Arrowroot Capital leads $91m investment in Clickatell
Clickatell, the communications platform as a service (CPaaS) innovator and chat commerce leader, announced it had secured $91 million in its series C round. This round was led by Arrowroot Capital, with participation from Kennedy Lewis Investment Management, Endeavor Global and Harvest.
Clickatell, which has delivered double-digit profitable growth for several years, will use the series C capital to scale and expand three key areas: (i) Accelerated development and innovation of its chat commerce offering, (ii) Expansion of its footprint in the U.S., and (iii) Scaling of sales and marketing efforts on the back of growing demand from leading brands.
The new capital will also allow the company to significantly grow its engineering skills. It has already earmarked over 200 positions with a strong focus on boosting its African skills complement in the coming months.
“In 2019, Clickatell was the first to launch chat banking, bringing banking services functionality to chat channels. Our successes would not be possible without the trust and collaboration of our customers, some of Africa’s largest and most successful companies in the world,” said Pieter de Villiers, co-founder and CEO at Clickatell. “We look forward to working with businesses and financial institutions across the continent to enable chat commerce, the future of digital commerce and engagement. Soon, every consumer in Africa will engage family and friends via chat plus connect, interact and transact with the brands they love through their favourite chat platform.”
Clickatell’s platform has been recognised as a global leader in powering mobile messaging/ CPaaS and payments within chat. Clickatell processed more than 30 billion interactions, and 2 billion commerce transactions during the Covid-19 period alone as it enabled customer-centric brands to connect, interact and transact with their customers wherever they were sheltering in place during the pandemic.
Clickatell serves more than 10,000 customers, many of which are Fortune 500 companies and leading 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. Clickatell’s low / no-code, feature-rich chat commerce orchestration capability includes assisted (chat desk) and unassisted (bots) chat and secure payments capability in its recently launched Chat 2 Pay offering.
“We have a shared vision with Clickatell 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% 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.”
“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,” said Alison Collier, Endeavor South Africa managing director.
Commenting on its African plans, De Villiers said the company will not only be looking to grow its already substantial market influence 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 de Villiers, who is also chairman of SiMODiSA, an industry-led initiative to address and overcome barriers facings SMEs and start-ups in South Africa.
Are you seeking private equity or venture capital investment to grow your company? Africa Private Equity News now offers you the opportunity to connect with investors backing African businesses. Contact us at editor@africaprivateequitynews.com for our rate card and more information.