Termii became the first YC Africa project supported by a Chinese venture capital incubator.
Editor’s note: This article is from WeChat public account “Non-Creative Innovation” (ID: Future-Hub) .
On March 17, local time, the non-process innovation incubation project, Nigeria’s cloud communication platform Termii successfully graduated from the 2020 winter entrepreneurial camp of the well-known US startup incubator Y Combinator. Termii received an investment from YC and successfully completed a 3-month intensive training in Silicon Valley. Prior to joining YC, Feicheng Innovation provided Termii with seed funding and entrepreneurship guidance, helping Termii become the first YC Africa project supported by the Chinese venture capital incubator.
Termii was established in Nigeria, the largest country in Africa, and its business model is positioned on the Communication-as-a-Service enterprise cloud communication marketing platform. It is committed to filling the information gap between consumers and brand companies. WhatsApp’s diverse and customized brand communications / marketing content. Using Termii’s platform services, companies can accurately and timely send information about product updates, promotions or offers to different consumer groups, which not only improves the user experience, but also greatly improves user retention. Termii also provides API interfaces for third-party service providers to incorporate such enterprise customized marketing tools into more software ecosystems. Termii’s main markets are currently in West and North Africa, including Nigeria, Ghana, Benin, Morocco and other countries.
(Termii’s interactive page)
In terms of market space, corporate services are a popular track in Africa. On the one hand, due to the large number of SMEs, they are scattered, and there are not many traditional services that can solve the bottlenecks of large-scale development of SMEs. On the other hand, compared to the toC business, C-end users have lower payment levels, and the toB business SME customers Have relatively strong willingness and ability to pay. According to the Statistics Bureau of Nigeria, there are more than 37 million SMEs in Nigeria, and the potential market size is considerable. In Kenya, Africa ’s Talking also focuses on the communication-as-a-service model to provide support to corporate users, and has now raised $ 8.6 million.
Looking at other markets around the world, Termii’s U.S. benchmark company Twilio was listed in 2016 with a market value of more than 17 billion U.S. dollars. China ’s Ronglian Cloud Communications has similar early major businesses to Termii, and it will continue to change In order to develop a comprehensive and diversified enterprise communication service platform, it obtained RMB 100 million in Series D financing last year. Enterprise-oriented communication services have proven the possibility of scale in multiple markets, and the African market undoubtedly has greater imagination in terms of time and business scale.
Termii’s core founding team is very experienced. Co-founder Gbolade Emmanuel was the CTO of heels.com.ng, and is familiar with the underlying technology; he is also the COO of software company Accounteer, proficient in products and operations; he was also a mentor of the Pan-African entrepreneur network Ampion, locally The venture capital ecosystem is very active; most importantly, his many years of marketing experience has injected a boost into Termii’s product positioning and strategy. With these valuable experiences, Gbolade’s Termii team wants to truly bring effective and convenient communication tools to corporate customers and create more value for these enterprises.
(Termii founding team in the United States Y Combinator)
YC originated in Silicon Valley in the United States and is committed to digging and cultivating the most cutting-edge innovative companies in the world. Since 2005, it has successfully incubated many giants like Airbnb, Dropbox, Reddit, GitLab. At present, YC has hatched a total of more than 1,900 companies, of whichThe 100 companies with the highest market capitalization have a total valuation of more than $ 100 billion.
YC’s incubation projects in winter and summer attract much attention every year. Each year, more than 7,000 applications are accepted, and Liao Liao, who enters entrepreneurial ventures through various layers of screening, has an admission rate that is even lower than many top universities. Moreover, with YC’s endorsement, investors are more willing to believe in the potential of the teams in these startup camps, so the subsequent financing of startups after graduation from YC is generally smooth. In view of this halo effect, many entrepreneurs consider being selected as a very important milestone in the struggle.
In recent years, star startups in Africa have also begun to join YC, including the unicorn Flutterwave and Paystack in Africa’s fintech field, and Kobo360, a star company in the field of logistics technology.
(Non-Cheng Innovation VP Li Xiafei Laura and Termii CEO Gbolade)
Termii is the first local project innovated by AFC in Nigeria. AFC provides it with the necessary start-up funds, continuous coaching on product and business directions, referrals from potential customers and partners, and more. In the long-term contact with the Termii team, the non-Cheng innovation team very much recognized the mode and development direction of Termii, and was very pleased to see that the enterprise customers served by Termii have grown rapidly from hundreds to thousands, and have obtained the world’s top incubation Agency approval. As Termii graduates from YC, we look forward to continuing to grow with Termii, serving more corporate customers in West Africa, North Africa, East Africa, and other emerging markets.
Edit | 云 晞 @ 出海
Picture | Oriental IC
