Clickatell

Global Leader in Chat Commerce, SMS APIs & More

Clickatell is a privately held, Silicon Valley–headquartered chat commerce and mobile messaging company that describes itself as a "pioneer in mobile messaging and global leader in chat commerce." Founded in Cape Town, South Africa, in 2000, it claims it was "the first company to connect businesses on the internet with consumers on mobile phones via SMS, using just four lines of code," and still markets itself to developers as "the company that 20 years ago created the world's first SMS API." The group parent is Clickatell Corp, a Delaware corporation whose SEC Form D lists principal offices at 303 Twin Dolphin Drive, Suite 600, Redwood City, California; the live brand is privately held and venture/PE-backed (Series C of US$91 million in February 2022 led by Arrowroot Capital, with Sequoia Capital, DAG Ventures, Kennedy Lewis, Endeavor and Harvest among disclosed investors). Clickatell's own boilerplate states it is "headquartered in Silicon Valley, CA and has offices in Canada, South Africa, and Nigeria," and that it was "Founded in 2000 with now over 10,000 customers." Its Chat Commerce Platform is sold as Prepaid (DIY pay-as-you-go), Connect (enterprise SMS via API and web app), Interact (rich two-way chat) and Transact (payments in messaging, including Chat-2-Pay with Visa), with official help docs claiming SMS reach across "230+ territories, 1000+ networks" and cost-optimised or premium dedicated routing. A November 2024 company release claimed 224% year-over-year Chat Commerce growth, that Clickatell "empowers a remarkable 21% of economically active South Africans," and that it is the "#1 provider of Chat Commerce in the South African and Sub-Saharan African markets," citing PCI-DSS, ISO 27001 and SOC 2 Type 2. In Australia, Clickatell publishes SMS country rules (dynamic alphanumeric sender IDs supported; sender-ID registration "Not supported") but lists no Australian office, and an Australian Business Register search for "Clickatell" returned no matching active ABNs — so AU coverage is served remotely, with no local entity, ABN, AUD billing, or Australian support team identified.