About Us
Clickatell is celebrating a quarter century of enabling brands to deliver digital service and commerce experiences in chat!
OUR PURPOSE
We see a world where every customer interaction is as effortless and instant as a friendly chat, saving time, building trust, and transforming how businesses deliver service and commerce.
OUR HISTORY
Every milestone for the past 25 years has fuelled a simple mission: to make communication faster, simpler, and more human.
HOW IT BEGAN
It started with four lines of code and a bold idea: to connect the internet to mobile phones with a text message. In 2000, in a tiny apartment in Cape Town, Pieter de Villiers (now our CEO), his twin brother Casper, and two friends Danie du Toit, and Patrick Lawson wrote four lines of code that turned this idea into a reality, and a global business was born!
COMPANY MILESTONES
2000
We connect internet businesses with consumers via SMS for the first time, using just four lines of code.
2001
We secure angel investment, moving from a free offering to paid for. Invited by largest US carrier, Cingular Wireless/ AT&T, to run a Developer Workshop.
2003
After three years Clickatell is profitable, serving 10,000+ customers over 80 countries with its web-based API’s and applications.
2004
Private equity investment firm Ethos acquires a stake in Clickatell. We are recognized as thought leaders in mobile messaging by Vodacom.
2005
We release our Campaign Manager application, and achieve a major enterprise client win: Oracle in the USA.
2005
We say goodbye to Danie du Toit, who passes away after a long battle with leukemia in 2005. We recognize his vision and contribution in helping establish Clickatell as a leading mobile enabler.
2006
Clickatell acquires MultiMode, Inc. (San Mateo, CA) and becomes a leader in enterprise SMS enablement in the USA, while securing a $6M Series A term sheet from Sequoia Capital, arguably the most famous of all VC firms.
2007
Clickatell becomes a US corporation and closes its Series A transaction with SA regulatory approval, while expanding our presence to London, UK.
2008
We win ‘a Best Mobile Messaging Application’ award for innovation in enterprise utility messaging (Cover2go) and release ‘on the go Authentication’ in partnership with RSA, leader in security applications in the US.
2009
Recognized by Gartner with ‘Cool Vendor’ award. US State Department selects Clickatell as mobile messaging partner for Obama's first trip to Africa. Our tech plays a pivotal role in rescue efforts during US Airways Flight 1549 crash into the Hudson River.
2010
Clickatell partners with Ushahidi to help re-unite missing children with parents during the Haiti 7.0 earthquake disaster. We receive multiple global awards for leadership in enterprise mobile messaging: MMA, WTN, Global Telecoms Business, MTN, etc.
2011
Clickatell secures $12M in Series B financing lead by Sequoia Capital and supported by DAG Ventures. Added to the Hottest Silicon Valley Startups list by research firm Lead411 while successfully navigating the financial crisis into recovery.
2012
San Jose’s “Silicon Valley Business Journal” awards Clickatell its Idea & Innovation Award for 2012. We also receive the Red Herring Top 100 Award and launch our Transact capability that becomes an award-winning platform for mobile payments and digital distribution of airtime.
2013
We expand our team with an office in Lagos, Nigeria to embed mobile payments within USSD & SMS, helping banks and brands innovate at the intersection of messaging and payments.
2014
We help authenticate the first 500 million WhatsApp users using OTPs sent from Clickatell’s SMS platform. We launch innovative value-added services such as airtime re-charge for banks in high growth markets, becoming the platform behind hugely successful services such as *737.
2015
Clickatell bolsters its Board of Directors with the joining of Michael Jordaan (ex FNB - Chairman), Willem van Biljon (ex AWS – Ethics Committee) and Ryno Blignaut (ex PayPal – Audit Committee).
2016
We launch an end-to-end enterprise platform that connects consumer chat with business operations across multiple systems ERP, CRM, etc., to transform customer service experiences.
2017
We launch smarter, more versatile capabilities by adding NLU, expanded 2-way, long codes, reporting etc., and are recognized as the best SMS A2P messaging provider in Africa at SMS World conference. We deliver 3 billion messages across the African continent, with high YOY growth.
2018
Clickatell becomes one of the first authorized WhatsApp BSP's (Business Solution Provider, August 2018) and helps Absa bank launch the world's first WhatsApp chat banking solution.
2019
We became the first company globally to enable in-channel payments in WhatsApp (March 26, 2019) in partnership with MTN, South Africa for a pre-paid recharge use case.
2020
Clickatell & CEO Pieter de Villiers are selected at the Endeavor 92nd International Selection Panel. Clickatell launches Chat Desk, our agent help desk application.
2021
Clickatell launches Chat 2 Pay on September 14, 2021, in partnership with Visa, Inc. and CyberSource, enabling businesses to accept payments in chat. We also release a low / no code automation workflow builder, Chat Flow.
2022
We secure a $46M Series C capital injection supported by KL, Arrowroot, Endeavor Catalyst & Harvest, and receive several awards for innovation (Fast Company, WASPA, Stevie Award, etc.)
2023
We launch our Chat Commerce Platform as a Service offering delivering authenticated commerce experiences across the most widely adopted chat messaging environments, including WhatsApp, Apple Messages, SMS and USSD with traction in several sectors including airlines, retail, banking & healthcare.
2024
We release next-gen AI features to provide meaningful and valuable conversational interactions. We are invited by Endeavor to the New York Stock Exchange to share our journey, and discuss the future of eCommerce.
2025
We celebrate 25 years of innovation at the intersection of communication and commerce, with brands and their customers at the center.
2025+
The story continues...
Pieter de Villiers
Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder
Pieter de Villiers is a South African born, Silicon Valley experienced entrepreneur, and angel investor with a passion for Chat Commerce and the empowerment of people. Pieter is also one of the youngest mobile industry veterans with over 21-years’ experience in global telecoms, mobile messaging, and mobile payments backed by top-tier Silicon Valley VC firm Sequoia Capital. Pieter spent nearly 10 years in San Francisco where he successfully grew Clickatell into a multi-million-dollar company operating across multiple continents. Pieter has been recognized for his leadership and achievement in the mobile industry by many industry organizations including Endeavor and Global Technology Business that named him as one of the “top 40 under 40” executives who will likely “run the telecoms industry in 2020.” Along with his work with Clickatell and the mobile industry, Pieter actively works to promote and empower entrepreneurs in Africa in digital skills training in South Africa serving as chairman of SiMODiSA.org, a public benefit, not-for-profit organization based in South Africa and Africa.
Jeppe Dorff
Chief Product and Technology Officer
Jeppe Dorff, a native of Denmark, has a wealth of global perspective with a career spanning most continents and many individual mobile payments and mobile banking deployments. Jeppe oversees Clickatell’s global footprint by delivering the company’s Chat Commerce Platform solutions to over 10,000 customers, many of which are Fortune 500 companies and leading global brands activating their own digital commerce transformations. Prior to joining Clickatell, Jeppe served in multiple executive roles including vice president of Transaction Services at Rogers Communications, vice president, Product, Strategy and Innovation with Mobile Money Ventures (a CitiGroup and SK Telecom joint venture), head of product development at EnStream (a Rogers, Bell, and TELUS joint venture). He was also the founder and chief technology officer of Secure Wireless Transfers where he developed the award-winning KushCash platform, one of the first mobile payment deployments in North America.
Zan Chivell
Chief Human Resources Officer
Zan Chivell is an accomplished HR leader with a career having spanned various roles and portfolios, extending across a range of industries. Most notably she has worked in technology, payments, e-commerce, and retail. Throughout her career, she served on several leadership teams and executive committees of innovative and performing global businesses, with focus on high growth and scaling up. While working in South Africa and London, she managed HR programs at global enterprises expanding into new territories. She has served on various M&A and investment project teams, leading the People agenda. She was HR executive at RCS a division of BNP Paribas in Cape Town, head of talent acquisition at Boden in London, and senior HR manager at The Foschini Group based in Cape Town. Her passion is to create a working environment where top talent wants to be.
All believers in the future of Clickatell, our investors are some of the most forward-thinking people and companies on the planet.
Innovative mobile experiences empower brands to connect, engage, and transact with customers. We make those experiences possible.