Pieter de Villiers on building Clickatell into a $1-billion tech giant

Loading player...
Pieter de Villiers began his career as an optometrist, but quickly pivoted into the world of technology entrepreneurship when he realised running a retail store was not his cup of tea.
Today, the business he co-founded with his twin brother Casper and two others -- Danie du Toit and Patrick Lawson -- is chasing down US$1-billion in annual revenue and is helping invent the fledgling world of "chat commerce".
De Villiers joins Duncan McLeod on the TechCentral podcast to talk about Clickatell's journey, including the early days of the business, how it raised funding from Sequoia Capital -- becoming the first African company to successfully get funding from the storied venture capital firm -- and why he spent 10 years living in Silicon Valley, only to return to South Africa in 2015.
He talks about how Clickatell helped WhatsApp in the early days become the messaging giant it is today (co-founder Jan Koum was a fan of the Clickatell technology) and how the company has used WhatsApp as a basis to build solutions in the fields of chat banking and chat commerce.
He also talks about Clickatell's future plans and comments on whether an IPO is in the offing.
Don't miss the discussion!
3 Dec 2020 English South Africa Technology · Business

Other recent episodes

TCS | Connecting Saffas – Renier Lombard on The Lekker Network

The Lekker Network is a recently launched global business platform designed to help South African expatriates find business and investment opportunities around the world, including at home. Founded by a group of well-known businesspeople, The Lekker Network was launched in March and offers members access to a business directory, a…
7 Jul 20 min

TechCentral Nexus S0E4: Takealot’s big Post Office jobs plan

This is the fourth episode of a new podcast series curated by TechCentral’s editorial team and generated by artificial intelligence tools. It’s an experiment that’s in beta for now, but if it works well, we’ll consider making it a regular feature by launching a season 1. In this episode, we…
4 Jul 19 min

TCS+ | First Distribution on the latest and greatest cloud technologies

The pace of innovation in the cloud space is breathtaking. Gone are the days when the cloud was just about virtual machines and storage; today, it is a dynamic ecosystem, constantly introducing features that are fundamentally transforming how businesses operate, from the smallest start-ups to the largest enterprises. Preegan Chetty,…
27 Jun 11 min

TCS+ | First Distribution on data governance in hybrid cloud environments

Data is the lifeblood of every organisation, driving innovation, enhancing customer experiences and influencing strategic decisions. But managing this invaluable asset has never been more challenging. Hybrid IT environments – where some organisational data sits in the cloud other data resides in on-premises infrastructure – only adds to this complexity…
27 Jun 12 min

TCS+ | First Distribution on cloud cost management in Microsoft Azure

Organisations are flocking to the cloud for its agility, scalability and innovation potential. But while the cloud promises big things, it also presents a set of financial challenges. Many businesses find their cloud bills spiralling out of control, eroding the very benefits they sought in the first place. In this…
26 Jun 13 min