SA's Leading Calling App, Talk360 Secures $4M Seed Round to Expand Across Africa
Talk360, a leading Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) player in Africa, which enables people to make international calls through its app for a fee, has secured $4 million in a HAVAÍC-led seed funding round.
Some angel investors like Gaston Aussems (ex-Mollie), Robert Kraal (ex-Adyen), Gabriel de Montessuss (President WorldPay International), and Marnix van der Ploeg (ex-Booking.com and EQT) also participated in the funding round which will be used to expand international calling operations and launch a new pan-African payment platform in mid-2022.
The South African venture builder Dean Hiine co-founded Talk360 with Dutch entrepreneurs Hans Osnabrugge and Jorne Schamp in
2016 as a traveling app (used to avoid roaming charges). Nonetheless, the App evolved into a calling App after social media Apps like WhatsApp introduced the internet calls option.
Currently, the startup operates by integrating with older payment service providers, which are mostly constrained by region. Hiine claims that his new platform will bring all of Africa’s “scattered payment methods” to a single platform, which he believes will benefit Talk360’s bottom line as well as the bottom lines of other merchants who will use it.
Hiine explained the startup’s mission “From the start, our mission was to bridge distance and connect lives by offering reliable, affordable, and easy-to-use digital services, delivered in a localized manner to all communities, particularly emerging countries, so they can connect to the world.”
“The Talk360 app is now the number one calling app in Africa, independent of users’ currency or preferred way of payment. Thanks to our + 750K physical points of sale and ability to support mobile wallets, our reach goes beyond the traditional credit and debit card support that international companies usually use. We now have enough traction to attract internationally renowned investors to expand our footprint and allow other companies to use our unique single checkout payment platform for all of Africa,” Hiine added.
Commenting on the investment, Lessem Managing Partner at HAVAÍC said “With HAVAÍC’s experience, networks, and complementary investments in Africa, we are incredibly excited about the prospects of Talk360. We believe the business will not only continue on a path of exponential customer acquisition but is well on its way to leveraging this growth by offering other complementary technology-enabled products to its growing customer base.”
“Through the calling app, Talk360 has already connected many people and is consistently improving the lives of its customers. With 60% of the population under the age of 25, there is huge potential for mobile digital services. The new payment platform will make it possible for providers to offer their services across the continent and to offer a suitable payment option for every consumer,” Aussems said.
Talk360 calling App, which has offices in South Africa, the Netherlands, India, and Nigeria, was used by over 2 million people in 2021 and has paid users in 170 countries so far, and this number is expected to grow as the startup ramps up its marketing efforts and expansion plans, which include establishing a hub in Kenya.
It is designed in such a way that only the initiator requires the app and internet – a smartphone – to make calls, which will help it to accelerate its mission to create jobs and reduce unemployment in the communities it serves through its rapidly expanding agent network.
“By creating jobs and micro-entrepreneurship opportunities within different communities, we learned how we can help African consumers and businesses connect with their loved ones,” Osnabrugge said.