South African Fintech Startup, Clickatell Bags $91-Million in its Latest Round of Funding

Clickatell, a Cape Town-based and California-based fintech firm, CPaaS innovator, and creator of the Chat Commerce platform, announced yesterday that it had raised $91 million in its latest Series C round of funding.

Arrowroot Capital led this round, with Kennedy Lewis Investment Management, Endeavor Global, and Harvest also participating.

According to a press release, Clickatell will use the Series C capital to scale and expand three key areas: the accelerated development and innovation of its Chat Commerce offering, the expansion of its footprint in the United States, and the scaling of sales and marketing efforts in response to growing demand from leading brands.

The new funds will also allow the company to significantly expand its engineering capabilities. It has already set aside over 200 positions, with a strong emphasis on expanding its African talent pool in the coming months.

“Clickatell was the first to introduce chat banking in 2019, bringing banking services functionality to chat channels.” “Our successes would not have been possible without the trust and collaboration of our customers, who include some of Africa’s largest and most successful companies,” said Pieter de Villiers, Co-Founder and CEO of Clickatell.

“We are excited to collaborate with businesses and financial institutions from across the continent to enable Chat Commerce, the future of digital commerce and engagement.” “Within the next few years, every consumer in Africa will engage with family and friends via chat, as well as connect, interact, and transact with the brands they love through their preferred chat platform,” De Villiers added.

The Clickatell platform has been recognized as a global leader in mobile messaging/CPaaS (Communications Platform as a Service) and payments within chat. During the COVID-19 period alone, Clickatell processed over 30 billion interactions and 2 billion commerce transactions, allowing customer-centric brands to connect, interact, and transact with their customers wherever they were sheltering in place during the pandemic.

The Real Importance of Chat Commerce

The Chat Commerce market, with a massive $80+ billion Total Addressable Market (TAM), is regarded as the third big wave of digital commerce, following the eCommerce and App Commerce markets.

According to Clickatell, chat is the world’s largest digital platform, with 7.7 billion users compared to 4.7 billion internet users, making it nearly impossible for businesses to operate without communicating and transacting with customers through chat channels.

Chat Commerce enables businesses to easily facilitate significantly improved customer experiences through chat, while also being far more efficient for customers and operational costs.

Clickatell believes it is uniquely positioned to capitalize on the intersection of communications (CPaaS, CCaaS) and commerce (digital payments) by providing an end-to-end Chat Commerce Platform.

Clickatell serves over 10,000 customers, including Coca-Cola, Deloitte, GT Bank, Booking.com, GoDaddy, IKEA, Novartis, Standard Bank, Tangerine, Telegram, US Foods, Visa, Zipcar, Capitec, and others. In its recently launched Chat 2 Pay offering, Clickatell’s low / no-code, feature-rich Chat Commerce orchestration capability includes assisted (chat desk) and unassisted (bots) chat and secure payments capability.

“We share Clickatell’s vision that brands will need to invest in Chat Commerce to transform their customer experience,” said Matt J. Safaii, Founder and Managing Partner at Arrowroot Capital.

“With 93 percent of conversations on its Chat Commerce Platform ending in a transaction, Clickatell is sure to make waves in this growing sector.” We’re thrilled to be able to assist them in their quest to become the category-defining, global leader in Chat Commerce.”

Is Clickatell still interested in Africa?

In terms of its African plans, De Villiers stated that the company will not only look to expand its already significant market influence, but will also continue to invest in bridging the growing gap between the demand and supply of digital skills on the continent, as well as encouraging entrepreneurship and start-up innovation.

“While expansion in the United States is a high priority in this capital raise, Africa will remain a core market for us and one where our purpose of making the world a better place for all through technology really shines through.” “We are proud of the work we do with www.SiMODiSA.org to support entrepreneurship on the continent through the Startup Act, as well as furthering the creation of future proof jobs through the TechXit digital skills initiative,” said De Villiers, who is also the Chairman of SiMODiSA, an industry-led initiative to address and overcome barriers that SMEs and start-ups face in South Africa.

“Africa has a wealth of talent and Clickatell will continue to work with both the public and private sectors to ensure that the potential, both of individuals and companies, can be realized,” he concluded.