TallOrder Solutions Pty Ltd (TallOrder), a South African developer of advanced cloud-based point of sale (POS) solutions for the SME sector, has raised an additional R47 million ($3 million) in Series A funding. TallOrder has now raised R80 million ($5 million) since its launch in late 2014.
Existing investors, including Investec Private Capital, as well as a consortium led by Africa-focused fintech investment firm Nurture Investment Management (“Nurture”), invested to the funds, which will be used to accelerate growth and product development.
Nurture’s consortium consists of family offices and high net worth individuals, including Valentine Chitalu, an experienced pan-African investor.
“Developing a robust, feature-rich and widely adaptable cloud POS solution takes a lot of development effort, both in terms of money and time.Investors have been keen to invest in the next generation of cloud-based point of sale systems, as the global market is vast and the growth opportunities massive” said Dana Buys, CEO and co-founder of TallOrder.
Nurture’s co-founder and managing partner, Tatenda Mutizwa, commented: “We are pleased to make this significant investment into what we believe is a category-defining software-as-a-service company alongside Dana and the existing shareholders. We look forward to supporting the African — and ultimately global — expansion of TallOrder over the next few years.”
The Covid-19 pandemic has hastened the transition from on-premise, LAN-based solutions to cloud-based ones that can be administered anywhere. Cloud solutions are more cost-effective because they are easier to implement and are usually billed on a monthly basis.
Most cloud POS providers in the United States are payment processors at their core, according to Buys, whereas TallOrder has taken a merchant-centric approach, integrating with popular payment platforms like SnapScan, Zapper, MasterPass, Yoco, ThumbzUp, MTN MoMo, Innervation, African Resonance, NetCash, DPO, and PayFast, to name a few.
TallOrder can be installed on Windows, iOS, and Android devices that are compatible. A fully integrated e-store for those who want to accept take-away orders and deliver for free, a robust interactive order management display system, flexible customer-facing displays with QR-Code payment support, and digital signage for dynamic in-store promotions are among the add-ons.
According to Buys, “For the Sub-Saharan Africa market we had to build a cloud POS with solid offline capacity, as the continent’s internet tends to be slower, more expensive, and less reliable than that of developed countries, where the cloud access is fast, cheap and always-on. We have focused on building deep integrations to the popular SME local cloud accounting systems from Xero and Sage, as well as to local loyalty and reward systems.”
TallOrder can be used by shops, service providers, and hospitality businesses in Africa. A cloud-based solution, according to Buys, is ideal for SMEs with limited internet technology (IT) skills who are focused on running their businesses and may not have the time or resources to deal with internet security, on- and offsite backups, disaster recovery, and keeping software, databases, and integrations up to date.
TallOrder has built a strong offering for the 10 to 100 room hotel/lodge/resort/guest house market in the international market by forging extensive integrations with the main cloud hospitality property management systems. As hotel operations are rebuilt following the tremendous impact of the Covid 19 outbreak, Buys claims that this large sector is quickly embracing the benefits of the cloud solutions on offer.
TallOrder has demonstrated its market fit in South Africa, African countries such as Uganda, Ghana, Kenya, Tanzania, Malawi, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Botswana, and the Seychelles, as well as Asian markets such as Indonesia.
