In the United States alone, a staggering $62 billion is lost annually due to subpar customer service, resulting in 91% of customers abandoning businesses that fail to meet their service expectations.
These statistics have prompted some of the world’s largest brands to prioritize the customer experience. Visionary leaders such as Apple’s Steve Jobs and Amazon’s Jeff Bezos have emphasized the significance of customer-centric strategies in achieving success.
To assist African startups in delivering exceptional customer experiences, Termii, a customer engagement platform, has successfully concluded a $3.65 million funding round led by Ventures Platform. Notable investors participating in the round include FinTech Collective, Launch Africa Ventures, Nama Ventures, Aidi Ventures, Ralicap Ventures, Now Venture Partners, Vastly Valuable Ventures, as well as angel investors Aubrey Hruby (Tofino Capital) and Eamon Jubbawy (Onifido).
Emmanuel Gbolade, CEO and Co-founder of Termii, describes the platform as a means for businesses to effectively communicate with customers via email, SMS, or even WhatsApp. However, he emphasizes that the company goes beyond mere bulk messaging, offering features that enable companies like Kuda to send alerts and authenticate user identities and transactions through one-time passwords (OTP).
Termii, co-founded by Ayomide Awe (CTO) and Idowu Atinuke (COO), has gained the trust of over 10,000 businesses for their customer engagement needs, having facilitated over 400 million message transactions. Prominent companies such as Paystack, PiggyVest, and Moniepoint rely on Termii’s services.
While financial businesses account for 89% of Termii’s customer base, Gbolade highlights that the platform’s services are beneficial to businesses across various industries. From logistics to health tech, efficient communication with customers is essential.
Termii generates revenue by charging businesses per message sent to customers. The company’s website provides pricing ranging from $0.0002 to $0.0061 per message.
With the latest funding, the Nigerian startup plans to expand into new markets within Africa, with a particular focus on Francophone Africa. Additionally, as part of their product expansion, Termii will introduce TermiGo, a mobile app featuring an authenticator and direct communication capabilities between businesses and their users. Gbolade considers this integration of communication functionality into an authenticator app a groundbreaking advancement.
Since its previous funding round in 2021, Termii has already experienced a remarkable 3000% increase in revenue. With the recent funding infusion, the company is poised to further its mission of revolutionizing customer engagement across the continent.
