South African calling app Talk360 raises R27m in funding
Talk360, an international calling app, has raised $1.4m (R27m) in a pre-series A funding round, led by Havaic, to support its goal of connecting seven million people by 2025 and advancing towards long-term profitability.
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Talk360 is a South African and Dutch calling app that enables affordable international calls, requiring only the initiator to have the app and internet connectivity to reach any number globally.
According to the company's co-founder and CEO, Hans Osnabrugg, Talk360 has seen an increase from 2.3 million users to four million in 2023.
Funding
In 2022, the company raised $7m through two seed funding rounds, attracting investments from African venture capitalists and fintech angels across Europe and South Africa, including executives from Adyen and Mollie, as well as the founders of Tyme Bank.
After the raises, Talk360 sought to not only expand its user base among the African diaspora in the UK, US, and South Africa but also to explore the potential of establishing the first payment aggregator designed to streamline the payment experience across the fragmented African market and solve the challenge of failed payment attempts for both merchants and consumers.
The recent capital injection was based on the same $30m+ valuation the company received in 2022 and amounted to $1m from Havaic and an additional $400,000 from other investors.
It comes at a time when the global venture capital landscape faces unprecedented challenges.
The next steps
With the additional funds in place, Talk360 plans to localise into more African languages and set up more local and global partnerships with remittance companies, retailers, and brands.
“A better understanding of our audiences will also see the upcoming releases supporting languages such as Amharic and Portuguese. This talks to the significant demand of our Ethiopian customers and highlights our willingness to localise our solution where needed,” says Dean Hiine, co-founder and MD Africa at Talk360.
“Talk360 has built trust within underserved communities by offering a solution that resonates with their unique needs. This new funding will help the business capitalise on that trust to create even more tailored solutions that deliver value at a local level.”
"The additional funding," Osnabrugge adds, "will enable us to deliver on our next phase of growth to reach seven million people and achieve profitability across our global operation."
The company has plans to open the platform to external merchants before Christmas 2024.
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