Talk360, a South African startup announced that it has closed a $4 million seed funding round led by HAVAIC, a venture capital and advisory firm based in Cape Town, South Africa. Other investors include Gaston Aussems (ex-Mollie), Robert Kraal (ex-Adyen), Gabriel de Montessuss (President WorldPay International) and Marnix van der Ploeg (ex-Booking.com and EQT)
Founded in 2016 by Dean Hiine, Hans Osnabrugge, and Jorne Schamp, Talk360 says its mission is to create shared value by offering a reliable, affordable, and easy-to-use service, delivered in a localized manner to all communities, particularly the underserviced, so they can connect to the world.
Its Talk360 international calling app allows reliable and affordable phone calls to any offline landline or mobile phone in the world. It is a simple app that helps people call their friends, reach out to their family, and speak with their loved ones over the phone. Only the initiator of the call needs a smartphone, the calling app and internet to make calls.
The startup says that the new funding will be used to expand its international calling operations across Africa and also build a payment platform that will integrate all available payment options across Africa. The startup stated that this is a much needed service as it was hindering the growth of commerce in the continent.
Talk360 co-founder and managing director for Africa Dean Hiine told TechCrunch he anticipates great growth for its payment platform, which he says will also make it easy for international merchants to sell to users in Africa too. He added that the startup decided to build its own payment platform informed by the need to make payment and checkout easy for its users in Africa.
Talk360 walks with different payment systems scattered across Africa and it hopes the new platform also ease payment issues for its calling operations
The startup says its solution was able to connect 2 million people in 2021 and has paying users in 170 countries. This number is expected to increase as Talk30 increases its marketing efforts and expansion plans, which include the setup of a hub in East Africa, primarily Kenya.
