Talk360 raises $1.4 million in secondary deal led by HAVAÍC

Talk360, a calling app that permits worldwide calls to landlines or cellphones with a heavy give attention to the African market, has raised $1.4 million in a secondary funding led by HAVAÍC, the corporate’s lead investor since 2022.

The capital injection, supported by HAVAÍC’s restricted associate, Universum Wealth, will fund Talk360’s subsequent part of product improvement and platform growth, together with the launch of Shop360, a brand new function that permits customers to ship airtime, knowledge bundles, and top-ups to recipients worldwide.

“As Talk360 consolidates its place as a frontrunner within the African market and strikes into the expansion part of its startup journey, we’re excited to additional assist administration via larger shareholding and an ever-evolving relationship constructed on a typical imaginative and prescient to unravel real-world challenges in Africa and past,” mentioned Ian Lessem, Managing Accomplice at HAVAÍC.

The secondary funding follows the corporate’s $1.4 million pre-Sequence A spherical in 2024 and a $3 million seed spherical in 2022. It comes as Talk360 enters what it describes as a extra disciplined part of development, having reached profitability. 

“Talk360 is getting into its subsequent part as a worthwhile, scalable platform, not chasing development for its personal sake,” Hans Osnabrugge, Chief Govt Officer and co-founder, advised TechCabal. 

Though Talk360 is greatest recognized for its worldwide calling service, Osnabrugge mentioned the corporate’s latest product choices replicate an effort to answer how customers truly keep related throughout borders. 

He mentioned the corporate noticed that communication usually goes hand in hand with sensible assist, notably for diaspora customers who commonly help household and mates with important connectivity wants similar to airtime and knowledge. Shop360 was developed as an extension of this behaviour.

Transactions processed via Shop360 are powered by NjiaPay, a funds infrastructure firm spun out of Talk360 in 2024. NjiaPay handles fee orchestration, compliance, and settlement, whereas Talk360 retains full management of the client expertise.

“The perception behind it [Shop360] is easy: customers already come to Talk360 to remain related with individuals they care about. Enabling them to additionally assist those self same individuals with airtime, knowledge, and top-ups is a pure extension of that relationship, not a separate use case,” the corporate mentioned.

Based in 2016 by Dutch entrepreneurs Hans Osnabrugge and Jorne Schamp, alongside South African enterprise builder Dean Hiine, Talk360 was created to make worldwide calling extra accessible for African diaspora communities. The platform permits customers to position calls with out requiring the recipient to have Web entry, serving to it construct a worldwide person base of greater than six million individuals. 

The corporate operates a pay-as-you-go mannequin and costs $0.21 and $0.14 per minute for calls from South Africa and Nigeria, respectively. It says it generates $12 million in annual income. 

Talk360 competes with world calling apps similar to Rebtel and Libon. Nonetheless, it positions itself as essentially the most accessible choice for African diaspora customers, citing its community of greater than 500,000 native point-of-sale brokers in South Africa, in contrast with rivals that function primarily via digital channels. 

To this point, the corporate has raised $12.8 million and says its focus is shifting from fast growth to constructing a extra resilient platform.

“We’re centered on deepening worth for our customers, strengthening the core product, and increasing thoughtfully into adjoining companies that reinforce long-term belief and sustainability,” Osnabrugge added.