26 March 2018
Terragon, a leading mobile marketing company in Africa, said on Thursday it has closed a US$5mn funding round led by Africa-focused venture capital firm TLcom Capital, with participation from other investors.
The company announced the funding will be used to further develop its proprietary marketing technology which connects online and offline mobile channels to provide African brands and SMEs with more customer reach, engagement and conversions with self-service access. Terragon is pioneering the platform with Africa’s largest telecommunications company – MTN Nigeria. The Adrenaline platform from Terragon offers unprecedented reach and engagement channels for the African mobile customer with associated data and intelligence as is available on mobile web.
Terragon’s Chief Executive Officer, Elo Umeh said “the new investment will enable the Lagos-headquartered company to hire the best available talents to drive business development efforts across industry verticals and solve unique mobile challenges to unlock significant value for African businesses.”
With African businesses in various industries struggling to reach and engage customers in the face of limited internet access and low literacy levels, Terragon is helping clients including FCMB and FBNQuest in financial services and Unilever and Samsung in the consumer goods space, connect with new and existing consumers across online and offline mobile channels providing the reach and targeting to deliver on their marketing objectives.
Ido Sum, partner at TLcom Capital said: “We have followed Terragon closely for a while, seeing it develop into a world class marketing technology company targeting the unique African opportunity.”
Sum is joining the board of Terragon, with TLcom Capital founder and Managing Partner Maurizio Caio taking an observer seat.
“Over recent years we led investments into Upstream (acquired by Actis), as well as New York based Persado and Cubiq who are among the leaders in the US MarTech space. We are convinced that Terragon’s deep understanding of the market and the quality of their platform can allow Africa’s top brands and SMEs to finally reach, acquire and serve African consumers at scale” Sum added.
Terragon has over 100 employees with offices in Lagos, Nairobi, and Accra, alongside technology hubs in Bangalore, India and Ife, Nigeria.
It works closely with the largest mobile network operators in Africa, fast moving consumer goods brands, agencies, financial institutions, leading publishers, mobile device manufacturers and app developers on the continent giving brands access to over 100mn consumers on mobile web and non-web channels.
Africa’s leading Digital Powerhouse, Terragon Group, is a data and marketing technology business committed to unlocking value for businesses using insight to reach mobile audiences in Africa.
Inspired by the birth of the smartphone, Terragon exists to harness the power of mobility. Leveraging the depth of its connections, the group of companies’ enables businesses to gain access and insights on African consumers unlocked by a unique blend of proprietary technology tools, data and analytics.
Terragon Group of Companies is made up of two independent and complementary businesses, Terragon Digital and Twinpine, which provide synergies that translate to high business impact.
Launched in 1999 by Maurizio Caio, TLcom Capital is an Africa focused VC firm with offices in Nairobi, Lagos and London. Recent investments on the Continent include Upstream (acquired by Actis), Movirtu (acquired by Blackberry), Andela and mSurvey.