WHY WE'RE HERE
We're here to usher in the next wave of digital commerce, and it's all happening in the messaging apps that consumers love and use everyday.
Brands are no longer a destination... they now have their own place within their customer's messaging app of choice, sitting right next to threads of family and friends. But they're offering much more than chat - brands are creating rich commerce experiences, just as they would in their own mobile app (but without the hassle).
We're making the future of commerce a reality for today... and chat is where it's at.
We're a company with global reach, serving more than 220 countries / territories and 85% of the world's population. Our innovative mobile messaging solutions enable Chat Commerce for the world's leading brands.
user-reach, worldwide
business messages sent monthly
connected mobile networks
Company milestones
For more than 20 years, Clickatell has been a global technology company and innovator in mobile messaging, engagement, and commerce.
2000
Became the first to connect internet businesses with consumers on mobile using SMS that could be implemented with four lines of code.
2003
Received the Global Award for Mobile Message, just 3 years after Clickatell was founded.
2008
Became market leaders in Global Enterprise for SMS.
2012
Pioneered global SMS API offering and award-winning mobile payments and distrbution platform Transact.
2014
Launched Digital Distribution Airtime and Data.
2017
Developed proprietary technology for natural language understanding and in-chat application delivery as part of its Touch platform.
2018
Introduced the world's first chat banking solution.
2019
Became the world's leading Chat Commerce solution provider in emerging markets.
2020
Celebrated 20-year anniversary as Chat Commerce pioneer.
2021
Introduced Chat 2 Pay, an in-chat merchant payments feature with Cybersource, a Visa solution.
And the story continues...
Pieter de Villiers
Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder
Pieter de Villiers is a South African born, Silicon Valley experienced entrepreneur, and angel investor with a passion for Chat Commerce and the empowerment of people. Pieter is also one of the youngest mobile industry veterans with over 21-years’ experience in global telecoms, mobile messaging, and mobile payments backed by top-tier Silicon Valley VC firm Sequoia Capital. Pieter spent nearly 10 years in San Francisco where he successfully grew Clickatell into a multi-million-dollar company operating across multiple continents. Pieter has been recognized for his leadership and achievement in the mobile industry by many industry organizations including Endeavor and Global Technology Business that named him as one of the “top 40 under 40” executives who will likely “run the telecoms industry in 2020.” Along with his work with Clickatell and the mobile industry, Pieter actively works to promote and empower entrepreneurs in Africa in digital skills training in South Africa serving as chairman of SiMODiSA.org, a public benefit, not-for-profit organization based in South Africa and Africa.
Jeppe Dorff
Chief Product and Technology Officer
Jeppe Dorff, a native of Denmark, has a wealth of global perspective with a career spanning most continents and many individual mobile payments and mobile banking deployments. Jeppe oversees Clickatell’s global footprint by delivering the company’s Chat Commerce Platform solutions to over 10,000 customers, many of which are Fortune 500 companies and leading global brands activating their own digital commerce transformations. Prior to joining Clickatell, Jeppe served in multiple executive roles including vice president of Transaction Services at Rogers Communications, vice president, Product, Strategy and Innovation with Mobile Money Ventures (a CitiGroup and SK Telecom joint venture), head of product development at EnStream (a Rogers, Bell, and TELUS joint venture). He was also the founder and chief technology officer of Secure Wireless Transfers where he developed the award-winning KushCash platform, one of the first mobile payment deployments in North America.
Jennifer Shambroom
Chief Marketing Officer
Jennifer Shambroom is a highly accomplished senior marketing executive with a 20-year track record of success achieving growth objectives within start-up, turnaround, and rapid-growth environments. Jennifer is also a veteran of the mobile ecosystem boasting 16 years of mobile app experience. Jennifer’s marketing leadership contributed to 10 funding events, the sale of five software companies, and the acquisition of several more. Jennifer has been recognized for her leadership and achievements as Executive of the Year; Marketing Executive of the Year; Shortlist for Most Innovative Woman in Marketing, Advertising and Public Relations; 50 Women to Know in Martech; and Mobile Women to Watch.
Zan Chivell
Chief Human Resources Officer
Zan Chivell is an accomplished HR leader with a career having spanned various roles and portfolios, extending across a range of industries. Most notably she has worked in technology, payments, e-commerce, and retail. Throughout her career, she served on several leadership teams and executive committees of innovative and performing global businesses, with focus on high growth and scaling up. While working in South Africa and London, she managed HR programs at global enterprises expanding into new territories. She has served on various M&A and investment project teams, leading the People agenda. She was HR executive at RCS a division of BNP Paribas in Cape Town, head of talent acquisition at Boden in London, and senior HR manager at The Foschini Group based in Cape Town. Her passion is to create a working environment where top talent wants to be.
All believers in the future of Clickatell, our investors are some of the most forward-thinking people and companies on the planet.
Clickatell Founders
A big idea. A tiny apartment
In a tiny apartment in Cape Town, our (now) CEO Pieter de Villiers, his twin brother Casper, and two friends Danie du Toit and Patrick Lawson embarked on creating an application programming interface (API) between cellphones and computers. They did it! They created a world’s first: four lines of code that created a way to send SMS from the internet to cell phones.
The team then introduced Clickatell’s chat capabilities in developing countries, including South Africa. Here, limited transportation infrastructure makes it difficult to shop and bank at stores and financial institutions, and a cell phone is the primary communication device. Brands were in search of a mobile messaging, engagement and commerce solution to conduct business with these mobile-based customers. We delivered.
Today, Clickatell’s solutions are utilized by companies around the world and across industries for customer care, commerce, customer acquisition, customer retention, and customer expansion.
Goodbye, good friend!
One of the four original founders of Clickatell, Danie du Toit was the custodian of our brand and product offering until 2005. Sadly, after a long battle with leukemia, Danie passed away August 16, 2005. We recognize his vision and contribution in establishing Clickatell as one of the leading mobile enablers in the world. We continue to track the “footprints” Danie left in the company that are inspiring until this day.
COMPANY CULTURE
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Innovative mobile experiences empower brands to connect, engage, and transact with customers. We make those experiences possible.