In a move to increase its presence on the continent and make Africa a key priority region, Truecaller is shopping for a great city to set up headquarters in Africa.
According to Ted Nelson, Chief Commercial Officer at Truecaller,“The tremendous growth we’ve had across Africa the past two years has truly been amazing and yet we feel it is still only the starting point of what is about to come. With the positive momentum, we are confident this is the right timing for us to expand our presence and start engaging more deeply with the eco-system.”
Apart from picking either Nigeria and South Africa for a location for its Africa headquarters, Treucaller will also be recruiting for a Business Development Director and Sales Director to drive business on the continent.
South Africa and Nigeria are Africa’s two biggest economies but also have the highest number of cold and spam calls according to a recent study conducted by the firm itself. The two are followed by Kenya and Egypt rank among the top 20 countries in the world being plagued by unwanted spam calls.
The Truecaller app, which allows people to see who’s calling and filter out spam calls and SMS, has more than 50 million users in Africa. The service is helping users block more than half a billion spam calls on a monthly basis in the region, and more than 50% of all messages being filtered is considered as spam.
The company will also launch its Developer Program with Truecaller SDK, its mobile identity product for digital start-ups and app developers in Africa.
Recently, Truecaller Ads was launched across Africa. The Truecaller Developer Program starting with its mobile identity product, Truecaller SDK is a big plus for firms that want to integrate their apps to verify end users quickly and frictionlessly by utilizing their Truecaller profile with a one touch and password free experience.
“Truecaller SDK is a catalyst in our journey to become the mobile identity platform of choice. The ubiquitous phone number is already the native identity for millions of users both online and who are yet to come online, especially in Africa. For the next billion connected users, the email based web identity will not even be a relevant option. With the smartphone penetration and digitisation increasing at a rapid pace, we believe it’s the right time to launch our Global Developer Program for local app developers, start-ups and online businesses in the African continent.” says Priyam Bose, Director & Head of Worldwide Developer Relations at Truecaller.
