South African international calling app Talk360, which enables people around the world to make reliable and affordable calls to any landline or mobile phone worldwide, has secured an additional US$3 million in seed round funding, taking its total seed round to US$7 million after its first closing in May.
Co-founded in 2016 by South African venture builder Dean Hiine with Dutch entrepreneurs Hans Osnabrugge and Jorne Schamp, Talk360 provides phone calls to any offline landline or mobile phone in the world. It is Africa’s leading international calling app, with offices in South Africa, the Netherlands, India and Nigeria, and connected more than two million people in 2021.
Disrupt Africa reported earlier this year on the startup’s US$4 million seed round, which has now grown to US$7 million. Investors include Allan Gray E2 Ventures (AGEV), Kalon Venture Partners, E4E Africa, Endeavor, existing lead investor HAVAÍC and the co-founders of TymeBank, Tjaart van der Walt and Coenraad Jonker.
The funds will help the company grow its market share in South Africa, drive its growth on the rest of the continent and launch its market first pan-African payment platform in 2023. In the past year, Talk360 has seen 167 per cent growth in customers and 130 per cent revenue growth, and has nearly doubled the number of calling minutes to and from South Africa.
“Our mission is to bridge distance and connect lives by offering reliable, affordable, and easy-to-use digital services, delivered in a localised manner to all communities, particularly emerging countries, so they can connect to the world,” said Hiine. “But we’re not just solving socio-economic issues: we’re also offering micro-entrepreneurship and income generating opportunities to our growing network of agents across the country.”
Clive Butkow, CEO of Kalon Venture Partners, said the Talk360 team had “wealth of experience” in the communications space in South Africa and across the continent.
“We’re excited to add this investment to the Kalon portfolio, and believe it has the potential to rapidly scale across Africa,” he said.
