Clickatell makes it possible for brands and consumers to engage and transact via mobile chat and digital channels with industry-leading communications commerce platforms and solutions.
With an enormous Total Addressable Market (TAM) that exceeds $80 billion, the Chat Commerce market is considered the third biggest form of digital commerce, after the eCommerce and App Commerce markets. One of the biggest operators in this space—Clickatell—is announcing today that it has raised $91 million in its series C round of funding. The financing, which is coming a decade after the company raised its last round, was piloted by Arrowroot Capital, with participation from Kennedy Lewis Investment Management,Endeavor Global and Harvest.
Founded in 2000, Clickatell’s SMS Gateway enables businesses to integrate SMS into any application or website, helping businesses to communicate with their customers via mobile messaging platforms.
Clickatell’s platform has been recognized as a global leader in powering mobile messaging/ CPaaS (Communications Platform as a Service) and payments within a chat.
Headquartered in California, with offices in South Africa, Nigeria, and Canada, Clickatell touts more than 10,000 customers, including global brands such as Coca Cola, Deloitte, GT Bank, Booking.com, GoDaddy, IKEA, Novartis, Standard Bank, Tangerine, Telegram, US Foods, Visa, Zipcar, Capitec and others.
Since 2020, Clickatell has processed over 30 billion interactions and 2 billion commerce transactions, the company said. In Nigeria alone, Clickatell reaches 17 million end customers, and up to 1.3 million payments transactions are carried out daily.
Commenting on the funding, Matt J. Safaii, Founder and Managing Partner at Arrowroot Capital, said:
“We have a shared vision with Clickatell that brands will need to invest in Chat Commerce to transform their customer experience. Wiith 93 percent of conversations that transpire on its Chat Commerce Platform ending in a transaction, Clickatell is sure to continue to make waves in this growing sector. We’re delighted to support them on their way to becoming the category-defining, global leader in Chat Commerce.”
Alison Collier, Endeavor South Africa Managing Director also commented; she said:
“Endeavor is incredibly privileged to invest into Clickatell, one of the most admired and successful high-growth companies to emerge from South Africa. Clickatell has an exceptional CEO and talented team, who are leaders and role-models to entrepreneurs across the ecosystem, and we are fortunate to play a smart part in their journey.”
Clickatell plans to channel the fresh funds into three targeted areas: acceleration, development and innovation of its Chat Commerce offering, expansion into the United States, and scaling of sales and marketing efforts.
While Clickatell’s focus for now remains these, Pieter de Villiers, the company’s founder and Chief Executive Officer revealed that the company has plans for Africa. According to him, Clickatell will not only be looking to grow its already substantial market influence in Africa, but will continue to invest in addressing the widening 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 US is a high priority in this capital raise, Africa will remain a core market for us and one where our purpose of creating a better world for all through technology really shines through,” said Peter de Villiers.
“We are proud of the work we do with www.SiMODiSA.org on supporting entrepreneurship on the continent through the Startup Act, as well as furthering the creation of future proof jobs via the TechXit digital skills initiative. 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 added.
Ibhadojemu Lucky Emmanuel is a graduate of Education and Economics from the University of Benin. He has a passion for tech and business and has been writing professionally for over a period of five years. He's written across various topics and segments and knew tech-business was it when he first stumbled on it. He has a great passion for music and arts, and wants to visit as many countries as he can someday.
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