Greg Chen - Afrikan Heroes

South African VCs Pour $4m Into Digital Marketing Startup Mobiz

November 24, 2021

HAVAÍC, Futuregrowth, Launch Africa, Allan Gray E-Squared Ventures, CapaciTech, and Endeavor’s Harvest Fund have all invested in Mobiz, a South African business that integrates hyper-personalization into mobile marketing.

The funding comes as the company prepares to grow into the United States and increase its marketing, sales, and account management activities. A portion of the funds will be utilized to hire new employees in South Africa and to support the company’s commercial expansion into the United States.

“In South Africa and Africa general, there are a lot of companies using SMS marketing, but it’s not giving any value to them because they lack digital marketing skills,”CEO Greg Chen said. “So we came to enable businesses to deliver personalized digital content via a personal landing page that can be built easily within the Mobiz platform and deliver on the SMS channel.”

Futuregrowth makes investments from its Futuregrowth Development Equity Fund, a venture capital fund devoted to supporting disruptive businesses and propositions that show strong high growth potential. The VC has previously invested in SA home services startup SweepSouth.

E Squared has also been actively investing in South Africa since 2018. The VC recently made a R9.2-million ($612k) investment in WeThinkCode, a South African edtech startup as well as a $1m seed funding round in Synatic, a data automation software startup based in Johannesburg. The VC supports Allan Gray Fellows at different stages of their business cycle. The support includes patient capital as well as post-investment assistance.

HAVAÍC has been active since 2016 investing in notable startups such as Mpost; delvv.io; Digital Cabinet; RecoMed, among others. In most cases, both HAVAÍC and Futuregrowth have participated in the same investments.

Why The Investors Invested

Investors were visibly drawn in, because of the traction the startup has generated over time. Seven years in, the company works with more than 100 brands, such as MultiChoice, Experian, HomeChoice and New Balance.

Partner at HAVAÍC Grant Rock, an early backer of the startup, said his firm has been very impressed with Mobiz’s performance in South Africa. However, if the company expands internationally, it will need to consider pricing in order to compete with incumbents such as Textedly and TextMagic. Its monthly subscription rates start at $29 and go up depending on how many SMSs corporations and marketers want to send.

A Look At What The Company Does

Mobiz is a no-code solution that allows marketers, businesses, and small businesses to build and send SMS campaigns to their clients without having any prior marketing knowledge. CEO Greg Chen launched the company in 2014 after witnessing how businesses in South Africa struggled to effectively target and engage their clients via SMS during his 15-year career in the mobile industry.

Per data from Mobiz’s website, SMS messages delivered by the company are read within three minutes with a 98% open rate.

Mobiz is focusing on offering its service to small and medium businesses after gaining a considerable market share in the South African SMS marketing industry. The intended market, however, is the United States, not the African country where the enterprise began. The company sees potential in the small and medium business sector in the United States, according to Chen, because “its solution is easy to use and fit for the enormous market opportunity in the United States.”

“How we’ve disrupted our space in South Africa, we see an opportunity over there. So we want to help many SMBs easily produce beautiful customer engagements that are personalized at scale to make them clickable within 10 minutes on their platforms. That’s our thesis and we are very hopeful that we will work out.”

Because of the information obtained from templates used on the platform, small and medium enterprises, such as a coffee shop, can quickly learn which type of coffee 100+ clients prefer. These firms’ conversions, results, sales, and engagement rates all improve as a result of this dynamic and rapid personalization.

The startup is launching this month, with more than 200 beta users in the United States presently using the platform.

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Charles Rapulu Udoh

Charles Rapulu Udoh is a Lagos-based lawyer who has advised startups across Africa on issues such as startup funding (Venture Capital, Debt financing, private equity, angel investing etc), taxation, strategies, etc. He also has special focus on the protection of business or brands’ intellectual property rights ( such as trademark, patent or design) across Africa and other foreign jurisdictions.
He is well versed on issues of ESG (sustainability), media and entertainment law, corporate finance and governance.
He is also an award-winning writer

SMS Solutions Could Be Essential for an Inclusive Business Strategy

August 1, 2021

By Greg Chen

South African companies must take care not to inadvertently deepen the existing digital divide. Although COVID-19 and related lockdowns have accelerated a growing trend towards the digital economy such as artificial intelligence, in an unequal society such as South Africa, many consumers find it difficult to access data-intensive apps and processes.

This makes it vital for local businesses to include different forms of technology in their business strategies to ensure their operations are running inclusively. An effective way to do this is by including SMS solutions in customer processes.

Greg Chen is the founder and CEO of Mobiz — **Greg Chen founder and CEO of Mobiz**

Once seen as a luxury, mobile phones are now in the hands of 95% of South Africans, according to Geopoll, with data-hungry smartphones accounting for 91% of devices.

However, data prices in South Africa are some of the highest in the world. This is reflected in a study by Cable.co.uk which ranked South Africa 136th worldwide for its mobile data based on the cost of 1 gigabyte (1GB).

As such, SMS solutions are still a great platform for businesses to utilise in 2021, as WhatsApps and emails rely on data to be delivered.

SMS reaches stakeholders across locations and income groups, making it an inclusive and accessible format.

Some of the industries that can benefit from this approach include:

Retail and E-commerce

Companies in the retail sector be it online or a brick-and-mortar store, can use SMS to reach their full audience with personalised and tailored deals to customers based on their buying behaviours. They can also share payment links and leverage customer insights through data.

Healthcare

Information compliance is essential in the healthcare industry. For example, medical aid companies are reliant on customer information and unfortunately this can become outdated quickly.

This data collection can be done safely and in real-time by using privacy features through reputable SMS solution providers, all without impacting a customer’s data bundle.

Financial Services

SMS solutions can integrate with various payment partners making collections quick and seamless.

These integrations make it easy for businesses to send statements – and even easier for the customer to make payments with a 0-data barrier. This also means that businesses can save paper and ensure all data is digitised.

Education

As schools have been operating remotely on and off to mitigate the spread of COVID-19, SMS solutions are becoming more and more beneficial to communicate with parents and students alike.

They can be used for any form of notification, emergencies, admissions, or even to perform tests.

Internal Communications

A recent PwC survey showed that as a result of the pandemic more employees wish to work from home in the future.

Just over a third of South African workers (33%) say that in the future they would prefer for their working environment to be a blend of face-to-face and remote work.

With this in mind, SMS solutions are a great way for the company to stay connected, promote employee engagement, and remain personal.

Greg Chen is the founder and CEO of Mobiz.

Kelechi Deca

Kelechi Deca has over two decades of media experience, he has traveled to over 77 countries reporting on multilateral development institutions, international business, trade, travels, culture, and diplomacy. He is also a petrol head with in-depth knowledge of automobiles and the auto industry

South African Marketing Startup Mobiz Raises $1 Million From Kalon Partners

April 1, 2020

South Africa’s marketing startup Mobiz has secured $1 mn from Kalon Venture Partners, a South African venture capital (VC) firm.

“It’s no longer enough for brands to tell people why they matter. In today’s world of IoT, brands have to prove why they matter to each and every one of their customers,’’ Mobiz co-founder CEO, Greg Chen said in a press release.

Here Is All You Need To Know

With the latest investment, Mobiz will be looking to expand its plans as it looks to make a mark in the United States and Europe.

Why The Investor Invested

“Kalon’s team were impressed with the founders Greg and Clark. We believe they exhibit the exceptional traits we look for when investing in the best entrepreneurs driving disruptive technology businesses,” said Kalon Venture Partners CEO, Clive Butkow.

Butkow also praised the disruptive nature of the Mobiz solution with its targeted marketing campaigns which are deployed to customers within minutes via its integrated SmartSMS channel (at no mobile data cost to consumers).

The Kalon Venture Partners CEO also believes that this investment shows the importance of VCs investing in promising startups in tumultuous times, citing the possibilities that will come up in the ‘after’.

“Mobiz isn’t only the perfect product for this time, but will also prove instrumental in helping rebuild in the aftermath of the COVID-19 crisis,” he says. “VCs need to think long-term and take bets on companies that can play a role in regrowing South African business”.

Kalon Venture Partners says it was impressed by their track record and this was one of the factors that spurred the investment.

The VC also stated its commitment to keep investing in promising startups even in tough times such as these when a global pandemic is sweeping through the planet.

What The Startup Does

Mobiz was co-founded by CEO, Greg Chen, and CTO, Clark Lin. The startup boasts a number of blue-chip, JSE-listed companies among its clientele. The mobile marketing platform, which operates on a SAAS model, helps clients to cost-effectively improve their customer engagement.
Mobiz claims to offer a highly-personalised and targeted service to create and enhance customer relationships and increase brand loyalty. The startup says it gathers customer behavioral insights to enrich CRM systems or automate follow-up engagements.
Compared to traditional marketing channels (email, paid ads, printed catalogues, etc), Mobiz claims its numbers reflect a 400 percent improved customer engagement rate with 98 percent open rates and an average of 15 percent click-through rates.
Additionally, the startup claims to have maintained this upward growth trajectory even during the run-up to, and early parts of, the COVID-19-enforced lockdown in South Africa.

“Mobiz believes that personalisation goes beyond your customer’s name and date of birth. With Mobiz you can ensure that your customer experience will be engaging, relevant and appealing,” says Chen.

Both Chen and Clark have been involved in the mobile technology space since 2005.

Charles Rapulu Udoh

Charles Rapulu Udoh is a Lagos-based lawyer who has advised startups across Africa on issues such as startup funding (Venture Capital, Debt financing, private equity, angel investing etc), taxation, strategies, etc. He also has special focus on the protection of business or brands’ intellectual property rights ( such as trademark, patent or design) across Africa and other foreign jurisdictions.
He is well versed on issues of ESG (sustainability), media and entertainment law, corporate finance and governance.
He is also an award-winning writer.
He could be contacted at udohrapulu@gmail.com