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Clickatell is a Sequoia backed mobile communications company headquartered in Redwood City, CA with offices in Cape Town and Johannesburg , South Africa. They currently deliver SMS messages through their SMS Gateway to 815+ mobile networks in 220+ countries. Their customer base of 10,000+ consists of small, medium and large enterprises in a variety of industries looking for SaaS messaging services and Bulk SMS Gateway connectivity.

Contents 1 History 2 Projects and affiliations 3 Industry Awards 4 Management Team 5 Investors 6 See also 7 Notes 8 External links

[edit] History

Clickatell was founded in Cape Town, South Africa in 2000 and launched the world’s first web-to-mobile messaging products. ^{[1] [2]} In 2001, the company developed both the Mobile Messaging industry’s first real-time, global SMS services for businesses, and a pre-paid model for pc-to-mobile messaging.

In 2002, Clickatell launched Messenger-PRO, a standalone PC application, which enables users to manage Bulk SMS messages and campaigns from their computers. Between 2003 and 2004, it helped create the world’s largest mobile messaging developer community, after becoming the first mobile messaging provider to reach over 500 operators. Clickatell has further developed a platform or 'mobile messaging market' that showcases innovative 3rd party applications.

In 2006, the company merged with Multimode Inc, who offered greater multimode functionality, and established the Silicon Valley headquarters. Clickatell also joined with Oracle Corporation in this year. The company secured further funding from Sequoia Capital ^[3] and established its presence in the USA in 2007.

Clickatell currently connects to 778 network operators.

[edit] Projects and affiliations

Clickatell has worked with the following organisations on a variety of projects, using web-based API’s that SMS-enable their applications, systems and sites:

1. The European Commission's Joint Research Centre selected Clickatell to run its EMM ^[4] (European Media Monitoring) SMS alert service.

2. CNN chose Clickatell to power SMS breaking news service ^[5] and SMS mobile alerts for its coverage of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games.^[6]

3. Clickatell and Metropolitan Life pioneered insurance by mobile phone with Cover2go.

4. Clickatell has also worked with international healthcare organizations to provide mobile solutions for delivering critical medication information.

5. Parliamentarian’s representing 140 countries used Clickatell to power SMS alert service at 118th assembly of the Inter-Parliamentary Union.^[7]

6. Clickatell assisted Christie's in expanding their auction reach using mobile messaging.^[8]

7. Clickatell partnered with RSA Security to provide on-demand authentication using mobile phones, and with S1 Corporation to provide on-demand text banking.

8. Clickatell partnered with Moneybookers, one of Europe’s largest online payment systems, to offer mobile SMS alerts on transactions to over 5 million E-Wallet customers.

9. New Heights Microfinance Bank Ltd, Nigeria selected Clickatell to provide mobile messaging services to customers.

Their other clients include:

Banking: First National Bank, Standard Bank, S1 Postilion, Easy Forex.

Insurance: Santam Insurance, Sanlam.

Media and Social Networks: Rummble, mig33, Bluepulse, MXit.

Other industries: Avaya, BP, Shell, Continental Airlines.

[edit] Industry Awards

Digiday's MOBI Award Winner 2009 [*http://www.themobiawards.com/]: Clickatell recognized for its superior work with the US State Department to send SMS speech excerpts to the people of Middle East (from Cairo speech) and Africa (from Ghana speech)

Mobile Excellence Award, finalist 2009 [*http://www.mobilexawards.com/]: Clickatell recognized for its work with the US State Department to send SMS speech excerpts to the people of Middle East (from Cairo speech) and Africa (from Ghana speech)

World Technology Award (WTA), finalist 2009 [*http://www.clickatell.com/press/press_article.php/124]: Clickatell Honored as "Innovative" with Greatest Likely Long-Term Significance in Communications and Technology Sector

Celent Model Bank of the Year, 2009 [*http://www.mobilevillage.com/awards.htm]: First National Bank was awarded 'Celent Bank of the Year' for its innovative use of mobile banking, using Clickatell mobile banking solutions.

Mobile Star Awards 2009 [*http://www.celent.com/124_1586.htm]: These awards recognize the top mobile products, success stories and visionaries and winners are chosen by thousands of readers of MobileVillage:

2008: Gold Star: Visionary: Wireless Services to Pieter De Villiers

Gold Star: Enterprise Gateway for Mobile Alerting

Silver Star: Enterprise Software for Application Development: Enterprise Gateway

Silver Star: Marketing: CM3 Marketing Development Tool

2009: Finalist for Visionary, Wireless Services to Pieter de Villiers

Finalist for Developer and Enterprise Software

Finalist for Enterprise Software Messaging Alert System

Mobile Industry Review 2008 Awards: The Mobile Industry Review is a daily service providing a mix of news, original content and opinion across the mobile and wireless industries to over 250,000 mobile industry executives and fanatics around the world.

Winner: Best Value Product

160 Characters Given for using mobile messaging to the best effect by providing an effective information service, alerts or awareness campaign.

- Winner: Best Messaging Business Application

Africom Awards 2008: This award ceremony seeks to celebrate outstanding achievements within the African telecommunications market.

- Finalist: Best Customer Service of the Year (First National Bank & Santam)

Mobile Search Awards: These awards look to honor those who have raised the bar within the mobile search and discovery industry.

- Silver: Best Information Service (National Health Service)

Vodacom Top Achievers 2007 Award:

First Place: Awarded for excellence in customer service in the Wireless Application Service Providers (WASP) industry.

[edit] Management Team

Pieter de Villiers (Founder & CEO): One of the four co-founders of Clickatell, Pieter started in the optometry field and moved into the IT sector after nine years of business management and product development experience. Recognizing the need for a single point of entry for global text delivery, he founded Clickatell in 2000.

Bill Wolfe (Executive Vice President of Research & Development): Appointed in 2008 as the Executive Vice President of Global Research & Development for Clickatell, Bill’s responsibilities include building a world-class Research and Development organization. Prior to joining Clickatell Bill worked at VeriSign and Openwave Systems.

Mary Korn (CFO): Mary’s expertise in board communications, business plan preparation, mergers & acquisitions, FAS 123R, valuation, impairment testing, budgeting, forecasting and business implementation serves her well as Chief Financial Officer at Clickatell. Prior to joining Clickatell, Mary was the Interim CFO for a SaaS company and an Internet advertising firm.

Deon van Heerden (Executive Vice President of Sales, MEA General Manager): Appointed as country manager and Vice President of Sales for the Middle East and Africa in 2008, Deon had previously launched the UK sales office and been the UK country manager. Before joining Clickatell he had held the position of senior manager with Accenture and the Berkeley Partnership.

Johan Visser (SA Financial Manager): Johan joined Clickatell in 2008 and has overall responsibility for the leadership of the group’s finance functions. He had already successfully launched GlobalXperience.com, an international travel website and has spent eight years in the UK and USA working for corporations in the Media and Travel sectors including Time Warner Inc, Travelocity and Lastminute.com

[edit] Investors

The company's investors include Sequoia Capital, one of the leading venture capital firms in the US; Ethos Private Equity one of the oldest and most experienced private equity investment firms in South Africa founded in 1984; and Dantink, a privately held investment vehicle for David Frankel, the co-founder and CEO of Internet Solutions, the largest ISP and private data carrier in Africa. Frankel was voted the South African Technology Achiever of the Century by the Financial Mail and the World Economic Forum selected him for the GLT program in Davos.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] See also

• Mobile messaging
• Text Messaging
• Mobile Banking

[edit] Notes

1. ^ http://www.fin24.com/articles/default/display_article.aspx?ArticleID-1518-1445-1938_2171499
2. ^ http://www.clickatell.com/press/fastfacts.php
3. ^ http://www.sequoiacap.com/company/clickatell/
4. ^ http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_hb5243/is_200702/ai_n19680011?tag=content;col1
5. ^ http://www.realwire.com/release_detail.asp?ReleaseID=6064
6. ^ http://www.fiercewireless.com/press-releases/clickatell-provides-sms-mobile-alerts-cnn-coverage-2008-beijing-games-0
7. ^ http://www.thetelecom.co.uk/20080502/sms-powered-by-clickatell-keeps-140-world-delegates-in-touch/
8. ^ http://www.businessportal24.com/en/Clickatell_Helps_Christie_Expand_Auction_290158.html

[edit] External links

• http://www.clickatell.com
• http://www.fin24.com/articles/default/display_article.aspx?ArticleID-1518-1445-1938_2171499
• http://www.clickatell.com/press/fastfacts.php
• http://www.sequoiacap.com/company/clickatell/
• http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_hb5243/is_200702/ai_n19680011?tag=content;col1
• http://www.realwire.com/release_detail.asp?ReleaseID=6064
• http://www.fiercewireless.com/press-releases/clickatell-provides-sms-mobile-alerts-cnn-coverage-2008-beijing-games-0
• http://www.thetelecom.co.uk/20080502/sms-powered-by-clickatell-keeps-140-world-delegates-in-touch/
• http://www.businessportal24.com/en/Clickatell_Helps_Christie_Expand_Auction_290158.html
• http://blog.tmcnet.com/telecom-crm/2009/10/21/leadmaster-kana-social-crm-ibm-and-canonical-clickatell-sms-tomtom-go.asp
• http://caas.tmcnet.com/topics/caas-saas/articles/67105-clickatell-pgs-integrate-sms-as-a-service.htm