information keyword searchable.
• Africa Data Hub Portal for African data supporting accurate journalism and an informed citizenry, providing climate data through Climate Observer dashboard and other datasets.
• Youth Explorer Wazimap instance displaying youth-centered data for South Africa in collaboration with SALDRU and the Presidency, used by policymakers in Mpumalanga and Western Cape governments.
• Water Wazi Interactive water-centered data exploration tool that has inspired investigative reporting on sewage and water quality issues, with the Rivers of Sewage series shortlisted for Sigma Awards.
• Open Gazettes Free, open platform providing access to government gazettes online, enabling journalists and citizens to find, read, and share official government publications.
• Case Management System Digitization system for legal advice offices coordinated through Community Advice Offices South Africa, helping improve case tracking, paralegal management, and data oversight.
• Presidential Employment Stimulus Dashboard Dashboard making employment stimulus progress open and accessible for all South Africans, co-developed with the Presidency and used by academics and policymakers for research on youth employment.
• Whose Vote Counts Political party funding dashboard co-developed with My Vote Counts providing interactive visualizations on party political funding sources in South Africa for oversight and research.
• People's Land Map Interactive open map in partnership with Ndifuna Ukwazi showing distribution of public land in City of Cape Town, used in eviction cases and the People's Land Campaign.
• Open Justice Tool opening up NPA (National Prosecuting Authority) accountability through data exploration and investigative support.
• Living Wage Calculator Calculator tool for determining fair wage standards to promote economic transparency.
• SANEF Local Government Election Dashboard Wazimap-based election dashboard providing easy access to information about elections and service delivery in South Africa.
• Procurement Literacy Guide Educational guide helping citizens understand government procurement processes and public spending transparency.
• WaterCAN System National campaign system for water safety monitoring and advocacy.
• Data Training Services Data-driven storytelling training for public and private sector professionals covering the full data processing pipeline from sourcing, cleaning, analyzing to visualizing and presenting data. Includes 80+ participants in training activities representing African national statistics agencies under the Global Partnership for Sustainable Data's Capacity Accelerator Network.

Quantifiable outcome

• Exposed hundreds of millions of rands in National Lotteries corruption
• +4 more outcomes

Named customers10 records

Segments5 records

Ideal customer profiles4 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

AI capability6 records

Feature6 records

Partnerships

15 partnerships are on record, tiered core, strategic and minor.

• National TreasurycoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2023Long-standing strategic partner on budget transparency initiatives. Collaborative development of Vulekamali (SA Budget Portal) and Municipal Money dashboard. National Treasury has expressed high satisfaction with OpenUp's quality of work, value for money, partnership ethos, and commitment to transparency outcomes.
• Parliamentary Monitoring Group (PMG)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerPartnership since 2009 for parliamentary monitoring website development and maintenance. OpenUp has been instrumental in constructing PMG's technological infrastructure, handling data, design, and development processes for multiple assets.
• Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (OUTA)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerConsortium partner with OUTA and PMG on European Union-funded parliamentary oversight dashboard (ParliMeter). Partnership aims to improve transparency and accountability in South African Parliament.
• Imali YethucoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerCoalition of civil society organizations partnered with National Treasury and OpenUp on budget transparency and public participation initiatives, specifically Vulekamali.
• CIVICUScoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerPartnership on Digital Democracy Initiative and DDISA Fund. Co-creating with digital democracy community of Sub-Saharan Africa to build support mechanism for regional innovators.
• Code for AllcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerActive member of Code for All Network, contributing to global civic technology ecosystem. Participates in network activities, summits, and knowledge sharing.
• Africa Data HubcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerPartnership under Africa Data Hub for responsibly sourced data supporting accurate reporting. OpenUp serves as implementing partner for African data initiatives.
• Southern Africa Labour and Development Research Unit (SALDRU)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerPartner on Youth Explorer Wazimap instance providing youth-centered data for South Africa. Data sourced from The Presidency.
• Ndifuna UkwazicoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerPartner on People's Land Map project showing distribution of public land in City of Cape Town. Map used extensively in eviction cases and advocacy campaigns.
• SIOC Community Development TruststrategicStrategic or Co-development PartnerPartnership on SIOC dashboard for displaying impact data on communities. Ongoing collaboration as beacon of productive impact activities.
• Civic Tech Innovation NetworkcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerActive partner in Civic Tech Innovation Network and Africa civic tech ecosystem. Co-hosted Digital Democracy community activities and launched funding guide 'Playbook Starter'.
• Global Partnership for Sustainable Data (Capacity Accelerator Network)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerPartnership with UN Foundation on Capacity Accelerator Network training. Conducting regular technical training to regional audience including African national statistics agencies, three times per week.
• South African National Bioinformatics InstitutestrategicStrategic or Co-development PartnerPartnership to establish infrastructure for African Public Health Labs, enabling seamless sharing of pathogen genomic data. Advanced health informatics collaboration.
• Open Cities LabcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerPartner on Africa Data Hub Wazimap projects, supporting GIS data integration and spatial analysis capabilities.
• Green Connection South AfricaminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerClimate justice organization partnered on advocacy work. Used Vulekamali prints for advocacy efforts.

Scale indicators7 records

Recent moves8 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Direct peers

• GovTrack: US non-profit that tracks the activities of the US Congress, providing legislative tracking and transparency tools. Closely comparable product functionality to ParliMeter and PMG.
• mySociety: UK-based civic tech organization that builds tools like TheyWorkForYou and WhatDoTheyKnow for parliamentary and government transparency. Closely aligned in mission and product approach.
• Code for America: US civic tech nonprofit that builds digital services and advocates for open government. Similar non-profit model, government partnership approach, and tool-building for citizen-facing services.
• Code for Africa: Africa's largest civic technology network, building data-driven journalism and transparency tools across the continent. Directly comparable to OpenUp in mission, open-source approach, and African civic tech focus.
• Open Knowledge Foundation: Global open data advocacy and tooling organization promoting open government data worldwide. Comparable through shared open data philosophy and government transparency mission.

Broad incumbents

• Sunlight Foundation: US-based transparency organization focused on government accountability, lobbying disclosure, and open data. Comparable mission with a broader national scope and more established funding.

Emerging players

• Open Contracting Partnership: Multi-stakeholder initiative promoting transparent and accountable public contracting. Comparable open government focus with specific overlap on public procurement transparency that OpenUp's Procurement Literacy Guide addresses.

Regional players

• Code for Germany (Open Knowledge Foundation Germany): German civic tech community that builds open-source tools for government transparency and citizen services. Similar volunteer/civic tech model but operating in a European context.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• GitHubgithub.com/openupsa
• Facebookfacebook.com/OpenUpSA
• LinkedInza.linkedin.com/company/open-up-south-africa
• Instagraminstagram.com/openup_southafrica

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles18 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about OpenUp