Social business company WyseTalk attracts $1m in investment funding

South Africa's enterprise social business software start-up has secured first phase funding in excess of $1 million, from an investment consortium comprising high nett worth individuals from South Africa, Europe and the United Kingdom. The transaction, facilitated by local venture capital firm Clifftop Colony, sees a shift in shareholding, as Alacrity Technologies divests to focus on its core financial services and retail business, making way for management ownership supported by a group of investors with global tech interests.

Speaking on behalf of investors, Sean Emery, Chief Investment Officer at Titan Investments, gives his vote of confidence to the executive and development teams behind WyseTalk: "South Africa is a hotbed of innovation, especially for technology companies. WyseTalk is another great example of such ingenuity. We're encouraged by the global trend towards social business, and we believe WyseTalk is optimally positioned and developed to be a game-changer for African companies, for a start."

"Companies who understand that innovation, collaboration, transparency and communication are critical factors that influence your competitiveness and success will immediately see the benefit of social business," adds Gys Kappers, CEO of WyseTalk and Masters thesis author of 'The Delay of Social Business Software Adoption in the Enterprise and its Effects'.

Companies like Burberry, Nike, The World Bank, Alcatel-Lucent, Avon, Cadbury and Dell are just some of the published success stories; and the acquisitions currently taking place in this sector are testimony to the demand and customer uptake that this sector is experiencing. "It would seem that international players have not yet seen the opportunity in Africa, and we're taking full advantage of our position here," adds Kappers. "2013 will see us rapidly expand our service to include a WyseTalk Community platform that focuses on the relationship between a company and its customers, and we're fortunate to have a dynamic group of investors that support our vision."

WyseTalk has gone further than any other enterprise social business software solution available today. "In addition to the traditional format for dialogue and collaboration that you would expect from a social media platform, the system caters for external company and third-party systems to trigger events and conversations, and the platform can be hosted in a company's country of origin. We have also taken it to mobile devices and developed an app for the primary mobile technology platforms in Africa; iOS, Blackberry and Android as we believe your geographic position should not inhibit you from making a valuable contribution to your company or community. WyseTalk operates on the basis that communities and even companies are not domain specific and therefore participation in your community is not determined by an e-mail address. These are only some of the unique differentiators that WyseTalk offers, but it's in the areas of innovation, collaboration and communication that companies are really experiencing the value," concludes Kappers.