Talk360, the international calling app that enables people around the world to make calls to any landline or mobile phone, has raised $1.4 million (R25 million) in a Pre-Series A funding round.
According to a statement, the round was led by its long-standing investor Havaic.
The capital injection will drive the company’s goal of connecting seven million people by 2025, while strengthening its journey towards long-term profitability.
“We're incredibly proud of Talk360's growth,” says Hans Osnabrugge, co-founder and CEO of Talk360.
“Over the past two years, we’ve gone from connecting 2.3 million users to four million in 2023. This funding will help us continue our mission of connecting African migrant communities in South Africa with their families back home.”
Talk360 is a South African and Dutch calling app that enables affordable international calls via voice over internet protocol, requiring only the initiator to have the app and internet connectivity to reach any number globally.
In 2022, Talk360 raised $7 million through two seed funding rounds, attracting investments from African venture capitalists and fintech angels across Europe and SA.
After the raises, Talk360 sought to expand its user base among the African diaspora in the UK, US and SA. It also explored the potential of establishing a 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.
It plans to expand its in-house payments platform to external companies across the continent.
“Our payment platform has been exclusively used in-house to establish a strong foundation. The results have been exceptional, with an average 25% increase in payment conversion. We are strongly considering opening the platform to external merchants before Christmas 2024,” says Osnabrugge.
This payments platform will combine all locally available payment methods and currencies across Africa, together with over one million cash points of sale, he notes.
With the additional funds in place, the company says it plans to localise into more African languages, and establish further local and global partnerships with remittance companies, retailers and brands.
Founded in 2015, Talk360 counts users in over 190 countries with offices in SA, Nigeria, India and The Netherlands, to connect lives and bridge distance to connect family and friends via calls.
The recent capital injection was based on the same $30 million+ valuation the company received in 2022, it says.
“A better understanding of our audiences will also see the upcoming releases supporting languages such as Amharic and Portuguese,” says Dean Hiine, co-founder and MD Africa of Talk360.
“This talks to the significant demand of our Ethiopian customers and highlights our willingness to localise our solution where needed.
“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 more tailored solutions that deliver value at a local level.”
Users can download Talk360 from the App Store, Google Playstore or Huawei AppGallery.
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