Celerity was started in the year 2000 by co-founders Dr Piet Streicher and Richard Simpson with its flagship product and brand, BulkSMS.com.

The concept of sending short and important messages came out of Piet and Richard’s desire to know when the wind conditions were good for windsurfing. This led to them creating their own SMS alerts to let them know when the windspeed reached their favoured conditions. From there, their friends and family inspired the use of SMS for business messaging by wondering what it would be like if they could receive or send alerts on a larger scale, for example, the trading price of commodities. And so, BulkSMS.com was born.

This SMS platform for businesses was one of the first if its kind, and quickly went from sending local South African business messages to sending business messages world-wide.

In 2021, Dr Piet Streicher stepped down as Managing Director, taking on a non-executive director role, leaving the business in the capable hands of Richard Simpson as the new Managing Director. Pete Reynolds, in his role as Executive Director, leads the business alongside Richard.

Today, they've expanded our horizons beyond traditional SMS messaging, incorporating RCS Business Messaging (RBM) into their new Kero Rich Business Messaging product offering, which will be launching mid September. This evolution highlights their commitment to staying at the forefront of the ever-evolving mobile communication space, providing their clients with richer, more interactive messaging experiences.

Beyond apps and algorithms: The enduring relevance of SMS in real-time messaging era

BulkSMS powers ahead under new parent brand, Celerity