$4 M seed funding raised by SA’s Talk360 to expand calling business, build payment platform

Talk360, a South African-based international calling app that allows users to make safe and economical calls to any landline or mobile phone in the globe, has raised $4 million in early capital as it prepares to launch a new pan-African payment platform in mid-2022.

Talk360, created in 2016 by Dean Hiine, a South African entrepreneur, and Dutch entrepreneurs Hans Osnabrugge and Jorne Schamp, allows users to make calls to any landline or mobile phone in the globe. With headquarters in South Africa, the Netherlands, India, and Nigeria, it is Africa’s top international calling app, having connected over two million users in 2021.

After raising a US$4 million seed round from HAVAC, 4Di Capital, and several prominent fintech angel investors, including unicorn founders and executives such as Gaston Aussems (ex-Mollie), Robert Kraal (ex-Adyen), Gabriel de Montessuss (president of WorldPay International), and Marnix van der Ploeg (president of WorldPay International), it now plans to expand further (ex-Booking.com and EQT).

The introduction of a pan-African payment platform is critical to that expansion. While the Talk360 app is rapidly gaining popularity across the continent, with an increasing number of paying customers, accessibility has been a problem for the region’s 500 million unserved individuals. Users can’t buy Talk360 airtime because they don’t have internet banking, or their local currencies or payment methods aren’t supported.

The new payment platform intends to solve the ongoing issue of inaccessibility by allowing consumers to buy items and services in any currency and with over 160 different payment methods. Other service providers will be able to use it as well.

“From the start, our mission was 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.

“The Talk360 app is now the number one calling app in Africa, independent of users’ currency or preferred way of payment. Thanks to our +750,000 physical points of sale and ability to support mobile wallets, our reach goes beyond the traditional credit and debit card support that international companies usually use. We now have enough traction to attract internationally renowned investors to expand our footprint and allow other companies to use our unique single checkout payment platform for all of Africa.”

Talk360’s ability to overcome the obstacle of distribution in Africa and organic development, according to Ian Lessem, managing partner of HAVAC, was “nothing short of extraordinary,” citing the quality of its product, technology, and leadership team.

“With HAVAÍC’s experience, networks and complementary investments in Africa, we are incredibly excited about the prospects of Talk360. We believe the business will not only continue on a path of exponential customer acquisition but is well on its way to leverage this growth by offering other complementary technology-enabled products to its growing customer base,” he said.