Yazi, a South African AI-native analysis platform constructed on WhatsApp, has closed its first undisclosed institutional funding spherical, giving the startup a pre-money valuation of R30 million ($1.6 million).
The spherical was led by 3 Capital Ventures (3CV), the South African early-stage enterprise agency spun out of Allan Grey, an funding administration agency.
The funding will fund product improvement, together with the launch of automated voice interviews by way of WhatsApp, increase Yazi’s analysis participant panel throughout Africa, and assist worldwide scaling as demand from UK and European analysis companies grows.
“The US and UK aren’t markets we’re getting into within the conventional sense, they’re discovering us,” mentioned Timothy Treagus, the corporate’s chief government officer. “We rank primary on Google for WhatsApp analysis key phrases globally, and over 80% of our inbound leads now come by way of AI search, individuals asking ChatGPT and Gemini for WhatsApp analysis instruments and touchdown on us.”
In South Africa, round 28 to 29 million individuals use WhatsApp, whereas in the UK, the quantity is about 41 to42 million. Throughout Europe, adoption is extraordinarily excessive: in Spain, roughly 33 million individuals use it, and in Germany, the determine is over 50 million.
WhatsApp is already embedded in each day life throughout the globe; this funding offers Yazi the runway to scale from a cross-global analysis infrastructure while not having to rebuild consumer behaviour from scratch.
Based in 2022 by Mzwandile Sotsaka, chief know-how officer and Timothy Treagus, chief government officer, Yazi operates in over 15 international locations. Yazi permits organisations to run AI-moderated interviews, surveys, diary research, and panel analysis immediately by way of WhatsApp, the messaging app utilized by 3.2 billion individuals globally.
“We constructed Yazi as a result of the analysis business was ignoring the largest communication platform on the planet,” mentioned Treagus. “Conventional analysis instruments that depend on app downloads, e mail addresses, and broadband simply don’t work right here. We’ve constructed the infrastructure to repair that.”
Yazi’s platform makes use of AI to conduct pure conversations with contributors, probing deeper and following up in actual time, replicating the work of expert researchers however at a large scale. Multi-day diary research might be deployed and analysed robotically, with transcripts, themes, and presentation-ready insights generated by the system.
With entry to 1.8 million pre-qualified contributors throughout demographics and geographies, Yazi mentioned it delivers quick solutions to questions starting from product suggestions to coverage analysis, all by way of a channel individuals already belief.
“We meet individuals the place they already are,” mentioned Sotsaka. “That’s why our response charges are basically increased than conventional analysis, and why we’re reaching populations the business has traditionally did not entry.”
Yazi says its income grew 2.5x over the previous monetary yr, with 64% month-on-month progress in its most up-to-date quarter. The corporate counts Previous Mutual, Choose n Pay, Discovery, Capitec, and Ipsos amongst its South African purchasers, alongside a rising portfolio within the UK, Europe, and the US.
Greater than 65% of income is now foreign-denominated, signalling robust worldwide traction. Ipsos just lately signed a 12-month tracker contract, whereas Previous Mutual is launching a quarterly analysis tracker.
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