The South African-based international calling application, Talk360, has successfully garnered $1.4 million in a pre-Series A funding round. This significant financial injection is aimed at propelling the company towards its ambitious target of connecting seven million users by the year 2025. Additionally, the funding is expected to pave the way for the company’s sustained profitability in the long run.
Talk360, which was co-founded in 2016 by the South African entrepreneur Dean Hiine, alongside Dutch business partners Hans Osnabrugge and Jorne Schamp, is designed to offer a user-friendly interface that allows consumers to make cost-effective international calls to both mobile phones and landline numbers.
Having established itself as the premier international calling application in Africa, Talk360 boasts operational offices in several countries, including South Africa, the Netherlands, India, and Nigeria. In the year 2023 alone, the app succeeded in connecting over four million individuals globally. This follows on the heels of a substantial $7 million seed funding round that the company secured in the previous year, 2022.
The latest funding round was predominantly financed by HAVAÍC, a long-time investor in Talk360, which contributed $1 million. The remaining $400,000 was raised from various other investors, culminating in a valuation of the startup at an estimated $30 million.
Hans Osnabrugge, who serves as the CEO of Talk360, expressed immense pride in the company’s exponential growth. He highlighted the company’s remarkable progress, which saw a user base expansion from 2.3 million to 4 million in just two years, up to 2023. Osnabrugge emphasized that the new capital would be instrumental in furthering their mission to connect African migrants with their families back in their home countries.
The company has outlined plans to utilize the fresh capital by expanding its services to include more African languages and by forging additional partnerships both locally and internationally. These partnerships are expected to span across various sectors, including remittance services, retail outlets, and other brands.
Ian Lessem, the managing partner at HAVAÍC, lauded Talk360’s resilience and ability to thrive amidst challenging economic climates. He expressed confidence that the new round of funding would enable the company to intensify its impact, particularly in reaching out to communities in Africa that are often overlooked by mainstream services.
