Kalon’s Section 12J disruptive technology fund invests in entrepreneurs solving African problems
“Partnering with Kalon has been one of the best decisions we’ve made at Sendmarc. Whatever we have wanted from Kalon, they’ve always delivered double+. Whether it be access to funding, client introductions, strategy or energy, Kalon has always over delivered. Clive and his team have made us feel like “we” are one team and that they care about our success and about us as people.” – Sacha Matulovich Co-Founder Sendmarc.
For an investment to qualify under the S12J benefit, there are certain requirements that need to be met. Section 12J VCC qualifying businesses have to be early-stage Technology companies requiring growth or early-stage capital.
Kalon’s Section 12J disruptive technology fund invests in entrepreneurs solving African problems – with the potential to scale into global markets. Kalon is also passionate about seeking out companies with high margins and unique intellectual property (IP) to invest in.
At Kalon we focus on providing smart capital, as well as on delivering smart returns by using a “high-touch” methodology approach, assisting our investee companies, through hands-on involvement, to build the businesses into assets of value. It is with this approach that we ensure they reach their targets and ultimately excel.
In this article we introduce you to some of these companies and allow them to share their experience of working with Kalon. Most specifically, how being selected as an S12J investment company, has impacted them and their businesses.
When you invest in Kalon’s S12J fund, you invest in:
On their way to becoming a formidable alternative in the property search arena, Flow is a Proptech marketing company that goes straight to the source of the largest social media platforms in the world – matching people with property. [Read more here]
How do they do this? Flow automatically creates Facebook, Instagram or Google ads out of property listings, directly reaching 23 million South Africans, and driving pre-assessed leads to the agent’s phone.
FlowFuel has already been adopted by leading property agencies and developers such as Chas Everitt, Rawson, Remax and Real Net Properties to drive their business growth.
“The Flow platform has really focused and consolidated our online reach through its automation, and we’ve seen tangible, measurable results that are showing on our bottom line and making the agents’ job, easier.” – Gerhard Kotze, MD RealNet Group
In 2020 Flow saw a growth of over 50% month-on-month and revenue growth of over 30% month-on-month.
Flow CEO Gil Sperling was one three founding partners of Popimedia, one of Africa’s biggest ad-tech and performance marketing companies. Popimedia went on to be bought by French based global communications group – Publicis. Through his experience and expertise within the tech industry, Sperling, together with the co-founders of Flow, are revolutionising the economics of rent with a shared value approach, bringing in behavioural economics to make the entire renting process more affordable, more transparent and seamless.
To find out more about Flow and to book a demo click here.
We all know that mobile usage is BIG in (South) Africa
According to the latest Worldometer’s live count: Of South Africa’s population of 58,98 million, there are 31,18 million internet users. According to Statista.com (Stats as of January 2020), 28,99 million of these users access the internet from mobile devices.
(Source)
It follows therefore, where Mobile is big, Mobile marketing is even bigger. Which is why the need to send personalised SMS landing pages, at zero data-cost to customers, is becoming an imperative few businesses can ignore.
This is where Mobiz comes in.
Mobiz is a user-friendly enterprise tool that allows businesses to create beautiful, personalised, and targeted digital marketing campaigns within minutes. Deploy these messages to customers via an integrated SmartSMS channel (with a zero mobile data cost to the consumer), and then seamlessly gather customer behavioural insights, to enrich CRM or automate follow-up engagement.
Think of them as MailChimp for SMS marketing!
Mobiz has seen exceptional growth during the last year (2020) with an increase in revenue of over 240%, from circa R16 million during 2019, to over R64 million during 2020.
“2020 has been a whirl wind of growth and learning for Mobiz, but 2021 will catalyse our true potential on the global stage” says Greg Chen CEO Mobiz.
Last year, the platform saw over 15 000 mobile marketing campaigns deployed using Mobiz.
This year that figure is set to escalate, with close to 1 000 businesses having signed up to the Mobiz waiting list in the US, in anticipation of their self-service SMB product launching in May 2021.
Regarding working with Kalon, Greg said the following:
“Kalon and its CEO Clive Butkow work tirelessly on accelerating our startup’s growth, beyond their capital injection. They have proven to be a true commercial partner to all its investee companies through thick and thin.”
As email continues to grow by billions of messages per day, so too has the potential for spam, malicious messaging (malware) and Phishing attacks. Through email, these attacks have cost users and companies millions of dollars a year, resulting in a massive threat to IT security. Today most users cannot tell the difference between real (legitimate) email and illegitimate email. This inability to distinguish source has potentially disastrous consequences for a misrepresented brand, its reputation and customer relationships, if left unchecked.
Sendmarc stops cyber-criminals from sending emails to your customers from your domain. With Sendmarc’s DMARC compliance software, you can protect your domain from email phishing and impersonation attacks, which in turn protects your staff, customers, and suppliers. Whether you are an email fraud victim, CTO, Engineer, or MSP, Sendmarc can assist in getting securing your domain against any potential phishing attacks.
Regarding their partnership with Kalon, Sendmarc Co-Founder Sacha Matulovich commented:
“Partnering with Kalon has been one of the best decisions we’ve made at Sendmarc. Whatever we have wanted from Kalon, they’ve always delivered double+. Whether it be access to funding, client introductions, strategy or energy, Kalon has always over delivered. Clive and his team have made us feel like “we” are one team and that they care about our success and about us as people.” – Sacha Matulovich Co-Founder Sendmarc.
The 2020 Section 12J investment with Kalon has helped Sendmarc achieve a meaningful purpose. The company has been able to build and launch a world-class product, they have created jobs and made the internet safer for all South Africans. “I think Kalon has been exemplary in their strategy and execution of this project – creating a win-win-win situation for investors, entrepreneurs and South Africa” says co-founder Matulovich.
Want to know more about Kalon’s Section 12J fund and how you can get involved?
Click here or join us on our webinar on the 18th May from 5 – 6:30pm.