Calling app Talk360 secures $1.4M secondary investment as it reaches profitability

Talk360, a calling app that enables international calls to landlines or mobile phones with a heavy focus on the African market, has raised $1.4 million in a secondary investment led by HAVAÍC, the company’s lead investor since 2022.

The capital injection, supported by HAVAÍC’s limited partner, Universum Wealth, will fund Talk360’s next phase of product development and platform expansion, including the launch of Shop360, a new feature that allows users to send airtime, data bundles, and top-ups to recipients worldwide.

“As Talk360 consolidates its place as a leader in the African market and moves into the growth phase of its startup journey, we are excited to further support management through greater shareholding and an ever-evolving relationship built on a common vision to solve real-world challenges in Africa and beyond,” said Ian Lessem, Managing Partner at HAVAÍC.

The secondary investment follows the company’s $1.4 million pre-Series A round in 2024 and a $3 million seed round in 2022. It comes as Talk360 enters what it describes as a more disciplined phase of growth, having reached profitability. 

“Talk360 is entering its next phase as a profitable, scalable platform, not chasing growth for its own sake,” Hans Osnabrugge, Chief Executive Officer and co-founder, told TechCabal. 

Although Talk360 is best known for its international calling service, Osnabrugge said the company’s recent product decisions reflect an effort to respond to how users actually stay connected across borders. 

He said the company observed that communication often goes hand in hand with practical support, particularly for diaspora users who regularly assist family and friends with essential connectivity needs such as airtime and data. Shop360 was developed as an extension of this behaviour.

Transactions processed through Shop360 are powered by NjiaPay, a payments infrastructure company spun out of Talk360 in 2024. NjiaPay handles payment orchestration, compliance, and settlement, while Talk360 retains full control of the customer experience.

“The insight behind it [Shop360] is simple: users already come to Talk360 to stay connected with people they care about. Enabling them to also support those same people with airtime, data, and top-ups is a natural extension of that relationship, not a separate use case,” the company said.

Founded in 2016 by Dutch entrepreneurs Hans Osnabrugge and Jorne Schamp, alongside South African venture builder Dean Hiine, Talk360 was created to make international calling more accessible for African diaspora communities. The platform allows users to place calls without requiring the recipient to have Internet access, helping it build a global user base of more than six million people. 

The company operates a pay-as-you-go model and charges $0.21 and $0.14 per minute for calls from South Africa and Nigeria, respectively. It says it generates $12 million in annual revenue. 

Talk360 competes with global calling apps such as Rebtel and Libon. Still, it positions itself as the most accessible option for African diaspora users, citing its network of more than 500,000 local point-of-sale agents in South Africa, compared with competitors that operate primarily through digital channels. 

So far, the company has raised $12.8 million and says its focus is shifting from rapid expansion to building a more resilient platform.

“We are focused on deepening value for our users, strengthening the core product, and expanding thoughtfully into adjacent services that reinforce long-term trust and sustainability,” Osnabrugge added.