Leading end-to-end mobile messaging provider, Clickatell, announced today that Ethos Technology, a division of Ethos Private Equity, has acquired an interest in Clickatell from pointBreak, Clickatell`s start-up capital provider.
Clickatell has been hugely successful in securing its brand and product offerings. Ethos` involvement as an anchor shareholder will provide Clickatell with a sound platform from which to build on its position as market leader through product innovation and development as well as carefully targeted marketing.
According to Claudia Koch, CEO of Ethos Technology, "two factors in our assessment of Clickatell persuaded us that the business represented an excellent investment opportunity: their clearly defined growth strategy in an emerging and rapidly growing global market segment, underpinned by their differentiation of broad connectivity and robust, supporting technology tools; and their young but exemplary executive management team, that displayed an unusual combination of maturity, focus, clarity and passion in working through strategic and operational challenges."
"Ethos`s portfolio strategy is to invest in high-growth technology companies that have a proven revenue model, solid customer base and successful operating track record, so of course, we are extremely pleased with the partnership and proud of the endorsement given to us by Ethos. To have the backing of such an experienced and well-respected investor such as Ethos can only mean even bigger and greater things for Clickatell. The growing demand for mobile messaging solutions and integration systems remains extraordinarily strong and this partnership will enable us to exponentially increase our market share in this emerging space. The Ethos team has concluded this transaction in record time, confirming what is already widely recognized: Ethos is the venture capital partner of choice", said Pieter de Villiers, CEO of Clickatell.
Notwithstanding the sale of their interest in Clickatell, pointBreak remains upbeat about Clickatell`s prospects. "We are proud of our association with Clickatell and we are convinced that Clickatell will go from strength to strength. Our investment in Clickatell exceeded our expectations and cements pointBreak`s successful investment track record in a difficult investment market", says Rein van Veen, director of pointBreak.
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"Ethos Technology is South Africa`s largest Venture Capital Fund, focusing on young, South African proprietary or highly differentiated technology product and service businesses which display strong potential for global growth. As a division of Ethos Private Equity, Ethos Technology`s greatest differentiation is its team of five specialists, each deeply experienced in one or more of the technology, strategy, operational or investment areas. Its expert-driven approach positions it strongly for supporting young entrepreneurs during the critical and challenging high growth phases of their businesses", Koch said.
pointBreak
Established in 1999, pointBreak is an investment and financial services company with offices in Cape Town and Windhoek, Namibia. pointBreak comprises highly networked and well-respected individuals in the Southern African business community. Their networks and skills add considerable intellectual resources and business acumen to the businesses pointBreak becomes involved in, such as Clickatell.
Clickatell
"Established in 2000, Clickatell quickly assumed control of the mobile messaging market by launching the first phase of their product offerings, enabling businesses to host SMS messaging facilities on web sites. With its huge success, Clickatell were able to rapidly expand to offer a range of products and services. By allowing immediate SMS functionality and covering more global networks than any other company or network in the world, Clickatell were able to set strategic targets and ultimately penetrate specific geographical areas. Always remaining one step ahead of their competitors, Clickatell are now the leaders of the mobile messaging industry, delivering mobile message services to over 4,500 developers and thousands of other clients, in more than 180 countries", said De Villiers.
According to De Villiers "Clickatell offers businesses end-to-end SMS solutions for developing and deploying real-time SMS notifications and data access applications that dramatically reduce time-to-decision and improves service value to customers. Businesses can integrate SMS into existing CRM, E-mail, accounting and other legacy systems without additional infrastructure or costs."
Visit Clickatell at: http://www.clickatell.com.
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