Clickatell (company)
| Private | |
| Industry | Communications |
| Founded | 2000 |
| Founder | Pieter de Villiers, Casper de Villiers, Danie du Toit and Patrick Lawson |
| Headquarters | California |
| Website | www |
Clickatell is a business messaging and chat commerce company that created an API in the year 2000 to send SMS text messages from a software application, via the internet to consumers’ mobile phones.[1] The San Francisco Bay Area-headquartered company has offices in South Africa, Nigeria, and Canada.[2]
The company provides an enterprise-grade chat commerce software service that helps businesses connect, interact and transact with their consumers through text and chat messaging.[3][4]
As of February 2022, the company partners with 960 mobile operators in more than 220 countries and territories worldwide.[4]
History and background
Clickatell was started in the year 2000 by brothers Pieter de Villiers and Casper de Villiers, along with their friends Danie du Toit and Patrick Lawson. The founders developed an application programming interface (API) between computers and mobile phones.[1]
Initially, founded in Cape Town, South Africa, Clickatell acquired a business in the US, and moved its headquarters to Silicon Valley in 2006, after receiving Series A funding from Sequoia Capital.[1] The company created the four-digit SMS code as an alternative for WhatsApp’s email sign up process. Later, it became an authorized WhatsApp Business Solution Provider and started partnering with organizations such as Nigerian banks to provide chat banking digital commerce services to consumers.[3] The company also collaborated with the airlines, FlySafair,[5] and MTN South Africa to launch chat commerce on WhatsApp.[6]
In 2021, the company partnered with Visa to launch a service for merchants to request payment from consumers through text and chat messaging channels.[7]
In February 2022, the company raised $91m in Series C funding.[2] In September 2022, Clickatell partnered with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to introduce a USSD channel to deliver the eNaira, a bank-backed digital currency, to the citizens with a phone.[8]
Awards and recognition
In April 2021, Clickatell was ranked #2 in Fast Company South Africa’s Most Innovative Companies list.[9] The company has won Bronze Stevie Awards at the International Business Awards in 2021 and 2022.[10][11] It was also recognized as Communications Solutions Provider of the Year at the 13th BoICT Awards presented by Nigeria CommunicationsWeek in May 2022.[12]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Wasserman, Helena. "The incredible story of how a South African company sparked a global tech revolution – with four lines of code". Business Insider.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Kene-Okafor, Tage (22 February 2022). "Clickatell raises $91M to scale its chat commerce platform and US expansion". TechCrunch.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Onwuegbuchi, Chike (24 August 2018). "Clickatell partners Nigerian banks to roll out chat banking capabilities". The Guardian Nigeria News.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Larkin, Philippa (February 24, 2022). "SA's Clickatell secures R1.4 billion in funding as one idea snowballed into success". www.iol.co.za.
- ↑ Monzon, Luis (September 24, 2022). "How Chat Commerce is Kicking Off a Convenience Revolution in South Africa". IT News Africa.
- ↑ "Clickatell Helps MTN South Africa Launch Chat Commerce on WhatsApp". Yahoo! Finance. 26 March 2019.
- ↑ "Clickatell and Visa's Cybersource Deliver "Chat 2 Pay" Contactless Checkout In Store and In Chat to Businesses Worldwide". www.prnewswire.com. September 14, 2021.
- ↑ "Clickatell Partners With Central Bank to Bring Nigerians eNaira Banking". www.pymnts.com. 19 September 2022.
- ↑ "Most Innovative Companies Awards + Winners 2021". Fast Company. 19 April 2021.
- ↑ "2021 Stevie® Winners and Finalists - Organization Clickatell". stevieawards.com.
- ↑ "2022 Stevie Award winners". stevieawards.com.
- ↑ "Clickatell Scoops Prestigious Nigerian ICT Award". TechMarket.Africa. 10 June 2022.
External links
This article "Clickatell (company)" is from Wikipedia. The list of its authors can be seen in its historical. Articles taken from Draft Namespace on Wikipedia could be accessed on Wikipedia's Draft Namespace.