knock
talent intelligence
The Opportunity Layer
EDHE Absa InnoVarsity 2026
Category 5 · Innovative Industries
South Africa's Opportunity Layer

Opportunity should
find you.

Building South Africa's unbiased talent infrastructure layer to bridge the gap between education, corporate capital, and true career access.

Agentic transcript capturer Democratised exposure Debt clearance mechanism
knock
talent intelligence
EDHE Absa InnoVarsity 2026
Category 5 · Innovative Industries
our north star
It only takes 1 opportunity to change a life. We help it find you.
— Knock · Where opportunity finds the student.
knock
talent intelligence
The Ecosystem Friction
Bridging the divide
The Status Quo

The structural disconnect.

The market is fragmented. We lay the plumbing to connect supply directly to demand.

The Student
Attention is a premium — I can't waste time applying for things that don't apply to me. I'm not even aware of all the companies out there.
→ We bring the right and wanted opportunities to your door.
KNOCK
The Industry
We're posting on platforms our target students aren't on. We're drowning in noise and need quality over quantity.
→ We reach the quality talent you actually want.
knock
talent intelligence
Our Infrastructure Wedge
System operation mapping
How the engine works

The fibre network for opportunity.

Knock constructs the foundational pipelines. We replace manual workflows with automated, verified, systemic infrastructure.

01

Extracting Signal

Our agentic document parsing converts raw academic transcripts into verified, structured datasets — effortlessly.

transcript.pdf→
uni: "UCT"
degree: "BSc CompSci"
gpa: 78
Transcript Verified
02

Democratised Exposure

Stripping PII ensures objective filtering — completely neutralising implicit bias in early recruitment.

??Candidate · UCT-CS-T10
PII locked
PythonMLSQL+4
78% GPA
Yr 3
UCT
03

Unified Plumbing

Corporates plug into verified data clusters via targeted-audience WhatsApp drops and dynamic live-event tooling.

knock
talent intelligence
Go-To-Market
Traction & activity
Our wedge

An aid to kick-start
recruitment.

We are not an AI recruiter. Our initial wedge acts as a powerful assistant for HR teams — cutting through the noise to pinpoint potential candidates instantly.

How it lands: A recruiter at Company A opens Knock, selects "STEM grads · GPA ≥ 75%", and sees a ranked list of verified, anonymised candidates in seconds. Viewing a list costs R200. Unlocks cost R50. WhatsApp drops cost R2,500 per targeted-audience drop.
Live platform activity
Verified transcripts parsed today
142
across UCT, Wits and Stellenbosch pilots
27active corp scans
9audience drops queued
3universities
knock
talent intelligence
Venture Model & Impact
Sustainable capital flows
The financial moat

From compliance policy
to scalable impact.

We transform complex regulatory constraints into automated capital engines for student progression programmes.

The flywheel: Corporates need B-BBEE points. Students need their debt cleared. We route the same Rand through both — and own the data layer it runs on.

Consumption-led architecture

High-margin monetisation driven by micro-transactions: list views (R200), profile unlocks (R50), targeted-audience WhatsApp drops (R2,500).

The debt-clearance flywheel

Enterprise capital pays a transaction premium routed directly into university accounts to settle outstanding student balances — securing B-BBEE points and releasing trapped value.

knock
talent intelligence
Financial Projections
12-month rollout
Verified Unit Economics · Knock_Unit_Economics.xlsx

Projected revenue scaling.

Real student-growth curve from our pilot model. Fixed monthly burn of R3,062 against consumption revenue: profile unlocks (R50) and targeted-audience WhatsApp drops (R2,500).

Launch · M1 Month 1 · 50 students Year 1 · M12
Active Students
50
Per Excel growth curve
Cost per Student
R61.24/mo
R3,062 fixed burn ÷ active students
Monthly Revenue
R150
3 unlocks · 0 audience drops
Cumulative YTD
R150
vs R3,062 monthly burn
Source: Knock_Unit_Economics.xlsx · PROJECTIONS sheet
knock
talent intelligence
The Execution Team
Founders & senior leads
Who's behind the build

Engineered to implement.

Four operators — each chosen for what only they can unlock. Network, sales, ops, engineering.

DT
Founder

Dylan Tasdhary

FinTech MSc · Allan Gray Orbis Fellow · UCT
What he unlocks Network access to industry & premium UCT STEM grads
CH
Head of Sales

Chipo

UCT IS Masters · ex-Airbnb (Manager)
What she unlocks Enterprise pipeline & corporate sales execution
MQ
Head of Operations

Maqhobo

UCT FinTech · Cenfri Research Intern
What he unlocks Regulatory & compliance ops (POPIA · B-BBEE)
JR
CTO

Jordy

Fullstack engineer · ex-Entelect
What he unlocks Production AI & infrastructure build velocity
knock
talent intelligence
Compliance Moat
Enterprise sovereignty
Built for SA

Built for enterprise sovereignty.

Knock is not just a connector — it's a compliance routing layer built strictly for South Africa's regulatory frameworks.

Why it's the moat: The B-BBEE + POPIA scaffolding is the part that's hardest to copy and most expensive to build. Once corporates plug in, switching cost is real.

B-BBEE Integration

Automated routing of Skills Development and SED funds directly to student debt accounts. Companies secure tax points while unlocking premium talent.

Privacy & ethics (POPIA)

Democratised exposure removes implicit bias. PII is locked until explicit student consent is granted, guaranteeing audit-ready data.

knock
talent intelligence
The Ask
12-month runway · pilot to scale
Our Ask

R500k to take Knock
from pilot to 1,500 users.

12-month grant ask
R500k
12-month MVP grant · gets us to ~1,500 active students, cash-flow positive at month 7.
4%
Pre-revenue burn · M1–6 Operational cost serving up to 250 users/mo
R20k
48%
Founder runway · 12 months R20k/mo Cape Town living — full-time involvement
R240k
38%
Post-revenue burn · M6–12 Scale to 1,500 users + legal + accounting
R190k
10%
Contingency · ~17% buffer For overruns, regulatory shifts, opportunistic spend
R50k

Post-revenue burn breakdown (M6–12)

Co-founder stipend R10k/mo × 6 months
R60k
Operational burn Serving up to 1,500 active users
R100k
Legal fees POPIA, contracts, B-BBEE routing review
R20k
Accounting fees Bookkeeping, statutory returns
R10k
Why R500k is the right size: It covers full-time founder runway in Cape Town for 12 months, scales operational infrastructure to 1,500 users, and leaves a 17% contingency buffer — without diluting equity. Per our unit economics, we hit cash-flow positive at month 7 (~R3,888 net).
knock
talent intelligence
Interactive Sandbox
Dual-sided production architecture
Try the system

Simulated dual-sided architecture.

1Select Student Profile
2Select Enterprise Buyer
Company A · talent portal
Balance R4,500
View list R200 Unlock R50 Audience drop R2,500
Searching for high-performance engineering candidates across verified pools.
3Brand & Post Analytics
Last 30 days
82
Brand sentiment
↑ +6 vs last 30d
Engagement vs sector
47% vs banking avg 22%
Post performance · last 7
2,841 reach · 31% response
Talent funnel · this campaign
Reached
250
Unlocked
87
Responded
31
Interviewed
9
Click an action to execute real-time routing logic.
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